The Bronx Bombers have faced challenges this year, but their ability to hit the long ball hasn’t been one of them.
During Tuesday’s 13-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, New York blasted nine home runs, matching a team record set earlier in the season. They were also just one dinger short of tying the all-time MLB record of 10, achieved by the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays.
Only four instances exist in MLB history where a team has clobbered at least nine home runs in a single contest. The 2025 Yankees account for half of those instances.
Mirroring their previous nine-homer performance, the Yankees initiated the game with three consecutive home runs in the opening frame. Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton each took Rays pitcher Shane Baz yard, with Judge securing his 40th home run of the campaign.
The Yankees’ explosive start came after a two-hour rain delay at their temporarily relocated home at Steinbrenner Field.
Bellinger and Stanton both added another home run later in the game. Jazz Chisholm Jr., Ben Rice, and Jose Caballero also contributed with home runs, with Caballero’s second long ball in the ninth solidifying the historic achievement.
Throughout MLB history, only one team has hit 10 home runs in a game, three have hit nine, and 23 have hit eight.
Interestingly, as MLB.com’s Sarah Langs points out, Yankees skipper Aaron Boone has been associated with all three of those nine-homer games. He managed the Yankees in their two this year and hit the first homer in the third game for the Cincinnati Reds in 1999.
The Yankees’ earlier nine-homer game occurred in their second game of the season, which you might recall because a) Nestor Cortes Jr. surrendered homers on his first three pitches against his former team and b) that’s when the buzz about New York’s special bats began. Although the enthusiasm surrounding the bats waned after the initial weeks of the season, they’ve still significantly contributed to the Yankees leading MLB in home runs by a considerable margin, with 204 compared to the Dodgers’ 187.
Despite the power surge, the Yankees’ overall situation remains somewhat concerning, as they trail the Toronto Blue Jays by five games for the AL East lead, a division they were once projected to win. The Blue Jays secured a 7-3 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday, maintaining their divisional advantage.
However, there have been indications of a turnaround for the Yankees after a challenging period, with victories in five of their last six games. While they can’t retroactively apply Tuesday’s home runs to previous games, they serve as a promising sign that the team is regaining momentum.
