NEW YORK — Aaron Judge disappointed fans by staying stuck at 60 homers but doubled twice and scored on Oswaldo Cabrera’s first-inning grand slam that started the New York Yankees to a 14-2 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.

A day after hitting home run No. 60 to spark a stunning five-run, ninth-inning rally capped by Giancarlo Stanton’s game-ending slam, Judge doubled on the first pitch to him in the first and fifth innings. Given another time up during an eight-run eighth inning, Judge walked on four pitches from rookie Eric Stout as the sellout crowd of 46,175 booed loudly.

Judge went 2 for 4 and with 14 games left and remained one home run shy of tying the American League record set by the Yankees’ Roger Maris in 1961. Judge leads the AL in average (.317), home runs and RBI (128), in position to become the first Triple Crown winner in a decade.

Boston’s Xander Bogaerts is percentage points behind Judge in batting average (.3170 to .3166).

Cabrera and Gleyber Torres had five RBI each. Torres homered twice in the eighth inning, raising his season total to 23.

Applause started whenever Judge walked onto the on-deck circle, and fans stood and snapped photos. Maris’ sons and Judge’s family were in the stands.

He started the first against rookie Roasny Contreras (5-5) with a liner to left and began the fifth with a one-hopper over the left-field wall.

New York (90-58) closed in on its sixth straight postseason berth and 24th in 28 years. .

Cabrera made the Yankees the first team in major league history to end a game with a slam and hit another in the first inning of its next game, according to STATS. The only previous teams to hit slams in the last inning of a game and the first of the next were the 1955 Boston Red Sox and the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers.

Cabrera has three homers and 14 RBI in 30 games since his debut on Aug. 17. With the bases loaded on Judge’s double and a pair of walks by Contreras, Cabrera drove a hanging slider into the right-field bleachers.

New York has four slams in four games against the Pirates this season, including in consecutive innings on July 6. The Yankees’ 10 slams this season are their most since 2012.

Harrison Bader had a two-run double in the big eighth and has five RBI in his first two games with the Yankees.

Luis Severino (6-3) returned from a strained right lat muscle that had sidelined him since July 13 and allowed one run and two hits in five innings with six strikeouts. He reached 98.9 mph.

Contreras struck out a career-high 10, allowing six runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings.

Ke’Bryan Hayes had a sacrifice fly and RBI single for Pittsburgh.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

ORIOLES 8, TIGERS 1: Jordan Lyles threw the second complete game of his career, Kyle Stowers homered and drove in three runs, and host Baltimore avoided its first season sweep by Detroit.

Rookie Gunnar Henderson and two hits and an RBI for the Orioles, who snapped a nine-game losing streak to Detroit dating to last season. Baltimore moved within 4 1/2 games of Tampa Bay in the AL wild-card race.

ASTROS 5, RAYS 2: Kyle Tucker hit a two-run homer, Lance McCullers Jr. pitched seven effective innngs and AL West champion Houston completed a three-game sweep by beating host Tampa Bay.

Houston second baseman Jose Altuve was hit on the left elbow by Corey Kluber’s pitch in the fifth and left one inning later with elbow discomfort. He was replaced by Mauricio Dubon.

The Astros, 10-1 over their last 11 games, blanked Tampa Bay in the first two games of the series, winning 4-0 Monday and 5-0 on Tuesday.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CUBS 4, MARLINS 3: Ian Happ hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and visiting Chicago rallied to beat Miami.

Patrick Wisdom hit his 23rd homer for the Cubs, who had only four hits.

BREWERS 6, METS 0: Pinch-hitter Mike Brosseau greeted Drew Smith with a grand slam in the pitcher’s return from two months on the injured list, and visiting New York squandered a chance to boost its NL East lead by losing to Milwaukee.

Willy Adames hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth against Taijuan Walker, his fifth homer in 10 games and 31st this season, and the Brewers (79-70) closed within two games of Philadelphia (80-67) for the third and final wild-card berth. The Phillies played later Wednesday.

The Mets (95-56), already assured of at least a wild card, maintained a one-game NL East lead over Atlanta (93-56), whose five-game winning streak ended with a 3-2 loss at Washington.

Mark Canha was hit by pitches twice and Luis Guillorme once. Guillorme was struck on the right foot by a Jake Cousins slider in the ninth, the big league record 106th hit batter of the season for New York. That topped the 105 by last year’s Cincinnati Reds, and Mets Manager Buck Showalter signaled for the ball.

Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo hurt his left quadriceps while stealing second base and left after the first inning. Left fielder Jeff McNeil banged up his right wrist against the chain-link fence in a failed attempt to catch Brosseau’s drive.

NATIONALS 3, BRAVES 2: Joey Meneses hit a go-ahead, two-run homer off Jesse Chavez in the seventh inning, and visiting Washington stopped Atlanta’s five-game winning streak.

Ronald Acuna Jr. drove in an early run and scored another for playoff-bound Atlanta, which clinched its fifth straight postseason appearance a night earlier.

The Braves are 52-26 at Truist Park, with only one remaining three-game series against the Mets from Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Atlanta is a big league-best 71-29 since May 31.

NOTES

ROYALS: The Kansas City Royals fired longtime executive Dayton Moore, ending the roller-coaster tenure of an influential general manager and president who took the club from perennial 100-game loser to two World Series and the 2015 championship before its quick return to mediocrity.

Royals owner John Sherman, who retained Moore after acquiring the club from David Glass in 2019, announced the move during a news conference at which Moore spoke briefly before quietly slipping out of the room.

“I think the objective is clear: It’s to compete again for championships, and we have to make sure we are progressing toward that goal,” said Sherman, whose club was 30 games below .500 heading into its game against Minnesota.

“In 2022 we regressed,” Sherman said, “and that happens. It happens to great teams. But as I started talking to Dayton and others, I felt like we needed more change than was talked about, and that was a big reason to make this one.”

Moore was hired in 2006 and tasked with rebuilding an organization that had not reached the playoffs in more than two decades. He quickly followed the blueprint that he learned from longtime Braves executive John Schuerholz, investing in Latin America and the minor league system before spending on proven major league talent.

It took most of another decade for the plan to work, but the Royals began to see progress with a winning record in 2013, when a wave of young players began to reach the majors. And the breakthrough came the following year, when a team built around Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas won the first of two consecutive American League pennants.

The Royals lost their first trip to the World Series to the San Francisco Giants in a dramatic seven-game series, but they finished the job the following year, beating the New York Mets in five for their first championship since 1985.

RAYS: Teammates Yandy Diaz and Randy Arozarena had an altercation after a 4-0 loss to the Astros on Monday, partially prompting Manager Kevin Cash to bench both players Tuesday in a 5-0 defeat to Houston.

Arozarena told reporters that there was no physical contact with Diaz, and that there were some little things they needed to address. He said things are good between the pair.

“I think these players, we owe it to them to keep what goes on in the clubhouse in the clubhouse,” Cash said before Wednesday night’s game with Houston. “I’m not going to confirm, deny, whatever, but, I’m very confident we’re past everything.”

Arozarena, a breakout star of the 2020 postseason who won AL rookie of the year in 2021, was in Wednesday’s lineup. Diaz was out again due to a left shoulder injury that has impacted him recently.

“His left shoulder has been barking at him a little bit on the finish of his swing,” Cash said.

GIANTS: Buster Posey was an MVP, rookie of the year, a seven-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion with the San Francisco Giants.

Now, less than a year after retiring, he’s got a new title: owner.

The Giants announced the 35-year-old former catcher has joined the ownership group. Posey, while not announcing the percentage, said he bought in with his own money. He’s also joining the six-person board of directors.

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