Aaron Judge saw his teammates dancing in the bullpen as he rounded first base, and he received a big cheer when he crossed home plate.
Judge hit his 300th home run in a game against the Chicago White Sox during a 10-2 win on Wednesday night. He reached this milestone faster than anyone else in history.
“It’s a great achievement,” Judge said. “Like I said a couple days ago, I was hoping it would come in a win. It came in a big win for us. We were down for a little bit, couldn’t get much going, so I was just excited it was there in a big moment.”
Judge hit his 300th homer in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat with a three-run shot in the eighth inning. The six-time All-Star and 2022 American League MVP drove a 3-0 sinker from Chad Kuhl into the White Sox bullpen in left field for his league-leading 43rd home run.
The Yankees celebrated as the ball went over the wall, jumping up, raising their arms, and banging the dugout railing. After the game, DJ LeMahieu and Austin Wells threw a tub of water over Judge.
“That means a lot,” Judge said. “These guys grind with me every single day. I know the hard work they put in. They see what I do. That was pretty special.”
Ralph Kiner reached 300 homers in his 1,087th game, and Babe Ruth did it in his 3,831st at-bat.
“Those are some guys that have done a lot of great things in this game,” Judge said. “You throw around a lot of those names to people who don’t know baseball and they know who they are. It’s a special group to be in.”
Judge continues to impress his teammates. Juan Soto believes Judge could break Barry Bonds’ record of 762 home runs.
“Why not?” Soto said. “I think he’s the guy who can literally break the record. … I hope he gets the health to do it and I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can, too.”
Chicago was down 6-2 when interim manager Grady Sizemore intentionally walked Soto to face Judge, who had not homered on a 3-0 pitch since 2021.
“You guys all say how he’s swinging the bat this week,” Judge said. “It makes sense. The guy had three homers yesterday, a homer to start the game today. Why wouldn’t you?”
Judge is leading the major leagues with 14 intentional walks. Soto was intentionally walked for the first time this season after hitting three homers on Tuesday and another in the first inning on Wednesday.
Judge didn’t comment on whether he thought the White Sox made the right decision. But he made them pay for it.
“If they’re going to do that, you’ve got to come up and drive those runs in,” he said. “I was lucky I was able to do that there.”
Interim manager Grady Sizemore made the decision in his fifth game after replacing Pedro Grifol. He said Soto’s four homers led him to make the choice.
“It’s pick your poison. I’m not trying to get to Judge. I got a base open,” Sizemore said. “There’s no solution or an easy way out of that jam, but Soto’s definitely been the hotter of those two bats, even though Judge has been hot, too.”
Judge, who hit a record 62 homers in his MVP season, is batting .333 and leads the major leagues with 110 RBIs. His 300th home run came exactly eight years after he homered in his first big league at-bat.
“Definitely caught us off guard,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about the intentional walk. “But Aaron was ready to have a great at-bat.”
“I thought he expanded the zone a little bit too much there on 3-0,” the manager added with a smile.
