Gray (3-3) scattered four hits, struck out five and issued one walk. He threw 92 pitches and recorded first-pitch strikes on 22 hitters.

Gray did not allow a baserunner until Hunter Dozier blooped a single to center field with two outs in the fourth inning. He allowed two more baserunners when he opened the seventh by hitting Jorge Soler with a pitch and then Mike Moustakas singled.

Gray then got Salvador Perez to bounce into a double play and retired Whit Merrifield on a groundout. After giving up Jon Jay's RBI single with two outs in the eighth, he finished his outing by fanning Soler.

Austin hit his third homer since going hitless in 23 straight at-bats by connecting in the fourth and fifth innings off Eric Skoglund (1-4). It was his second multi-homer game of the season and of his career.

Rookie Miguel Andujar homered and fell a double shy of the cycle as the Yankees won for the 21st time in 25 games. Austin Romine homered and hit an RBI single as the Yankees reached double digits in runs for the sixth time and hit four homers for the fourth time.

Aaron Hicks contributed an RBI triple and New York also scored on an infield single by Brett Gardner and when Ronald Torreyes came home on a wild pitch.

The Yankees also clinched their eighth straight series victory. It is the first time since their 114-win season in 1998 they won eight straight series.

Skoglund allowed six runs and eight hits in five innings.

The Royals lost for the seventh time in eight games and were nearly shut out for the second time this season.

The Yankees opened a 2-0 lead with none out in the fourth when Austin hammered Skoglund's first-pitch fastball 440 feet over the left field fence for his seventh homer. Romine made it 3-0 with a bloop single to left field.

New York pushed its lead to 4-0 in the fifth when Giancarlo Stanton doubled to left and scored on Hicks' triple to the warning track in center field. Three pitches later, Austin drove a 0-2 fastball over the center field fence just out of the reach of Jay's attempt at a leaping catch.

Gardner made it 7-0 with an infield single and Torreyes made it 8-0 by racing home on a wild pitch by Brian Flynn in the eighth.

After Jay ended the shutout bid, Andujar lifted a 1-2 fastball from Jason Adam over the right-center field wall. Romine then capped the scoring with his first homer of the season.

--Field Level Media