After going homerless over a seven-game span, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has finally tied Roger Maris by hitting his 61st home run of the season. His next dinger will not only leave him all alone atop the Yankees’ franchise leaderboard, but he’ll also set an American League record.
Here’s another look at Judge’s historic blast:
61 years since 61.
Aaron Judge has written his name alongside Roger Maris in baseball's record books. pic.twitter.com/1V4Gums34C
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 29, 2022
What an incredible honor this must be for Judge. After being stuck on 60 for the past week, he must also feel a bit of relief. MLB’s single-season and career home run king, Barry Bonds, did recently say that hitting that 61st homer is the toughest of all. We’ll see if Judge finally getting to that number will allow him to relax and go on another one of his patented power binges.
Regardless of what happens next, 61 home runs is a lot of dingers in any scenario…especially for one year. How do they break down by the numbers, though? Here’s a quick look from MLB Daily Dingers:
61 by the numbers… a quick breakdown of Aaron Judge’s ridiculous season so far. @IBWAA #Yankees #RepBX pic.twitter.com/SxlSpD0Pnv
— MLB Daily Dingers (@MLBDailyDingers) September 29, 2022
The symmetry in some of these numbers is just ridiculous, don’t you think? Whether there are no outs, one out, or two outs in an inning, he’s hit a mostly equal number of homers. The same can be said about whether he’s at the plate in the first three, middle three, or the final three innings of a game.
On the flip side, it’s also quite crazy that he’s hit 40 solo home runs throughout 2022. Judge tied Maris as a designated hitter on Wednesday, so he had a few extra minutes to sit on the bench and let what he just did sink in. He likely still can’t believe it, but the numbers don’t lie. That’s for sure.
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Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
