Yankees’ Aaron Judge joins Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle in special New York franchise home run history originally appeared on The Sporting News Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig. Mickey Mantle.

Manager Aaron Boone has actually been part of three of the four nine-plus home run games, as, in addition to being The Bombers’ coach for their two games, he also hit the first home run of the Reds’ nine-homer barrage on September 4, 1999. (Thank you to Sarah Langs for the stats).

Last year, Judge had 18 first-inning home runs. He's the first player in MLB history to have two seasons of 15 or more first-inning homers, according to Baseball Reference researcher Katie Sharp. It's a remarkable feat, really. Judge has hit 37.5% of his home runs this season in the first inning.

The New York Yankees put on quite a power show during a 13-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, becoming the first team in major league history to hit nine home runs in a game twice in one season.

Aaron Judge belts a solo home run to right-center field to tie the game at 1 in the bottom of the 1st inning

So we've established that Judge has a clear edge at the plate, while Raleigh has less significant advantages with the glove and on the bases. Which brings us to the big one: Wins Above Replacement, the catch-all metric to end all catch-all metrics.

This article was originally published on www.si.com as Aaron Judge Makes Impressive History With Home Run vs. Cardinals. Aaron Judge continues racking up milestones in yet another incredible season.