Let’s get this out of the way, even if it’s way too early to even start thinking about it: Aaron Judge‘s chase for 63 is on.

In his second game of the regular season, Judge mashed three home runs, part of a franchise-record barrage of nine home runs belted by the New York Yankees in a 20-9 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. Judge just missed a record-tying fourth home with a double off the right-field wall in the sixth inning and had another chance for a fourth home run facing position player Jake Bauers in the eighth inning but lined out to left field on a 55 mph curveball.

All in all, not a bad first Saturday of the season.

We should have known something unusual might happen. The game-time temperature at Yankee Stadium, on March 29 (!), was a balmy 78 degrees. It wasn’t a record-setting high — New York City hit 86 degrees on this date in 1945 — but the Yankees were intent on setting some records anyway.

Facing former Yankee Nestor Cortes, Paul Goldschmidt — leading off for the first time in his long career — hit a home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the first. Cody Bellinger then hit a home run on the second pitch of the inning. Judge swung at Cortes’ third pitch and destroyed a cutter 468 feet to left field, estimated exit velocity somewhere between 115 and a thousand mph. According to Statcast metrics, the home run had an expected batting average of 1.000 and was a home run in 30 out of 30 parks. Or 31 of 31 if you include the Grand Canyon.

The Yankees became the first team to hit home runs on the first three pitches they saw in a game. Austin Wells later added a fourth home run for the first four-homer inning in Yankees history.

In the understatement of the day, Judge said after the game, “Well, that was a fun inning.”

Judge and the Yankees were hardly done, however. In the third inning, facing Connor Thomas — who was making his major league debut — Judge belted a grand slam. As Tim Kurkjian pointed out on ESPN Radio, Hall of Famer Jim Palmer pitched his entire career without giving up a grand slam; Thomas allowed one in his first inning in the big leagues.

To be fair, Palmer never had to face Judge.

Judge’s third home run also came off Thomas. Judge would finish 4-for-6 with the double, three home runs, four runs and eight RBIs — his third career three-homer game and the first eight-RBI game for a Yankees player since Didi Gregorius in 2018. The fans responded with curtain calls and “M-V-P!” chants.

The Yankees would finish with nine home runs — just the third team in MLB history to hit that many. The Reds hit nine in a 1999 game against the Phillies (Yankees manager Aaron Boone happily pointed out he homered for the Reds in that game) while the Blue Jays own the record with a 10-homer game against the Orioles in 1987. Kurkjian covered that game when he was a beat writer in Baltimore, so he just missed witnessing the only two 10-homer games in MLB history.

As for Judge, it’s a booming start to the follow-up season after arguably the best year a right-handed batter ever had. He hit .322/.458/.701 with 58 home runs in 2024, with his 223 OPS+ the highest ever for a right-hander. And don’t forget — he did all that despite a slow start, hitting just .207 with six home runs through the end of April. Of course, he holds the American League record with his 62-homer season in 2022. With a hot start this month, maybe he can chase that mark from ahead of pace rather than from playing catch-up, as was the case last season, when he managed to make a good run at 62 until a 16-game homerless streak from late August into September.

Our last memory of Judge’s 2024 season, unfortunately, was his error in Game 5 of the World Series, when his dropped fly ball in center field led to the Dodgers rallying from a 5-0 deficit to clinch the World Series with a 7-6 victory. Judge also didn’t have a great postseason overall, hitting just .184 with three home runs in 14 games, whiffing 20 times. That lowered his career postseason mark to .205/.318/.450 and continued the questions of whether he can carry a team in October.

We’ll worry about that in six months. For one thing, the Yankees have to get back there, a task made more difficult with Gerrit Cole going down for the season and Luis Gil out for three months. New ace Max Fried also scuffled in his debut — despite a mountain of runs of support he couldn’t even finish five innings to get the win. The defense was sloppy with five errors, turning this game into a bit of a comedy of errors (the Yankees became just the second team in 50 years to both score 20 runs and make five errors).

One thing we learned though: Aaron Judge is still going to mash. For all the attention Shohei Ohtani has rightfully received all offseason and heading into 2025, Judge reminded us that he actually had the better offensive season in 2024. For all the preseason predictions that Bobby Witt Jr. will win the AL MVP Award in 2025, Judge reminded us that he’s a two-time MVP winner and, as wonderful as Witt was last season with 9.4 WAR, Judge was still the unanimous MVP selection.

The onslaught also showed that even minus Juan Soto, maybe this Yankees lineup will still score runs, at least as long as Judge remains healthy — and he’s averaged 142 games the last four seasons, only missing time with that toe injury in 2023. Boone said he wrestled all day yesterday with figuring out the lineup against the left-handed Cortes, settling on the unusual decision of Goldschmidt hitting leadoff. This after catcher Austin Wells hit leadoff on Opening Day against a right-handed starter. There are a lot of questions in New York’s lineup, from if the 37-year-old Goldschmidt can still produce to what rookie Jasson Dominguez will do to how much more Anthony Volpe and Wells will improve, but this may prove to be a better offense than many expect.

For now, the one certainty: Judge will be great. Sixty-three is in play.

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 American League 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 a 16-4 lead.

With New York leading 16-6 in the bottom of the 7th, the power surge continued as Oswald Peraza delivered a pinch-hit two-run home run for the team’s ninth of the day, and an 18-6 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 2024, 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.

CHICAGO – Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell left Saturday’s game against the Chicago White Sox with left hip tightness after beating out an infield single in the top of the fifth inning.

Adell, 25, grabbed his left side soon after hitting the bag at first. He attempted to walk off the pain but ended up coming out in favor of pinch runner Kyren Paris. Paris took over for Adell in centerfield.

Adell has been in and out of the lineup during his six years with the Angels, playing in a career high 130 games last season though he hit only .207. With Mike Trout moving to right field this season — and Mickey Moniak being let go — Adell was going to get the bulk of his playing time in center. He has a career .649 OPS in 309 games, all with the Angels.

Adell is day-to-day with the injury.