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PITTSBURGH -- 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 his 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. Judge's blast represents the 12th instance of a player hitting six homers in his team's first seven games of a season, and he's the first since Trevor Story did so in 2016 with seven, according to ESPN Research. Story is tied with Mike Schmidt in 1976 for the most home runs through seven games all time. The homer is Judge's 69th in interleague play since 2016, which is 12 more than the next-closest players (Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso), according to ESPN Research. Coming off his second American League MVP award, Judge has 17 RBIs in seven games. 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 5⅔ innings. New York's record is 139-38 since 2020 when Judge goes deep. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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