It’s safe to say that the past month or so hasn’t been very kind to the New York Yankees. But the return of Aaron Judge to the lineup has brought forth the good luck the Yankees have badly needed. On Tuesday, the Yankees won their fourth consecutive game in dominant fashion, destroying AL East rival Tampa Bay Rays 13-3 with a spectacular showing of power.
The Yankees wasted no time making their mark on the game, going back-to-back-to-back with the long ball courtesy of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton. That effectively set the tone for the game, as the Yankees ended up hitting nine home runs on the night — tying a franchise record that they set earlier in the season in the process.
In fact, the Yankees were hitting a home run in seemingly every at-bat that manager Aaron Boone had lost track of how many dingers his team had already hit.
“We hit nine?” Boone wondered in his postgame presser, via Talkin’ Baseball on X (formerly Twitter).
Aaron Boone didn’t even realize until after the game that the Yankees hit nine home runs tonight pic.twitter.com/sLzzw7HWVD
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 20, 2025
This was a remarkable showing of power that reminded the league just how powerful the Yankees could be when everything is clicking for them.
The usual suspects did their damage for the Yankees, with Judge, Bellinger, and Stanton combining for five homers on the night (two apiece for Bellinger and Stanton), with Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice joining the home run party, but Jose Caballero, the unheralded nine-spot hitter, also hit two dingers of his own.
There’s a reason why the Yankees, with 649 runs scored on the season, have the best offense in the AL (third in MLB behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers). Despite their recent struggles, no team should be sleeping on this Yankees squad.
Yankees make history, Aaron Boone can smile
After all the adversity the Yankees had to deal with over the past few weeks or so, Boone can breathe a sigh of relief with the easy win his team took over the Rays on Tuesday. They even won in historic fashion, being the first team in MLB history to have two nine-home run games in a single season.
“To do it twice, that’s remarkable,” Boone said. “And there were ones that were seriously hit too.”
There’s no coincidence that the Yankees stand tall as the team that’s hit the most home runs thus far this season, with 204. (No other team has even crossed the 190 mark.)
