Austin belts AL rookie-leading 7th, 8th HRs

KANSAS CITY -- The Yankees already have four players with double-digit home run totals and rookie Tyler Austin is making a bid to join that list.
Austin homered in the fourth and fifth innings in Sunday's 10-1 win against the Royals off starter Eric Skoglund to give him eight homers this season, which leads all American League rookies. Austin's first blast in the fourth was a two-run shot to left that traveled a projected 440 feet, according to Statcast™. It was the fifth time this season that Austin homered with an exit velocity of 110 mph or higher. That tied him with Gary Sánchez and Giancarlo Stanton for the third-highest total in the Major Leagues in that department.
• Austin never stopped running down his dreams
Austin's second homer was also a two-run shot that barely cleared the center-field wall and gave the Yanks a 6-0 lead. It's his second multi-homer game and the four RBIs tied a career high. He also had four RBIs on March 31 at Toronto.

Austin went 2-for-4 overall to raise his batting average to .261. His 23 RBIs rank No. 1 among AL rookies.
"I'm just getting into my approach and sticking with what I know," Austin said. "I've always felt like I can perform here."
Yankees manager Aaron Boone continues to be impressed by the power that Austin is showing.
"Tyler is an important part of what we're doing right now," Boone said. "He got us going with a couple of long ones."

Besides the two homers from Austin, the Yankees got late solo homers from Miguel Andújar and Austin Romine off Royals reliever Jason Adam. The Yanks hit nine homers in the final two games of the series after not collecting an extra base hit in Friday's opener.