Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium felt less like a baseball game and more like a home run derby. The New York Yankees turned batting practice into live action, launching a franchise-record nine homers in a 20-9 demolition of the Milwaukee Brewers.
It was a fireworks show with Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, and Aaron Judge setting the tone early, going back-to-back-to-back to open the game against former Yankee Nestor Cortes.
A Home Run Parade
If you had a ticket to this one, you definitely got your money’s worth. Judge, who clearly had the cheat codes activated, belted three homers on his own, driving in eight runs and racking up an absurd 14 total bases.
Goldschmidt, Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, and Oswald Peraza all joined in on the long-ball fun, each adding their own blast to the tally.
The Yankees joined an exclusive club, becoming just the third team in MLB history to hit nine homers in a single game. They fell just shy of the record set by the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays, who once mashed 10 in a game.
If a few more at-bats had gone their way, the Yanks might have made even more history.
Mixed Bag for the Newcomers
While the offense was flexing its muscles, the Yankees’ pitching newcomers had a night of ups and downs. Max Fried’s much-anticipated debut didn’t exactly go as planned. The lefty allowed six runs in 4.2 innings, though only two were earned thanks to a comedy of errors behind him (we’ll get to that in a second).
Yoendrys Gomez picked up the win with 1.1 clean innings, while Brent Headrick made a solid first impression, striking out two in a scoreless frame. Carlos Carrasco, the fifth starter, got some work in late but surrendered three runs over two innings. It wasn’t the smoothest ride for the new arms, but with the offense piling up 20 runs, the cushion was more than enough.
Defensive Nightmare
For all the offensive fireworks, the Yankees’ gloves were a different story—more butter than gold. Five errors turned what should have been a comfortable night for Fried into a grind. He committed one of them himself, while Pablo Reyes had a pair of blunders.
Chisholm and Volpe also got in on the action, adding to the defensive horror show.
If the Yankees’ bats were explosive, their fielding was downright combustible. Had the defense been even remotely competent, Fried’s debut might have looked a lot different. Instead, it was a reminder that even in a game where the offense goes nuclear, the fundamentals still matter.