The New York Yankees played Home Run Derby at their home away from home Tuesday night. The Yankees tied a franchise record with nine home runs against the Tampa Bay Rays (NY 13, TB 3) at George M. Steinbrenner Field, their spring training home where the Rays are playing this season after Tropicana Field sustained hurricane damage. New York also hit nine homers on March 29. Those are the only two nine-homer games in franchise history.
Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton slugged back-to-back-to-back homers in the first inning. Bellinger and Stanton each hit a second home run later in the game, and former Ray José Caballero went deep twice as well. Those were his first two home runs as a Yankee. The Rays traded him to New York at the July 31 trade deadline. Jazz Chisholm Jr. had a home run as well.
Here are Tuesday’s nine homers. The Yankees are the only team in history with two nine-homer games in one season:
Bellinger, Caballero, and Stanton are the second trio Yankees’ teammates with multiple home runs in a game. Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Moose Skowron also did it against the Boston Red Sox on May 30, 1961.
Tuesday was only the fourth time in baseball history a team hit nine home runs in a single game. The Yankees had nine homers against the Milwaukee Brewers this March 29, the Cincinnati Reds had nine homers against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sept. 4, 1999, and the Toronto Blue Jays had a single-game record 10 homers against the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 14, 1987.
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Yankees manager Aaron Boone has been involved in three of the four games in which a team hit at least nine home runs. He managed the Yankees this year, when they did it Tuesday and on March 29, and Boone also hit one of those nine home runs for the Reds in 1999.
Judge’s homer was his 40th of the season. He now has four 40-homer seasons (2017, 2022, 2024-25). Babe Ruth (11), Lou Gehrig (5), and Mickey Mantle (4) are the only other Yankees with four 40-homer seasons. Shohei Ohtani (2021, 2023-25) is the only other active player to hit 40 home runs in four different seasons.
Tuesday’s win was New York’s fourth straight and their sixth in their last seven games. They are 68-57 and in the top wild card spot. The Rays, meanwhile, are 61-65 and 6 ½ games out of a postseason spot.