Cody Bellinger celebrates after hitting a home run in the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK - Aaron Judge combined with Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger to go deep on the first three pitches from Nestor Cortes, then hit two more homers as the New York Yankees set a team record with nine home runs in a 20-9 rout of the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday.
By the numbers:
Judge hit a solo homer, his ninth career grand slam and a two-run drive in his 40th multihomer game and third with three homers. He finished with a career-high eight RBIs.
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He came up just short of becoming the 19th player to hit four homers in a game when his sixth-inning fly fell on the right-field warning track for a run-scoring double. He flied out in the eighth against Jake Bauers, an outfielder and first baseman.
Goldschmidt, Bellinger and Judge homered starting the first on the unusually warm 78-degree afternoon. Major League Baseball said this was the first time a team homered on its first three pitches since tracking of pitch counts began in 1988.
Milwaukee Brewers home opener; what you need to know
The Milwaukee Brewers return to American Family Field for the 2025 home opener against the Kansas City Royals on Monday, March 31. You can watch the game only on FOX6 – and the first pitch is set for 1:10 p.m.
Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Oswald Peraza also homered.
Traded from the Yankees in December, Cortes (0-1) gave up eight runs, six hits and five walks over two innings in his Brewers debut.
New York had five errors, its most since May 29, 2018, leading to four unearned runs off Max Fried.
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Making his Yankees debut after signing a $218 million, eight-year contract, Fried allowed six runs, seven hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings. Yoendrys Gómez (1-0) got four outs for his first big league win.
J.C. Escarra, a 29-year-old former Uber driver and substitute teacher, made his major league debut for New York. He struck out in the seventh as a pinch hitter against Chad Patrick, who also was making his debut.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, sidelined by pain in both elbows, had started taking dry swings.
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Dig deeper:
After the Brewers closed to 4-3 in the second, Volpe hit a three-run homer in the bottom half.
New York homered eight times in a game twice, at the Philadelphia Athletics on June 28, 1939 (including two by Joe DiMaggio), and against the Chicago White Sox on July 31, 2007.
What's next:
Yankees RHP Marcus Stroman and RHP Aaron Civale makes their first starts in Sunday's series finale.
The Source: The Associated Press provided this report.