Ed Botti
March 30, 2025
About Yesterday
Nestor Cortes did a great job, for the most part, as a Yankee before being moved over the winter. But, I get the feeling that Nestor hasn’t read the 1940 Thomas Wolfe posthumously publish novel “You can’t go home again”. If he had, he may have wanted to let Brewers Manager Pat Murphy know that if Murphy was set on throwing a lefty at this 2025 Yankee team, it might be a good idea to go with Tyler Alexander on Saturday.
Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge decided to fire up the sun soaked 46,683 fans, who had barely even taken their seats, with back-to-back-to-back home runs.
To make matters even worse for our old friend Nasty Nestor, they actually came on three consecutive pitches.
Austin Wells then put an exclamation point on the first inning by hitting his second home run in as many games.
On Thursday Austin Wells made history by becoming the first MLB catcher batting leadoff in an opening day game to hit a home run in his first at bat.
On Saturday, Goldschmidt, Bellinger and Judge decided they wanted a piece of history. So they did something for the first time in NY Yankee history by starting a game with three consecutive home runs.
Quick Stats:
The Yankees hit 9 home runs in their 20- 9 win over the shell shocked Brewers.
Only two other MLB teams have hit at least nine home runs in a game. Toronto actually hit a MLB record 10 home runs against the Orioles back on September 14, 1987; and the Reds hit nine homers against the Phillies on September 4, 1999.
In that Red’s game Yankee Manager Aaron Boone went deep.
Big Story:
On a day when many of the fans showed up to see newest Yankee starter Max Fried make his first start in pinstripes, Fried learned really quick that Aaron Judge is the main man in the Bronx.
After hitting 1 Home Run the entire spring training, the Yankee Captain hit 3 home runs, including a Grand Slam.
On the day, Aaron went 4-6 with 8 RBI.
Judge is the fourth Yankee to have at least three games of three or more home runs, joining Lou Gehrig (he did it four times), Joe DiMaggio and Alex Rodriguez.
Fried had a pretty smooth first inning, but the Brewer hitters started to put him to work in the second scoring 3 of their own.
However, Fried’s defense did him no favors. Max surrendered six runs in all, but only two were earned.
His line will read 7 hits, 2 walks and 4 K’s. He needed 94 pitches to get through 4 2/3 innings.
It was just his first of many starts as a Yankee. The bright spot for Max is that he went deeper yesterday than he did in his first start of the season last year with Braves.
In that game, he was pulled after 2/3 innings after giving up 3 earned runs.
It isn’t easy to pitch when your team makes 3 errors behind you (they made 5 errors in total).
Player(s) of the Game
No drum roll needed here, Aaron Judge made the game look really easy yesterday. But, I guess that is what the best hitter in MLB can do.
Notable Performances:
I’d love to throw some props to the pitching staff, but it was a bad day all around for them as a group. Luckily, the Yankee offense had 16 hits and 20 RBI to go along with those 9 Home Runs.
Better to Forget:
It is obviously very early in this 2025 season, but the Yankee mission this past offseason was to improve on the defensive side of the game.
Errors were made by Volpe, Fried, Reyes (2) and Chisholm.
No reason yet to freak out or over react. I believe it was just one of those days. But, they have got to clean that up!
The defense will be fine.
My Take:
I have gone on record, and I still stand by it. This team needs a leadoff hitter. So far, we have seen Wells and Paul Goldschmidt lead off. They won both those games, and that is great.
But over the course of 162 games, plus the playoffs (hopefully) they will need a legitimate leadoff hitter.
On another note, I attended the Garden State Film Festival over the weekend. If you get a chance to either go, or stream the film “Clean up on Aisle Roar” by young film maker Louis Sangiorgio, you will not regret it. Lots of laughs, great performances and a poignant overall message.
He is a rising star in the film industry.
Great article as usual. I’d like to hear your opinion on the MIT designed torpedo bats. Mine is let’s wait and see at the All Star break where the team is with HRs.
Defense, we will see, and I will be curious to see if this team solely relies on the HR or if they can manufacture runs with stolen bases, hit and runs, etc, something that has been sorely missing. HRs are great until you don’t hit them, as we know.
Under Analytics, the Yankees do not believe in cultivating a real leadoff hitter, even more of a 2025 variety. They don't do it in the minors either. But I do believe someone, or a group of someones who will emerge and there will eventually be that someone(s) who will settle in that spot, just like last year.
As usual, nice article Ed!!! I disagree with one point…I love Judge but he’s not the best hitter in MLB.
The job of a lead-off hitter is to get on base (particularly when Aaron Judge is on deck or in the hole). Wells/Goldschmidt have a .471 OBP so far. Even if that drops by 100 points, that's what you want from a lead-off hitter.