The New York Yankees got off to a hot start Saturday, opening a home game against the Milwaukee Brewers by hitting three straight home runs off the first three pitches. That was just the start of the onslaught: New York finished with a team-record nine homers — including three from Aaron Judge — in a 20-9 victory over the Brewers.
The Toronto Blue Jays hold the MLB record for home runs in a game with 10, set in 1987. The Yankees, who were using some interesting hardware, joined the Cincinnati Reds (Sept. 4, 1999) as the only other teams with nine. New York's first four homers came against former Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes, who was traded to Milwaukee soon after dropping the ball in New York's World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt started things off, hitting Cortes' first pitch of the game. After that, left fielder Cody Bellinger got a solo homer of his own, and then Judge did the same in his at-bat. Cortes later gave up another solo homer in the inning, letting catcher Austin Wells hit one deep to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead.
The Brewers later went on to score three runs at the top of the second inning, cutting into the Yankees' early lead, but Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the second to bring the score to 7-3. Cortes was relieved during the bottom of the third without recording an out. His final line: two innings, eight earned runs off six hits, including five home runs, five walks and two strikeouts. That puts his ERA at 36.00.
After Cortes exited in the third, Judge hit a grand slam for his second home run of the game before Jazz Chisholm added one of his own to make it 13-4. Per MLB's Sarah Langs, seven home runs are the most through three innings in a game in MLB history. But Judge wasn't done, hitting yet another home run in the fourth inning, his third of the day and eighth for the Yankees, which is one short of Lou Gehrig's franchise record for most home runs in a game.
Judge was nearly the one who broke it, but ultimately, it was Oswald Peraza with a two-run homer in the seventh for the team's ninth home run of the day. Judge finished the day 4 for 6 with eight RBI, three homers and a double.
In the 2024 World Series, Cortes failed to close out Game 1 and allowed a walk-off grand slam from Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman — the first in World Series history. Per The Athletic, Cortes left Yankee Stadium without speaking to the media.
The Yankees opened up their 2025 season with a 4-2 win over Milwaukee on Thursday.
Coming into the 2025 MLB season, the question marks surrounding the New York Yankees had more to do with their pitching. Too many injuries to their flamethrowers had fans worried about how the team would fare, at least for the early portion of the season. Thankfully, there were no question marks about their offense, and the team made that much clear on Saturday.
The Yankees went crazy from the plate against the Milwaukee Brewers, driving in 20 runs on just 16 hits. New York hit nine home runs, one away from tying the Toronto Blue Jays' record from 1987. The Yankees have plenty of power hitters, so it makes some sense, but nine home runs is almost unprecedented. That had analysts trying to figure out what went right.
In the process, the Yankees may have gotten exposed for "cheating" the system. Are New York Yankees' new bats considered legal by MLB? According to YES Network's Michael Kay, the club had the players' bats retrofitted to put more of the wood of the bat into the "label so the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball." This obviously did not sit well with fans once they learned of this tactic. A large majority of them doubted the legality of it, pleading MLB to look into it.
But as Sean Keeley of Awful Announcing points out, it's actually completely legal. Citing the MLB rulebook, Keeley notes that the Yankees' bats comply with the parameters set by the league. "The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood." If the Yankees keep hitting an inordinate amount of home runs with these new bats, though, something may change. Until then, expect a couple of teams to try to copy them.
