When you can score 36 runs in a three-game series, you know your offense is collectively locked in. For that to come in the first series of the season—against a defending division champion, no less—provides endless excitement of what this ballclub can achieve this season. With four more home runs today, the Yankees tied the 2006 Tigers as the only team in MLB history with 15 long balls in the first three games of the campaign. Aaron Judge hit his fourth in three games to set a franchise record to start a season while Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a pair of his own as the Yankees crushed the Brewers, 12-3, to seal the Opening Day weekend sweep.
The Yankees were loathe to include Marcus Stroman in the starting rotation this season until injuries forced their hand, and it was apparent why they were worried about his stuff. He got ahead of all six batters he faced in the first but struggled to find that put-away pitch. A leadoff single by Brice Turang, a William Contreras walk, and a Sal Frelick RBI single put the Yankees in a 1-0 hole before coming to bat.
Given the injuries to the starting rotation, this new-look offense will likely have to mash on most nights, and they certainly picked up their starter in the bottom half. Paul Goldschmidt led off for the second afternoon in a row and got things started with a single to left. Two batters later, Aaron Judge demolished a 3-2 center cut fastball 410 feet to left to give his team a 2-1 lead. The two-time AL MVP is starting his 2025 with a statement.
Ben Rice doubled his team’s lead in the second, golfing a 1-1 sinker into the second deck in right to open his home run account in 2025. The young lefty added 10 pounds of muscle over the winter and posted one of the highest average exit velocities of any hitter in spring training — the Yankees are counting on a big year from him as the de facto DH while they await Giancarlo Stanton’s return from injury.
One of the intriguing stories to come out of the opening weekend of games concerns the new “torpedo bat” being used by several Yankees hitters. The bat was designed by former MIT physicist and Yankees hitting instructor Aaron Leanhardt with the goal of concentrating the center of mass around the barrel. They certainly appear to be a revelation through the early going, Jazz Chisholm Jr. lining his second home run of the year just over the wall in right to immediately punish the Brewers’ 3-0 intentional walk of Judge and extend his team’s lead to 5-1.
It appeared Stroman would settle into his start after that shaky first, retiring the side in order in the second and third. However, the struggles returned once the lineup turned over. Contreras led off the fourth with a single and Jake Bauers yanked a hanging cutter off the foul pole screen in right for a two-run shot to cut the Yankees’ lead to 5-3. Stroman saw his HR/9 almost double last season relative to 2023 and he’s already given up his first of the year within his first four innings pitched.
He retired the first two batters of the fifth before a Jackson Chourio single ended his day. Tim Hill struck out Christian Yelich to wrap up the frame and Stroman’s final line of three runs on five hits and a walk with three strikeouts on 81 pitches. It’s the second day in a row that the Yankees starter departed with the lead after 4.2 innings and you’d love to get a little more length from the rotation, though what matters more is that they left with their team still in a winning position.
After Hill worked a 1-2-3 sixth with a pair of strikeouts, the Yankees secured a pair of welcome insurance runs in the bottom half. Judge led off with his second walk of the afternoon and advanced to second on Jazz’s second hit — a single through the hole on the right side. Anthony Volpe advanced the pair with a deep fly ball to center, and this productive out proved vital. Judge scampered home and Jazz to third on a wild pitch by new reliever Jared Koenig, and Wells plated Jazz with a hard grounder that required a diving stop by Bauers at first, restoring the Yankees’ four-run cushion, 7-3.
The scoring wouldn’t stop their, the Yankees saving their biggest inning for the seventh. Rice, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Goldschmidt opened the bottom half with three straight singles and Bellinger lifted a sac fly to center to make it 9-3. Judge drew his third walk of the afternoon to put a pair on for Jazz, who crushed a hanging slider from Joel Payamps just fair inside the right field foul pole for his second home run of the contest, this one a three-run shot to blast the Yankees to a 12-3 lead, their second game in a row scoring at least a dozen runs.
Mark Leiter Jr., Fernando Cruz, and Ryan Yarbrough prevented the Brewers from scoring across the final three innings to bring us to our final score of 12-3.
The Yankees’ offense has entered 2025 with serious question marks given Stanton’s absence and the free-agent departures of Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres. At least in the opening series of the year, the trio of Jazz, Goldschmidt, and Bellinger have done their part to alleviate concerns. May it continue after the Brewers leave town.
The Yankees have the day off tomorrow before welcoming the Diamondbacks to the Bronx for three games. Corbin Burnes will make his Arizona debut while rookie Will Warren gets his first look in the Yankees’ rotation this year. First pitch scheduled for 7:05pm EDT on YES.
