Yankees' Aaron Judge hits 20th first-inning home run, 53rd of the season

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NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit his 20th first-inning home run of the season, his 53rd long ball this year, to put the New York Yankees ahead of the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.

Judge drove an 0-1 sweeper from Tomoyuki Sugano into the left-field seats for a 1-0 lead. The previous major league record for first-inning homers was 18, set by the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez in 2001 and tied by Judge last year.

New York has 49 first-inning homers, two more than the previous mark set by Atlanta in 2023.

Judge added a two-run single in the fifth inning against Grant Wolfram after manager Aaron Boone was ejected from the dugout for arguing a pair of called strikes against his star.

Closing in on his first batting title, Judge leads the major leagues at .332 and has 114 RBIs. He has nine homers in his last 17 games.

Boone was ejected for the seventh time this season, most among big league managers, and the 46th time in his managing career.

New York began the day tied for the AL East lead with Toronto, which holds the tiebreaker.

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