Mar 29, 2025, 01:52 PM ET
NEW YORK — Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge homered for the Yankees on the first three pitches from Milwaukee’s Nestor Cortes, part of eight homers through four innings on Saturday, including three by their star right fielder.
Austin Wells also hit a solo homer in the first as New York burst ahead 4-0, and Anthony Volpe hit a three-run drive off Cortes in the second for a 7-3 lead 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. New York hit four home runs in the first inning for the first time in its century-plus history.
Batting leadoff for the first time in his 15-year major league career, Goldschmidt drove a fastball 413 feet into the Brewers’ bullpen in left field against Cortes, who was making his Milwaukee debut after a December trade from the Yankees.
Bellinger sent a fastball over the Yankees’ bullpen and into the right-field bleachers.
Judge, the reigning AL MVP, drove a cutter 468 feet into the right-field second deck.
After a mound visit by Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook, Jazz Chisholm Jr. took a called third strike, Volpe grounded out and Wells hit a fastball 372 feet into the left-field seats.
Milwaukee closed to 4-3 in the top of the second against Max Fried, who made his Yankees debut, but Volpe extended the lead again with a three-run home run to left in the bottom of the frame to make it 7-3.
With the Yankees leading 8-3 in the third, Judge stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and added to the fireworks with a grand slam to left field off reliever Connor Thomas. His second home run of the day made it 12-3.
Cap is feelin’ Grand. @TheJudge44 🫡 pic.twitter.com/FmOjylBrYZ
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) March 29, 2025
Chisholm would follow Judge’s blast with a solo home run of his own.
In the fourth, leading 14-4, Judge smashed his third home run of the day — a two-run shot to center field, giving the Yankees eight on the day and a 16-4 lead.
Wells led off Thursday’s game with a home run off Freddy Peralta, becoming the first catcher to hit a leadoff homer on Opening Day. The Yankees joined the 2011 Texas Rangers as the only team to lead off with a home run in its first two games. Ian Kinsler went deep starting both those Rangers games.
Cortes, a 30-year-old left-hander who pitched for New York from 2018 to ’24, had never before allowed more than three homers in a game. He is remembered by Yankees fans for allowing a first-pitch grand slam to Freddie Freeman in the 10th inning of last year’s World Series opener that lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-3 win, with the Dodgers ultimately winning the title.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
