9 Yankees homers. 20 runs. 8 amazing stats

What an afternoon in the Bronx. The Yankees began the bottom of the first by becoming the first team in Major League history to homer on each of the first three pitches they saw, and they didn’t stop there in a 20-9 win over the Brewers.

Here are eight stats and facts about a historic home run output.

• This was the first time in franchise history that the Yankees hit three straight homers to start a game. When Austin Wells added a home run two outs later, it became the first time in Yankees history they hit four home runs in the first inning of a game.

• Paul Goldschmidt began the barrage with a leadoff home run in his first career game, hitting first. Along with Wells’ leadoff homer on Opening Day, the Yankees are the second team with a leadoff homer in their first two games of a season, joining the 2011 Rangers -- both by Ian Kinsler. If you’re curious, Texas’ streak did not reach three games.

• With Wells and Goldschmidt, this is the first time in MLB history that a team hit a leadoff home run in consecutive games, where it was the first career start in the leadoff position for both batters, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The last team to start a different leadoff batter in each of the first two games of a season, neither having ever previously started a game in leadoff, was the 2004 Rockies with Luis Gonzalez and Aaron Miles.

• It wasn’t just three consecutive home runs to start a game. They all came from former MVP winners. With Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge, the Yankees became the second team to get three consecutive home runs from former MVPs at any point in a game (since BBWAA began voting in 1931), per Elias. They joined the Dodgers on Aug. 31, 2024 with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, also to begin a game.

• The Yankees finished the day with nine home runs, a franchise record and tied for the second-most home runs in a game in MLB history, behind only the Blue Jays on Sept. 14, 1987, with 10. The other team with nine? The Reds on Sept. 4, 1999. The first of Cincinnati’s nine that day was hit by now-Yankees manager Aaron Boone.

• Judge totaled three homers and got two chances for the second four-homer game in Yankees history, which would have been the 19th in MLB history. He now has three career three-homer games, tying Alex Rodriguez and Joe DiMaggio for second-most in Yankees history, behind Lou Gehrig’s four.

• With the four in the first, Anthony Volpe in the second and homers from Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the third, the seven home runs were the most through three innings in a game in MLB history. Five home runs were also the most through the first two innings of a game in Yankees history.

• The Yankees are up to 11 homers this season. That’s two more than any other team in history through two games, ahead of the 2019 Dodgers and 1980 Brewers.