A Judgian Blast ?@TheJudge44 ?⚖️ pic.twitter.com/mmev0mz61g
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 14, 2022
After hitting home runs in four straight games between September 3rd and September 7th, we started getting used to watching Aaron Judge go deep on a nightly basis. But then he went into a “drought”…until the Yankees began a road series against the Red Sox on Tuesday.
Judge went oppo-taco to one of the deepest parts of Fenway Park and made it look like this was just another day at the office. The dude is just locked in right now. With that blast, he obviously inches closer to Roger Maris’ franchise record of 61 homers. But he also tied Hack Wilson, who hit 56 homers in 1930, and Ken Griffey Jr., who reached that number in both 1997 and 1998.
Next up on the list is a pair of sluggers who each collected 57 homers in a single season. One is Luis Gonzalez, who did it in 2001 for the Diamondbacks. The other is Alex Rodriguez, who did it in 2002 for the Rangers.
Even as he’s on the brink of history, it’s not like Judge is only trying to hit homers. In the five games he didn’t go yard, the outfielder went hitless just once and actually enjoyed three multi-hit performances. He also scored two runs and drove in three for good measure.
While some opposing teams are giving Judge the Barry Bonds treatment, it doesn’t seem to matter. The pending free agent continues to build his AL MVP case with each ball that sails over the fence. It’s a tough task to go up against Shohei Ohtani in this particular argument, but he’s unquestionably been MLB’s best hitter since the All-Star break.
So, that’ll definitely help him. It’ll also help if he can be the first hitter to reach the 60-homer plateau since Sammy Sosa last did it in 2001.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
