Aaron Judge Makes History In Yankees' 11-3 Royal Rout (Highlights)
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 25: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits a solo home run against the Kansas City Royals during the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium on September 25, 2017 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The home run was number 50 on the season. (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)

The historic season for Aaron Judge has reached a fever pitch with his two historic home runs in today’s dismantling of the Kansas City Royals.

  • New York Yankees: 11 (87-69)
  • Kansas City Royals: 3 (76-80)
  • W: CC Sabathia (13-5, 3.84 ERA)
  • L: Jake Junis (8-3, 4.39 ERA)
  • AL, Final, Box Score
  • Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

Aaron Judge made history with home runs numbers 49 and 50 today as the Yankees put up an 11 spot on the Royals this afternoon in the Bronx in a makeup game from May 25, which was postponed due to rain.

CC Sabathia was once again solid for the Yanks, tossing a quality start despite giving up some late inning runs to the opposition.

Highlights

Early & Often

Following Sabathia’s clean run in the top of the first, the Yankees wasted little time jumping out to an early lead. Brett Gardner led off the bottom-half of the inning with a single to center, advancing to third on a Gary Sanchez one-out double. The next batter, Didi Gregorius grounded out to first baseman Eric Hosmer, scoring Gardner from third to put the Bombers up 1-0.

Move Over Big Mac

Any Yankees fan in attendance or watching on television was treated to some big league history this afternoon in the Bronx.

After Gardner worked a one-out walk, Judge took a 3-2 pitch from Junis to the opposite field for his rookie record-tying 49th homer of the season.

Not only did he tie the 30-year old record set by Mark McGwire with the Oakland A’s in 1987, but Judge also passed Gary Sanchez for the most home runs in a single month by a rookie with his 12th bomb of September.

Didi Gregorius got things going in the bottom of the sixth with a one-out, opposite-field single. The next batter, Matt Holliday, lined a double into left, scoring Didi from first to make it 4-0 Yanks and knocking young Junis out of the game. Greg Bird then launched a two-run bomb into the seats in right to open their lead up to six.

Those would prove to be very important runs.

Unlucky Number Seven

Just when it looked like Sabathia was on cruise control, the Royals offense awoke. CC started off the seventh by allowing his fourth hit of the day, a lead off, opposite-field single to Eric Hosmer. Salvador Perez followed suit by unloading on a Sabathia fastball, depositing it into the seats in left center to put the Royals on the board at 6-2. Mike Moustakas must have taken exception to the Perez blast because the All-Star third baseman also took Sabathia deep.

With the score 6-3 and still no one out, Sabathia was lifted for Chad Green to try and limit the damage to just three. And that’s exactly what Green did, allowing just one walk before retiring the final three batters to get his team back in the dugout.

Judge Reigns Supreme

A few innings after tying Big Mac for the rookie record, his excellency made it official in the bottom of the seventh. Royals reliever Trevor Cahill left a ball over the middle of the plate and the honorable Judge did this.

After being mobbed by his teammates for his historical homer, the Yankee fans’ ovation prompted Judge to give a typical-Judge sheepish curtain call.

Judge became the 29th player in MLB history to reach the 50 home run plateau, and just the fifth Yankee to ever accomplish the feat.

With his second multi-home run game in as many days, Judge’s WAR now sits at 8.2, drawing him even with his primary competition for the 2017 AL MVP Award, Houston’s Jose Altuve.

Piling On

Adding insult to injury, Gary Sanchez followed suit by going back-to-back with history to open the game up at 8-3.

An inning later, Gardner laced a double down the right field line that scored Ronald Torreyes from third to retake a six run lead. Following the RBI double, Judge walked and Sanchez singled to load the bases for Didi Gregorius. Sir Didi came through with a single to right that scored Gardner from third, 10-3, and then Matt Holliday lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to break it open to an eight run Yankee advantage, where the score would remain for the duration of the game.

What’s Next

The Yankees say goodbye to the Royals and welcome in the division foe Tampa Bay Rays for the final time this season. New York is expected to trot out Luis Severino (13-6, 3.03 ERA) tomorrow, but that could be subject to change if the incident that saw Sevy get hit by a batted ball this weekend in Toronto alters his availability. Tampa will look to young lefty Blake Snell (4-6, 4.01 ERA) to try and quiet this potent Yankee offense.

First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM/ET and can be seen on the YES Network and heard on WFAN 660/101.9 FM.


After losing my eyesight as a result of a brain tumor in 1996, baseball and music ushered me back to reality and led me to who I am today. I turned my love of the game and for my New York Yankees into writing for the best company in sports: Elite Sports NY. i use my Psychology & Music degree from James Madison University to articulate my thoughts in my writing and use my vocal/piano skills to professionally play music in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.