March 29, 2025, Game 2 of the season against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Yankees hit home runs on three consecutive pitches to open the game. Three pitches. Three home runs. No team in Major League Baseball history had ever done that. And the man on the mound was Nestor Cortes -- the same Nestor Cortes the Yankees had traded to Milwaukee during the offseason. The optics were incredible. The offense was historic. And by the end of the night, the Yankees had launched nine total home runs in a single game, setting a franchise record and announcing to the baseball world that the 2025 offense was going to be a problem.
Three Pitches, Three Bombs
The game opened with Cortes on the mound for the Brewers. The guy had been a Yankee just months earlier -- a fan favorite, a crafty left-hander who'd won big games in pinstripes. Now he was wearing Milwaukee colors and facing the lineup he used to call home.
The first pitch: home run. The second pitch: home run. The third pitch: home run.
Three consecutive pitches, three home runs, zero outs. It was so fast and so ridiculous that the broadcast crew barely had time to process each one before the next one cleared the fence. Cortes stood on the mound looking like a man watching his former friends set his new apartment on fire. (Baseball can be unbelievably petty sometimes, and we love it.)
No team in MLB history had ever hit home runs on three consecutive pitches to open a game. The record wasn't just broken -- it was created. The Yankees invented a new category of offensive absurdity.
The Full Nine
The three-pitch opening salvo was just the appetizer. The Yankees kept mashing throughout the game, eventually reaching nine total home runs -- a franchise record for a single game. The batting order was clicking from top to bottom, and every hitter seemed locked in from the first at-bat.
Nine home runs in one game is rare for any team. For the Yankees, a franchise with a hitting history that includes Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Reggie Jackson, breaking the single-game record meant something. This was a lineup that belonged in the conversation with the greatest offensive performances the franchise had ever produced.
The Cortes Irony
The subplot couldn't have been scripted better. Cortes had been traded to Milwaukee as part of the Devin Williams deal in December 2024. He'd been a popular Yankee -- the crafty lefty with the funky delivery who'd become a rotation mainstay. Trading him had been a calculated risk: the Yankees believed their rotation was deep enough to absorb his loss, and Williams' closer ability was worth the cost.
Facing Cortes in the second game of the season and tagging him for three consecutive home runs was the universe's way of providing editorial commentary on the trade. Every ball that left the park was a reminder that the Yankees' offense didn't need Cortes -- they needed to hit the guy who replaced him.
(Was it awkward for Cortes? Probably. Was it satisfying for the fans? Absolutely. Was it good for baseball? Definitely.)
| Date | March 29, 2025, Game 2 of season |
| Opponent | Milwaukee Brewers |
| Opposing Pitcher | Nestor Cortes (former Yankee) |
| Record | 3 consecutive HR on 3 pitches (first in MLB history) |
| Total HR | 9 (franchise record for single game) |
| Offensive Rank | MLB's best offense in 2025 |
Setting the Tone
The nine-homer game wasn't just a statistical curiosity. It was a declaration. The 2025 Yankees had lost Juan Soto to the Mets, and the narrative all offseason had been about what the team couldn't do -- couldn't match the Mets' offer, couldn't replace Soto's production, couldn't compete at the top of the AL East. The nine-homer game was the first real evidence that the depth-first offseason might actually work.
The Yankees would go on to lead MLB in offense for the entire season. The power wasn't a one-night anomaly -- it was a signature. From Judge to Stanton to Bellinger to the rest of the lineup, this was a team built to hit, and the nine-homer game was the coming-out party.
By May 28, the Yankees held a seven-game lead in the AL East. The midseason stumble in June and July erased that advantage, and the season ultimately ended in the ALDS. But the nine-homer game remained the most purely enjoyable night of the season -- the night we forgot about Soto, forgot about the narratives, and just watched baseballs disappear into the night sky.
Cortes Traded to Milwaukee
Nestor Cortes Jr. is dealt to the Brewers as part of the Devin Williams trade. The Yankees sacrifice rotation depth for bullpen certainty.
Game 2 of the Season
The Yankees face the Brewers -- and their former pitcher Cortes -- in the second game of the 2025 season.
Three Consecutive HR
The Yankees hit home runs on three consecutive pitches to open the game -- the first time in MLB history a team has accomplished that feat.
Nine Total Home Runs
By game's end, the Yankees have hit nine home runs -- a franchise record for a single game.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many home runs did the Yankees hit in one game in 2025?
The Yankees hit a franchise-record nine home runs in their second game of the 2025 season against the Milwaukee Brewers. The game opened with three consecutive home runs on three consecutive pitches from Nestor Cortes -- an unprecedented feat in MLB history.
Have three consecutive home runs ever been hit on three consecutive pitches?
Not before the 2025 Yankees. When they opened Game 2 of the season with home runs on three consecutive pitches from Nestor Cortes, it was the first time in MLB history that any team had accomplished the feat.
Who was pitching when the Yankees hit nine home runs?
Nestor Cortes, who had been traded from the Yankees to the Milwaukee Brewers in the Devin Williams deal during the 2024-25 offseason. The irony of tagging a former teammate for historic home runs wasn't lost on anyone.