{"id":680125,"date":"2026-04-21T02:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/680125\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:48:23","slug":"aaron-judges-early-home-runs-spurring-yankees-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/680125\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge&#8217;s early home runs spurring Yankees&#8217; starts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aaron Judge has gotten off to a nice start in the early going, which has been keyed by starting early.<\/p>\n<p>Of the Yankees captain\u2019s nine home runs, five have come in the first inning, including his past three long balls. In 22 games, he is 9-for-20 (.450) with a walk, double, eight RBIs and a ridiculous 1.726 OPS in the first inning. Early production often translates to wins; the Yankees 11-3 when scoring first.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday in The Bronx,<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/19\/sports\/ben-rice-continues-to-impress-in-rare-chance-as-yankees-leadoff-hitter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> temporary leadoff hitter Ben Rice <\/a>worked a walk before Judge clobbered the first pitch he saw from Kansas City\u2019s Cole Ragans into Monument Park for an instant 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p>The Yankees then sent six more men to the plate and scored another run in the inning, and Aaron Boone said Judge\u2019s quick bat might be contagious.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s probably something to that,\u201d the manager said after sweeping the Royals. \u201cI think when the captain gets it going like he can in the first \u2014 a lot, it feels like \u2014 it does seem to have a little bit of an effect on things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is one more historic chase to watch involving Judge, whose 90 career first-inning homers trail just Babe Ruth (126) and Mickey Mantle (103) in Yankees history. Since 2024, 43 of his 120 homers have come in the initial inning. His career 1.051 OPS in the first inning is strong \u2014 but still less than his mark in the fourth (1.093 OPS) and seventh (1.118 OPS).<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39147490\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/99-hits-two-run-home-126000344.jpg\" alt=\"Aaron Judge (99) hits a two-run home run during the first inning at Yankee Stadium, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Bronx, NY.\" class=\"wp-image-39147490\"  \/>Aaron Judge (99) hits a two-run home run during the first inning at Yankee Stadium, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Bronx, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n<p>Judge himself shrugged at the quick strikes and said he hits at the top of the order (but doesn\u2019t care where he falls).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just try to do my job,\u201d Judge said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Cody Bellinger will bring a season-high eight-game hitting streak into a series in Boston that starts Tuesday. Bellinger has gone 11-for-31 (.355) with a .444 on-base percentage, two homers, two doubles and six RBIs during the streak.<\/p>\n<p>Jazz Chisholm Jr., who has yet to hit a home run or tally a multihit game, sat Sunday and is 4-for-31 with 11 strikeouts, six walks and a .464 OPS in his past 10 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge has gotten off to a nice start in the early going, which has been keyed by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[106,5,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-680125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkyankees","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116440420926988629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}