The New York Yankees’ offense broke out on Saturday as the team hit nine home runs in a 20-9 clobbering of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Aaron Judge hit three home runs and nearly had a fourth as the Brewers needed to put Jake Bauers on the mound. Judge, Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger started the game with three consecutive dingers off of Brewers starter Nestor Cortes.
Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Oswald Peraza also contributed.
The reason for the Yankees’ onslaught of home runs? It’s gotta be the bats.
Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay noted during the broadcast that the team used different bats. He specifically pointed out Chisholm’s bat, which appeared to have a big barrel and a skinnier handle.
“The Yankee front office, the analytics department, did a study on Anthony Volpe and every single ball he seemed like he hit on the label. He didn’t hit any on the barrel,” Kay explained. “So, they had bats made up where they moved a lot of the wood into the label so the harder part of the bat is actually going to strike the ball.”
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A league spokesman told The Athletic the bats are legal.
Former Yankees infielder Kevin Smith gave an insider’s explanation about the bat.
“Yes, the Yankees have a literal genius MIT Physicist, Lenny (who is the man), on payroll,” he wrote on X. “He invented the ‘Torpedo’ barrel. It brings more wood – and mass – to where you most often make contact as a hitter. The idea is to increase the number of ‘barrels’ and decrease misses.
“The MLB has rules on bats like what the weight drop can be, what the density of the wood can be and how big the barrel can be. Most guys are using bats that aren’t even close to maxing out the barrel size. When Lenny measured my barrel compared to what’s ‘allowed’ I was shocked.”
The proof was in the pudding, or the homers, on Saturday.
MLB said the Goldschmidt-Bellinger-Judge homers were the first time a team homered on the first three pitches of a game since tracking of pitch counts began in 1988.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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