Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton hammered consecutive homers in the first inning as the New York Yankees powered past the host Tampa Bay Rays 13-3 by belting a franchise-record-tying nine home runs on Tuesday.
New York matched the club record established earlier this year in a 20-9 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on March 29. The major league mark is 10 homers, set by the Toronto Blue Jays in an 18-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 14, 1987.
After the teams sat through a lighting and rain delay of 1 hour, 55 minutes, the second batter of the game, Judge, launched a 429-foot shot off Shane Baz (8-10) for his 40th long ball of the year.
Bellinger followed by yanking one to right, and then Stanton drove one the other way to right-center for a 3-0 lead.
Bellinger finished 4-for-5 with two homers, three runs and three RBIs. Stanton slugged two home runs and drove in four. Judge went 2-for-5 with a walk and three runs.
New York’s Jose Caballero had a two-homer night. Jazz Chisholm Jr. (2-for-5) and Ben Rice each had solo shots.
Yankees starter Carlos Rodon (13-7) tossed six innings of two-run ball on five hits. He struck out five and walked two.
The Yankees improved to 4-0 on their five-game road trip.
Baz lasted just three innings and surrendered six runs on seven hits, five of them homers. He walked two and fanned three. Jake Mangum went 2-for-4 with a run, RBI and stolen base. Christopher Morel had a single and a double.
Following the first-inning power surge, former Rays player Caballero, traded from one dugout to the other on July 31 during a rain delay in New York, added on by slicing a two-run homer down the right field line for a 5-0 edge in the second after a video tribute to him was displayed on the scoreboard.
In the bottom of the second, Nick Fortes (single) and Chandler Simpson (fielder’s choice) made it 5-2 with RBIs.
Chisholm answered by getting by golfing a solo shot in the third.
With reliever Ian Seymour on in the fourth, Stanton lifted a three-run pop for a commanding 9-2 advantage. Rice immediately followed with a homer to right-center.
Bellinger continued the bashing blitzkrieg with a two-run shot to right in the sixth — the third long ball served up by Seymour.
Mangum’s infield single in the eighth plated a run for Tampa Bay before Caballero rocketed his second of the night in the ninth for the final score.
–Field Level Media
