NEW YORK _ The Yankees sent out a virtually unrecognizable lineup against Heath Fillmyer on Saturday.
Advantage: New York.
Aaron Judge, Clint Frazier and DJ LeMahieu all launched solo home runs off the Royals right-hander, and Mike Tauchman's three-run blast in the fourth broke open a close game while getting a rise out of the crowd of 42,013.
The Yankees are back at .500 (10-10) after their 9-2 win over Kansas City, joining Tampa Bay as the only AL East teams not to sport a losing record. But the news was not all good, as Judge exited in the sixth with an apparent injury after reaching on a single.
Starter Masahiro Tanaka moved a game over the break-even mark with seven innings of four-hit ball.
Sunday, the Yanks have a chance to climb over .500 for the first time since winning their opener. James Paxton (2-2) will pitch the series finale that precedes a nine-game West Coast trip.
In his first Yankee Stadium start on July 28, 2018, Fillmyer allowed three runs over five innings in a no-decision. No one from that starting nine was in the lineup for the former Florence Flash's encore.
A two-time NJSIAA sectional champ at his Burlington County high school, Fillmyer was charged with six earned runs in four innings, walked two and struck out three.
Another homer against him was actually taken off the board.
Gleyber Torres hit what appeared to be a three-run shot in the fourth. Replay review showed that a reaching fan knocked away the fall from left fielder Alex Gordon _ while the Jeter sweatshirt-clad fan next to him moved out of the way, no less _ and Torres was called out.
That led to an animated argument from Aaron Boone, who was treated to his fifth managerial ejection by second-base umpire Jerry Meals.
Tanaka (2-1) turned in a welcomed bounce-back performance following last weekend's five-run outing against the White Sox. He permitted hits to just two of the first 18 Kansas City batters, with a Billy Hamilton triple the lone extra-base knock to that point.
Although Whit Merrifield's leadoff homer in the sixth ended the shutout, that was the only inning in which Tanaka (three walks, seven strikeouts) allowed multiple hits.
With Brett Gardner being given a breather, Tauchman started in center field and went deep for the second straight game.
