Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has been sitting on 61 home runs since he slugged the historic dinger Wednesday night in Toronto. There was hope the outfielder would register another long ball during New York’s final three home games of the regular season, but it didn’t happen.
Now, Judge and the Yankees will wrap up their schedule in Texas against the Rangers. New York did put together a commanding 8-0 win on Saturday at Yankee Stadium, but that performance was sandwiched around two close losses to Baltimore.
The Orioles’ victory on Sunday was significant because it was their 82nd of the year. This secured their first winning season since 2016 (89-73). Between then and now, Baltimore had suffered through three different campaigns of at least 100 losses. The turnaround between 2021 and 2022 was quite stark, too. Baltimore was 52-110 just a year ago.
As a parting shot to their divisional opponent, they fired off this tweet on their way out of town:
62? Oh, we thought you said 82. pic.twitter.com/ZOfQYgBtd7
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) October 2, 2022
Judge did strike out three times in the finale and logged just one hit in this series. However, he also walked five times over the past three games. So, it’s not like he had the same number of opportunities as he usually does to actually see pitches to hit.
That was especially the case during the first two games when Baltimore wasn’t yet eliminated from playoff contention. He walked four times during that period. Why were the Orioles so wary? Well, it’s because Judge had tagged them quite a bit over the years, and especially in 2022.
Throughout his career, Judge has hit 35 homers against Orioles pitching, with nine of them coming this year. That’s the most homers he’s hit against any opponent during what’s been a historic season-long performance.
So, the Orioles get the last laugh. But who knows what would’ve happened over the weekend if Judge had even just two or three of those plate appearances back to actually take some legitimate hacks.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
