SEATTLE — — Aaron Judge drove in four runs in his first two at bats, Juan Soto hit his 40th home run of the season and 200th of his career, and the New York Yankees moved to the brink of a playoff spot with an 11-2 win over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night.

The Yankees can, at worst, clinch a wild-card spot in the American League with a win over Seattle on Wednesday. The victory in the opener of New York’s six-game road trip extended the Yankees’ lead in the AL East to four games over Baltimore, their largest since they held a 4 1/2-game lead going into the game on June 7.

“We know we’re going to face another tough pitcher and hopefully we can do it and get that first ball,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But that hasn’t happened yet. We’ve just got to keep going.”

Judge hit a two-run double three batters in the game and added a two-out, two-run single the next time he led an inning later. Judge now has a league-leading 136 RBI.

Soto joined the offensive outburst in the third inning with a two-out, two-run opposite field blast off Seattle starter Bryan Woo. It was the first time in his career that Soto had reached the 40-homer mark, and he has now homered in all 30 parks in baseball.

“It’s just an amazing feeling to achieve another goal in my career. All the work I’ve put in and the results I’ve gotten is really cool,” Soto said.

Soto and Judge become the third Yankee teammates to each hit 40 home runs in a season, following Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (1927, 1930, 1931) and Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris (1961).

“It’s an honor. It’s hard to really put it into words. You’re talking about baseball legends,” Judge said.

The top three hitters in New York’s batting order — Judge, Soto and Gleyber Torres — combined to go 7-for-8 with four extra-base hits and six RBI against Woo.

In two previous career starts against the Yankees, Woo had not given up a run. This time, he was tagged for a season-high seven earned runs in 4 2/3 innings and was knocked out after giving up Jasson Dominguez’s first home run since undergoing Tommy John surgery last September.

Woo (8-3) struck out seven and walked one. Austin Wells added a bases-clearing double in the sixth inning to give New York its 14th double-digit run total. Seattle had gone 107 consecutive home games without allowing 10 or more runs — the longest active streak in the majors.

“Not so good. I just made some mistakes,” Woo said.

Yankees starter Luis Gil struggled with his control early in the game, but escaped trouble in the first inning thanks to a questionable decision by Victor Robles to attempt a steal of home with the bases loaded, two outs and Justin Turner batting with the count 3-0.

“Vic is an aggressive player, that’s for sure. That’s part of his game. That’s a situation you have to know you’re going to get through,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said.

Robles was out and Gil (14-6) ultimately pitched five innings, walking one run and striking out five. Jorge Polanco and Luke Raley hit solo homers and Julio Rodriguez — wearing crystal-adorned shoes — had four hits for Seattle.

The Mariners lost for the second time this season in their “City Connect” uniforms, moving to 15-2.

Marcus Stroman worked three innings of relief for the Yankees as part of his move to the bullpen for this road trip. It was the ninth relief appearance of his career. He surrendered five hits, including Raley’s homer.

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Yankees: LHP Nester Cores (9-10, 3.90 ERA) threw five innings, allowing one run with nine strikeouts against Boston in his last start.

Mariners: RHP Bryce Miller (11-8, 3.12) has allowed one earned run and struck out 11 batters in his last two starts.

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