NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit his 20th first-inning home run of the season, his 53rd long ball this year, to put the New York Yankees ahead of the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.
Judge drove an 0-1 sweeper from Tomoyuki Sugano into the left-field seats for a 1-0 lead. The previous major league record for first-inning homers was 18, set by the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez in 2001 and tied by Judge last year.
New York has 49 first-inning homers, two more than the previous mark set by Atlanta in 2023.
Judge added a two-run single in the fifth inning against Grant Wolfram after manager Aaron Boone was ejected from the dugout for arguing a pair of called strikes against his star.
Closing in on his first batting title, Judge leads the major leagues at .332 and has 114 RBIs. He has nine homers in