Yankees match franchise record with 9 HRs in win

TAMPA, Fla. -- Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger each hit two home runs, Aaron Judge launched his 40th shot of the season and the New York Yankees matched a franchise record with nine long balls Tuesday night in a convincing 13-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Judge, Bellinger and Stanton went back-to-back-to-back in the first inning to give the Yankees, who also hit nine homers in a win in March, a 3-0 lead four batters into the game -- after the first pitch was delayed nearly two hours by rain.

Jose Caballero connected twice for his first career multihomer game. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice also went deep for the Yankees, who won their fourth straight and looked awfully comfortable in a road game at their spring training home.

According to ESPN Research, the Yankees became the first team in MLB history with multiple nine-homer games in a single season. (New York also smacked nine in its second game of the campaign, a 20-9 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on March 29 at Yankee Stadium.) And Tuesday's team total tied the single-game franchise high reached three other times.

"It was awesome to see," Stanton said during his postgame interview on the YES Network. "It was incredible across the board."

According to ESPN Research, Stanton, Bellinger and Caballero became the second Yankees trio with multiple homers in the same game in franchise history, tying a feat pulled off by Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Bill Skowron on May 30, 1961, against the Boston Red Sox.

"I think we were all ready to go at 7:30 [p.m.]," Stanton said, referring to the rain delay. "And then it didn't happen, so we had to take it out on [the Rays] a little bit. But just make sure we were focused and get a win out of tonight."

New York took full advantage of the cozy dimensions before a crowd of 10,046 at George M. Steinbrenner Field, where the Rays are playing while Tropicana Field undergoes repairs.

"It was impressive," New York manager Aaron Boone said. "Great swings right out of the game to give us a lead."

Bellinger went 4-for-5 with three RBIs, as the Yankees held a one-game lead over the Seattle Mariners and the Red Sox in the American League wild-card race.

"To do it twice, that's remarkable," Boone said of the campaign's nine-homer feats. "And there were some ones [tonight] that were seriously hit. Just a really impressive offensive showing against a team that obviously is not always easy to score runs against."

Tampa Bay's Shane Baz (8-10) allowed six runs and seven hits, including five homers, in three innings. He has yielded 29 earned runs in his past 28 innings (9.32 ERA) over six starts.

For the Yankees, Carlos Rodon (13-7) earned the win, allowing two runs in six innings.

"We have a really good offense," Bellinger said. "I think with the ebbs and flows of a 162-game season, it's not always going to be pretty. But we all believe in each other, and the talent is there, and we're doing a good job of putting it all together."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.