BRONX, N.Y. — Three American League MVP awards in four seasons. A franchise home run record set in 2022. Nine homers through the first 22 games of a new season. At some point, the milestones surrounding Aaron Judge stop surprising anyone. They have become a routine feature of the baseball calendar, arriving like bus stops on a route you have traveled many times before.
Sunday at Yankee Stadium offered two more. One was personal and historical. The other involved the first baseman standing a few spots away in the batting order, and it may prove to be the more consequential development for the Yankees’ championship hopes in 2026.
The Yankees routed the Kansas City Royals 7-0 to complete a three-game sweep. Amid the lopsided scoreboard and the rain delay that pushed the first pitch back nearly three hours, Judge and Ben Rice spent the afternoon quietly stacking records alongside each other.
Judge’s 90th first-inning homer puts him in Yankees royalty
The personal milestone came in the first inning. Cole Ragans delivered a first-pitch curveball and Aaron Judge sent it 425 feet into the netting above Monument Park in center field. It was Judge’s ninth home run of the season and his sixth in eight games.
It was also the 90th first-inning home run of his career. That figure places Judge third in Yankees franchise history, behind Babe Ruth (126) and Mickey Mantle (103), with Lou Gehrig (86) now behind him. Since 2024, 45 of Judge’s 120 home runs across two seasons have come in the opening frame.
The homer was also Judge’s 377th of his career. According to historical tracking, that figure pushed him past Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk and into a tie with Norm Cash and Hall of Famer Jeff Kent for 78th place on the all-time home run list.
Judge entered the day batting .234 with eight home runs, 14 RBI, 17 runs scored and four stolen bases. His on-pace homer total through 22 games projects to 66 for the full season. The conversation about a slow start in April is now effectively closed.
Asked about his tendency to hit early in games, Judge offered a matter-of-fact explanation.
“I don’t usually get a chance to bat in the second or third, so I usually get a chance in the first,” Judge said.
The main news: Judge and Rice form leading HR duo
The bigger story, in terms of what it means for the Yankees going forward, is what Judge and Rice are building together. Their 17 combined home runs through 22 games are the most of any teammate pair in all of Major League Baseball.
For comparison: the Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez and Christian Walker have combined for 14. Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy of the Los Angeles Dodgers have combined for 11. The New York Mets as an entire roster have hit 16. The Boston Red Sox have 13 as a team, four fewer than just two players in the Bronx.
Ben Rice is the driving force behind the noise. The 27-year-old first baseman entered Sunday ranked second in the majors with a 1.243 OPS and slashing .338/.476/.800. He homered in four consecutive games entering Sunday and added his eighth of the season, a solo shot off Ragans in the second inning. It was his third home run off a left-handed pitcher this season.
Manager Aaron Boone has occasionally kept Rice on the bench against southpaws, preferring to use him as a pinch-hitting option off the bench. After Rice went deep off a lefty again Sunday, Boone made clear that calculus was shifting.
“The bottom line is, he’s turning into — or even is — one of the really outstanding hitters in this league,” Boone said.
Rice deflected with characteristic understatement when asked what it meant to be hitting home runs alongside a three-time MVP.
“It feels good to hit some homers; I mean, he’s always going to be hitting homers,” Rice said. “So to be able to hit some along with him is cool for me.”
Judge was less understated about his teammate’s standing in the sport at this moment.
“It’s just quality at-bat after at-bat — it doesn’t matter who’s on the mound or what the situation is when he’s going up there,” Judge said. “He’s at the top of the league right now.”
A third Yankees duo in franchise history
The tandem has also earned a place in Yankees record books beyond the current season. Judge and Rice are now the third set of Yankees teammates to each reach eight or more home runs through the club’s first 22 games. The previous two pairs were Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle in 1956, and Judge himself alongside Anthony Rizzo in 2022.
The Yankees are the only team in baseball this season with two players who have cleared eight home runs. That distinction creates a lineup problem for opposing pitching staffs that goes well beyond any single game.
Trent Grisham reinforced that point after Sunday’s sweep was complete. The Yankees have already produced five players who hit 30 home runs in a single season.
“This lineup last year had five guys who hit 30 homers,” Grisham said. “That’s felt by other teams.”
The Yankees improved to 8-1 this season when hitting two or more home runs. They are 13-9 overall and travel to Boston on Tuesday for the start of a nine-game road trip. Luis Gil takes the mound at Fenway Park in the series opener.
For Judge, the milestones have always come in clusters. Sunday at Yankee Stadium offered two more for the personal ledger and one for the record books he now shares with the first baseman to his right.
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