Aaron Judge hit his MLB-leading 49th home run of the season on Friday night, leading the New York Yankees to a 3-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
Judge homered for the fourth game in a row, hitting a 388-foot shot to left-center off Kyle Freeland (3-6) in the sixth inning. Earlier, Judge had grounded into a double play and lined out.
With 38,910 fans chanting “M-V-P! M-V-P!”, Judge popped out to third base in his final at-bat in the eighth inning.
“Hard to wrap your head around it,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I get asked about it all the time, not just in these pressers but people coming up to you. I’m kind of running out of words to say.
“It’s just — you’re witnessing greatness. I mean, you really are. He’s just kind of better than everyone.”
Judge has hit eight homers in his last 11 games and 17 homers in his last 34. He is one home run away from becoming only the fifth player in history to have three 50-homer seasons. Babe Ruth is the only Yankees player with three 50-homer seasons for the club.
Judge has an OPS of 1.192. Since World War II, only five players have posted a higher OPS over a full season — Barry Bonds four times, Ted Williams and Mark McGwire twice each, and Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell once each.
“It’s not real, I try not to think about it,” Judge said with a smile. “Even when they would say a lot of the Yankees greats — (Mickey) Mantle, (Joe) DiMaggio, (Roger) Maris, Babe Ruth, it’s tough to comprehend or even think about.”
Judge is on track to match the 62 homers he hit in 2022, when he set the American League record previously held by late Yankees slugger Roger Maris from 1961.
“He’s done it before, we can’t be surprised,” teammate Giancarlo Stanton said. “And we’ve got plenty of time for him to do even more impressive things.”
