Judge matches Ruth with 321 homers in first 1,000 Yankees games in 9-4 win over struggling Pirates

By: Will Graves, The Associated Press Posted: 6:42 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 4, 2025

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Judge marked his 1,000th game by hitting his sixth homer of the season and the New York Yankees beat Pittsburgh 9-4 on Friday in the Pirates' home opener.

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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Judge marked his 1,000th game by hitting his sixth homer of the season and the New York Yankees beat Pittsburgh 9-4 on Friday in the Pirates' home opener.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/04/2025 (548 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Judge marked his 1,000th game by hitting his sixth homer of the season and the New York Yankees beat Pittsburgh 9-4 on Friday in the Pirates’ home opener.

Judge’s shot to the seats in right-center in the seventh off Tim Mayza — who surrendered Judge’s 61st home run during Judge’s record-breaking 2022 season — boosted his career total to 321, the most by a player through his first 1,000 games. Those 321 homers also matched the number hit by Babe Ruth during his first 1,000 games with the Yankees.

Coming off his second AL MVP award, Judge has 17 RBIs in seven games.

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, left, celebrates with Ben Rice after hitting a two-run home run off Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Tim Mayza during the seventh inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Oswaldo Cabrera went 3 for 4 with four RBIs for New York. Anthony Volpe added three hits as the Yankees gave Max Fried (1-0) more than enough run support for the left-hander to collect his first Yankees win in pinstripes. Fried allowed one run and six hits with a walk and six strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.

Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller (1-1) didn’t make it out of the fourth inning on his 29th birthday. Six days removed from relatively smooth sailing against Miami, Keller didn’t fare so well against the torpedo-bat-wielding Yankees.

While Keller kept New York in the yard during 3 2/3 innings, that’s about all that went right. Keller allowed seven runs, eight hits and and four strikeouts as Pittsburgh fell to 2-6.

Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds both hit their first homers of the season for the Pirates, who were met with chants of “Sell The Team” on a handful of occasions, most audibly during back-to-back plays in the third in which shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and recently acquired outfielder Alexander Canario made shaky plays in the field.

Key moment

After Reynolds’ solo shot in the third gave the Pirates a small boost, the Yankees scored three runs in the fourth — all with two outs — to push their advantage to 8-1.

Key stat