The accomplishments of Aaron Judge continue to amaze.
The New York Yankees captain became just the fourth player in major-league history to hit 50 homers in four different seasons when he swatted two blasts in their 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.
Judge went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and four RBIs, helping the Yankees win their fourth straight game and improve to 10-3 in their past 13 games.
Their win, coupled with the Boston Red Sox‘s 7-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, pulled New York even with Toronto atop the American League East with four games left — though the Blue Jays do have the tiebreaker based on head-to-head record.
Aaron Judge Made History Wednesday Night
The Yankees captain continues to stake his claim as the best offensive player of his generation.
With his 50th homer, a two-out, three-run shot into the Yankees bullpen that put them ahead 3-1, Judge joined Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Babe Ruth as the only players with four 50-homer seasons. He also joined Shohei Ohtani as the second player since 2002 to hit 50 home runs in back-to-back seasons.
Yet, Judge has done something that even Ohtani — or Alex Rodriguez, who was last player to hit consecutive 50-homer seasons — couldn’t stake a claim to: three 50 home runs in a four-year span.
Since the start of the 2022 MLB season, Judge has averaged 59 home runs per 162 games — the most in a four-season stretch in the majors since Sosa from 1998-01. He now has three 50-plus-homer seasons in the past four seasons and was on pace to hit 50 homers again in 2023 before a freak toe injury cost him 56 games.
Plus, when he socked an 0-1 pitch to right-center field for his 51st homer in the bottom of the eighth, Judge joined Mickey Mantle in a tie for second place with his 46th multi-homer game.
In the past month, he’s pulled even with Mantle, Ruth and moved ahead of Joe DiMaggio for fourth place on the Yankees home run list. But he won’t look at his accomplishments too closely.
“If you sit back and admire it, you’re going to stop your momentum,” Judge said. “Hopefully I’ve got a long career ahead of me in pinstripes. So you know when we look back at all this [and admire it] when I’m done playing and on the other side.
“But right now we got a lot of work [ahead]. We’re hunting the division [championship].”
Aaron Judge Has ‘Really Started To Swing The Bat Well’ Down The Stretch
The Yankees’ hot streak has coincided with Judge’s offensive renaissance. The Yankees captain is 18 for 39 (.461) with seven home runs, 11 RBIs and 17 runs scored in his past 13 games, raising his batting average to .328 and his OPS to 1.136 — the highest it’s been since Aug. 10.
“The last couple of weeks, he’s really started to swing the bat well again,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Another great evening for the captain.”
Yet, according to Boone, Judge’s impact is felt off the field too as the team captain and emotional and vocal leader.
“He takes that role very seriously of captain,” Boone said. “He’s just so revered, and it just leads a really strong culture in there because he makes it a point that everyone is heard, seen, a part of it.”
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