TAMPA — After a 1-hour and 56-minute rain delay saw countless lightning bolts electrify the sky above George M. Steinbrenner Field on Tuesday, the Yankees brought the thunder.
Those who remained at the Bombers’ spring training complex — rented out by the Rays this regular season — were treated to a home run derby, as Tampa Bay starter Shane Baz surrendered back-to-back-to-back jacks to Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton in the first inning. The barrage set the tone for a 13-3 Yankees win that saw the team crush nine total homers, tying a franchise record that they set in a blowout win over the Brewers back on March 29.
The Yankees are now the first team in major league history to record multi-homer games in one season.
“We hit nine? Wow,” Aaron Boone, apparently unaware of the count, said after taking down Tampa. “To do it twice, that’s remarkable.”
Tuesday’s win also saw the Yankees become one of just three teams to hit three consecutive homers three times in one season. They joined the 2024 Dodgers and 1982 Brewers, per Stathead’s Katie Sharp.
Yankees go back-to-back-to-back on HRs
Aaron Judge
Cody Bellinger
— ESPN (@espn) August 20, 2025
The Yankees started their slugfest in style against the Rays, as Judge’s big fly traveled 429 feet to the batter’s eye at Steinbrenner Field. The dinger was his 40th of the season.
Judge has now reached that total four times over his 10-year career, putting him in esteemed company. Babe Ruth (11 seasons), Lou Gehrig (5) and Mickey Mantle (4) are the only other Yankees to hit at least 40 homers in at least four campaigns.
With Judge starting the party, Bellinger and Stanton quickly proceeded with their own home runs. Altogether, the Yankees’ three MVPs needed just nine pitches from Baz in the first.
“That’s really fun. Judgey really started it off there,” Bellinger said. “We have a really good offense. I think [with the] ebbs and flows of a 162-game season, it’s not always going to be pretty, but we all believe in each other, and the talent’s there.”
Tuesday marked the third time the Yankees have hit three straight home runs in the first inning of a game this season. Paul Goldschmidt, Bellinger and Judge achieved the feat in that aforementioned game against Milwaukee, while Trent Grisham, Judge and Ben Rice did so against the Orioles on April 29. Both of those innings actually featured a fourth home run.
While a fourth first-inning homer didn’t happen on Tuesday, the Rays didn’t stop serving ‘em up after the opening frame. José Caballero was the next Yankee to launch, as he picked up a two-run homer in the second inning. Acquired from Tampa Bay prior to the trade deadline, Caballero’s first home run as a Yankee came minutes after a tribute video played on Steinbrenner Field’s jumbotron.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. added another bases-empty blast in the third inning before Stanton belted his second home run of the night, a two-run bop, in the fourth. The scorching-hot veteran now has 14 home runs in his last 33 games.
“He’s locked in at the plate right now,” Bellinger said, “and it’s very impressive.”
Rice immediately followed Stanton with the Yankees’ seventh round trip of the game. Bellinger, meanwhile, became the second Yankee to record a two-homer outing when he took Ian Seymour deep for two runs in the sixth.
He wouldn’t be the last to leave the yard twice, though.
That ended up being Caballero. He had just two homers this season prior to Tuesday’s game, but he was the one who tied the Yankees’ single-game home run record when he lofted another solo shot off Mason Montgomery in the ninth.
Afterward, the small utilityman joked that the hulking Judge and Stanton have been giving him pointers.
“Hanging out with those guys, something has to be contagious,” Caballero said.
Asked about the Yankees hitting nine homers in one game, he added, “That’s why they are the Bronx Bombers.”
Bellinger, meanwhile, laughed when told that the MLB single-game home run record is 10, set by the Blue Jays on Sept. 14, 1987.
“We’ve gotta pick it up,” he said.
Unable to match their landlords’ power — the Yankees lead the majors with 204 home runs — the Rays only mustered two runs off Carlos Rodón. Both came in the second inning, as Tampa Bay scored on a Nick Fortes single and a groundout off the bat of the speedy Chandler Simpson.
Rodón also tallied five hits, two walks, five strikeouts and 102 pitches over six innings after the rain delay interrupted his pregame warmups. His evening was also impeded by a soggy mound prior to the fifth inning, as he slipped during a warmup pitch before the GMS grounds crew tended to the bump.
“It was just a little slick,” Rodón said. “Sliding a little bit, but that’s alright. We made the adjustment. Had to shorten up the stride a bit. It’s one of those things that’s part of the conditions.”
The Rays scored another run in the eighth inning on a Jake Mangum single, but that didn’t matter much.
With a delayed-but-easy win on Tuesday, the second-place Yankees are now 68-57 on the season and 15-19 against American League East rivals. More importantly, they now have a one-game lead over the Red Sox and Mariners for the American League’s top Wild Card spot.
Boston visits the Bronx on Thursday to begin a four-game series, but the Yankees will look for a two-game sweep over the Rays on Wednesday before heading home.