Judge hits go-ahead homer to end 10-game drought as Yankees edge Royals 4-3 for 3-game sweep

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit a tiebreaking homer leading off the seventh inning that ended a 10-game drought, and the New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep.

With a runner at second base in the ninth, Cody Bellinger made a diving catch in right field on MJ Melendez’s sinking liner to preserve Fernando Cruz’s first career save.

Judge went deep for the first time since April 4 in Pittsburgh when he lifted a 1-0 sinker from John Schreiber (1-1) into the New York bullpen beyond the right-center fence.

Judge had three hits for the third time this season. He reached base four times and his batting average climbed 27 points to a major league-best .409.

Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt had some dominant moments and pitched 5 2/3 innings of three-run ball in his season debut. After recovering from rotator cuff tendinitis, the right-hander permitted four hits and threw 73 pitches.

Anthony Volpe hit a two-run double in the third and Bellinger had an RBI double in the fourth to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead.

Schmidt retired 11 straight before Drew Waters opened the fifth with a single and scored on Kyle Isbel's triple. Isbel scored the tying run on a groundout by Jonathan India.

Salvador Perez hit an RBI single four batters in before Schmidt settled down.

Kansas City starter Kris Bubic allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Mark Leiter Jr. (2-1) got four outs after Schmidt was lifted, and Cruz pitched two scoreless innings.

After the Royals tied the game, Bobby Witt Jr. swung at the first pitch and flied out to end the fifth.

Judge entered hitting .382 (13 for 34) over his previous 10 games.

Royals: RHP Michael Lorenzen (1-2, 3.71 ERA) opposes Tigers RHP Reese Olson (1-1, 6.00) in the opener of a four-game series Thursday at Detroit.

Yankees: RHP Will Warren (1-0, 5.14 ERA), who earned his first career win Saturday, faces Rays RHP Taj Bradley (2-0, 3.71) in the opener of a four-game series at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday.

This story makes a correction to show Judge was hitting .382 over his previous 10 games, not 11 games.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Kansas City Royals' Kris Bubic pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr. runs to home plate to score on a two-run double by Anthony Volpe during the third inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro argues a call with first base umpire Junior Valentine during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt, right, hands the ball to manager Aaron Boone as he leaves during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge gestures to teammates after hitting a double during the third inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge hits a single during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. (7) throws out New York Yankees' Austin Wells at first base after forcing out Jazz Chisholm Jr. (13) for a double play during the seventh inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, left, celebrates with Cody Bellinger after a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. turns toward home plate to score on an RBI single by Salvador Perez during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees pitcher Fernando Cruz celebrates after a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Kansas City Royals' Salvador Perez hits an RBI single during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Clarke Schmidt pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge hits a double during the third inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge gestures as he runs the bases after hitting a home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge hits a home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

NEW YORK (AP) — Flashback to February. It's the 2025 Grammys, and Beyoncé has made history. Not only was she finally awarded the top prize of album of the year, but she also became the first Black woman to win best country album, for “Cowboy Carter.” Recent changes by the Recording Academy have made it even more monumental: She might be the last person to ever win the award.

In June, the Academy announced that the Grammys' country album title was splitting into two categories. A new award was created, traditional country album. The preexisting country album category has been redefined and is now contemporary country album, reflecting the genre's ongoing sonic evolutions.

The decision was divisive: Some viewed it as backlash to Beyoncé's win. Others welcomed the addition of a new award and the creative doors it might open. Some questioned how the categories would be defined in a genre where the word “traditional” is loaded.

Here's everything you need to know about the change — and what it could signify in the future.

Charles L. Hughes, Rhodes College professor and author of “Country Soul,” says Beyoncé's victory was a welcomed surprise, despite being obviously worthy. That's because her album inspired a larger conversation about reclamation, standing in opposition to the music industry's rigid power structures and “indicated how significant this historical question remains of whether or not Black folks have equal access to success in a genre of music that bears such strong Black influences and has from the very beginning,” Hughes said.

He believes the decision to alter the country album categories was not in direct response to her win — “I think it is a more complicated story,” he says — but the timing might've been less than ideal, emboldening fans to view it as reactionary. He hopes the changes will open the category to more diversity of sounds and “whether this leads to a broader opening and opportunity for Black artists, especially Black women in country music,” he posits.

Francesca T. Royster, a DePaul University professor and author of “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions,” views Beyoncé’s victory as positively connected to this change. She wonders if artists — particularly artists of color, who never had their music recognized in country music categories, think of artists like “Millie Jackson or Candi Staton, Bobby Womack” — would now see their work recognized. “Having these two categories just allows for more experimentation and maybe less of a double standard,” she says, “in terms of artists who are often held to higher standards to conform to, or be recognizable as, meeting an idea about what country music is.”

“It makes sense that the Grammy categories for country would become a little bit more expansive,” she says, “because I think the music is more expansive and the audience is also more expansive than it’s ever been.”

According to the Recording Academy's rule book, the traditional country category is defined by “country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation.”

Those are: acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar and live drums. This is also where subgenres like outlaw country, Western and Western swing would fit.

The contemporary country category description is a bit more conceptual. The rule book states that albums eligible in this category “utilize a stylistic intention, song structure, lyrical content, and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of contemporary country style and culture.”

The hope is that those titles are “relevant to the legacy of country music’s culture, while also engaging in more contemporary music forms.”

The questions Hughes poses: “Whose tradition are we talking about?” And how is “country music's culture” defined?

“It's almost tautology. ‘Well, it’s traditional country if it sounds like traditional country,'” he says.

In that reading, contemporary country could simply account for everything else.

Royster says both categories seem to “speak to an aesthetic as well as political agenda, many agendas.” To her, the traditional category would appeal to artists who believe that “this is a past form that needs to ... continue to be recognized and respected.” Similarly, the contemporary category is “linked to the culture of country but is also expansive.”

“In both cases, there’s a kind of story behind the story.”

Adding a new genre category is not unique to country music. Consider a sister genre, R&B. In 1999, the Recording Academy also introduced a traditional category to the R&B field to spotlight artists who chose to hybridize the genre as well as those who prefer nostalgic structures.

It didn't stay stagnant from there: In 2021, the Academy changed the best urban contemporary album category to best progressive R&B album, to spotlight those records that weave R&B with other genres.

In the contemporary country album category, Kelsea Ballerini's “Patterns” faces off against Tyler Childers' “Snipe Hunter,” Eric Church's “Evangeline vs. the Machine,” Jelly Roll's “Beautifully Broken,” and Miranda Lambert's “Postcards from Texas.”

In the traditional category, it is Charley Crockett's “Dollar a Day,” Lukas Nelson's “American Romance,” Willie Nelson's “Oh What a Beautiful World,” Margo Price's “Hard Headed Woman,” and Zach Top's “Ain’t In It For My Health.”

Royster wonders if with this first year of nominees, “there's less risk in terms of recognizing the kind of ‘country-ness’ of these artists.” Royster views the lineup as “artists (whose) country creds would still be recognized even if they’re also bringing in other elements. I would hope in the future there might be more room in the category.”

For Hughes, the nominees further confuse the distinctions. Consider this example: Zach Top's album borrows heavily from George Strait's sound, which emerged in the ‘70s as a mesh of honky-tonk traditions and contemporary country. Hip-hop also emerged in the ’70s. They were simultaneous. “But I have a feeling we won’t be seeing a lot of hip-hop-inspired artists in the traditional category,” he says.

But that doesn't mean it might not evolve in the future. “If the Grammys fundamentally exist to give people recognition,” he says, “The more, the merrier.”

“Anytime the pipe widens, more water gets through. And this was the pipe widening, baby,” Jelly Roll, who is nominated in the inaugural best contemporary country album category, told The Associated Press. “I love it. I'm happy. I’m a fan of both sides. It encourages me to maybe make a traditional country album one day, you know? So, this is cool.”

Three-time Grammy award winner Brad Paisley has a similar stance: There's a benefit to having more country music recognitions.

“Awards are really tools to sort of get awareness for something that you made, you know?” he said. “They’re never the goal. It’s always more like, ‘Oh, cool, this might make more people listen to it.’ … If this means they got to make more little gold gramophone statues to give out, and two people get them versus one, great.”

That said: Paisley's not sure which category he would fall into, or if the division could color an artist's creative decisions. “I’d almost have to think it through like, ‘No, no, we’re going for the Grammy on this. I better not do this on this record or something.’ But hopefully that doesn’t ever enter into it,” he says.

Hopefully, it's just a panel decided who belongs in which category, “and then two people get to go home happy versus one. And that’s good in my book,” he said.

The 68th Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 1, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.

FILE - Zach Top, winner of the award for new artist of the year, poses in the press room during the 59th Annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

FILE.- Jelly Roll arrives at the 60th annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco, Texas, on May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

FILE - Beyonce, left, accepts the Innovator Award as presenter Stevie Wonder looks on during the iHeartRadio Music Awards, Monday, April 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)