Judge makes history in Yankees' debut

Aaron Judge had a Major League debut befitting a prospect of his towering stature.

Promoted from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the Yankees' fourth-ranked prospect followed Tyler Austin's solo shot by blasting a homer to dead center field at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Austin -- also brought up from the International League following Alex Rodriguez's final game on Friday -- and Judge are the first teammates to homer in their first big league at-bats in the same game. Judge, a 6-foot-7, 275-pound outfielder joined Russell Branyan and Carlos Correa as the only players to send a ball over the glass panels above Monument Park at the Stadium.

"It was exciting," Judge told MLB.com. "Tyler went out there and he got down, 0-2, really quick, but he battled and had a great at-bat and was able to hit one out. I was ecstatic on deck and I was like, 'I've just got to make contact now.' What a day. That's all I can really say."

The 2013 first-round pick also made a catch at the right field fence in the first inning.

"[The Judge home run] gets you excited," Yankees manager Joe Girardi told MLB.com. "But you also look at the athleticism. The play he makes going back, the play he makes going forward, how he stayed on balls today."

Judge had been on a tear for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre since missing nearly a month with a knee injury. MLB.com's No. 27 overall prospect had a .353./.450/.676 slash line with three homers and 11 RBIs in 10 games in August. Overall, he was hitting .270/.366/.489 with 19 homers and 65 RBIs in 93 games.

Judge is the second high-profile prospect to arrive in the Bronx as the Yankees begin a youth movement. Catcher Gary Sanchez, the team's No. 5 prospect, is 10-for-32 (.313) with a homer and four RBIs in eight games since coming up from the International League on Aug. 3.