April 4 – Aaron Judge hit a three-run homer in the first inning for his 500th career extra-base hit as the host New York Yankees raced out to a big lead and earned a 9-7 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night.
Judge reached the milestone when he drove a 1-1 fastball off Arizona’s Merrill Kelly (0-1) into the Yankee bullpen beyond the right-center field for a 3-0 lead.
Judge homered in his 999th career game, becoming the third-fastest player in team history to reach 500 extra-base hits behind Lou Gehrig (874 games) and Joe DiMaggio (853 games). Judge added an RBI single in New York’s three-run fourth and finished his first homestand of the season with five homers and 15 RBIs.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a two-run homer and Trent Grisham contributed three hits and drove in three. Grisham hit a two-run homer and an RBI single. The Yankees have scored 53 runs and hit 22 homers in their first six games.
Carlos Carrasco (1-0) constantly got ahead of hitters and allowed three runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings. The veteran right-hander struck out five and walked two for his first win since June 21 and earned a nice ovation from the crowd after his final pitch.
Geraldo Perdomo hit Arizona’s second grand slam of the series when he connected off Ryan Yarbrough with nobody out in the seventh. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit an RBI single and Alek Thomas had a pair of run-scoring groundouts in the first four innings for Arizona
A night after Zac Gallen struck out 13 in 6 2/3 innings, Kelly was tagged for a career-high nine runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings.
After Judge homered, Grisham hit a double off Gurriel’s glove in left in the second and hit a 3-1 fastball into the right field seats for a 6-1 lead in the third. The Yankees opened a 9-3 lead on Judge’s single to center and Chisholm’s drive into the right field seats.
Following Perdomo’s homer to right, Yarbrough got the first two outs and Mark Leiter Jr. struck out Gurriel to end the seventh. Luke Weaver got the final four outs for his first save.
