Giancarlo Stanton homered again, CC Sabathia allowed just one hit in six scoreless innings and the New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 7-2 Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Stanton homered in the first inning for the second straight game and for the fifth time in six games. Limited to starting as the designated hitter because of left hamstring tightness, Stanton reached 30 homers for the fifth time in his career.

Stanton gave the Yankees the lead when he hammered a 2-2 fastball by Martin Perez (2-5) into the left-center field seats. It was his major league-leading 16th homer with two strikes.

Sabathia (7-4) allowed only an infield single in front of the plate to Joey Gallo with two outs in the second inning. He struck out seven, walked three, worked around two fielding errors by rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar and earned his 244th career win.

The Yankees won for the sixth time in seven games since last weekend's four-game sweep in Boston and surged ahead with a five-run fifth off Perez. They also scored at least five runs for the 14th straight home game.

Aaron Hicks hit a two-run single and scored on a groundout by Andujar. Gregorius made it 6-0 by blasting a 1-0 slider into the right-field seats.

After Gregorius hit his 21st homer, Brett Gardner hit an RBI single in the sixth.

Perez allowed seven runs on a career-worst 11 hits in five-plus innings. He exited after allowing singles by Luke Voit and Neil Walker to start the sixth.

Gallo had two hits while Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit an RBI groundout off Sonny Gray in the seventh for Texas.

The Rangers activated Delino DeShields Jr. from the disabled list after he missed nine games with a concussion. The speedy outfielder hit an RBI infield single that was upheld following a lengthy replay review.

Gray followed Sabathia but struggled in one inning in his second relief stint after being removed from the rotation on Aug. 4. He was booed off the mound after allowing two hits to start the eighth.

Jonathan Holder loaded the bases by walking Gallo with two outs in the eighth but ended the inning by striking out Kiner-Falefa.

The Yankees nearly went ahead 8-2 in the eighth but Gallo robbed Austin Romine of a homer to left by making a leaping catch.

--Field Level Media