CHICAGO – Aaron Judge noticed his teammates dancing in the bullpen as he rounded first. He got quite the reception when he crossed the plate, too.
Not only did he hit his 300th homer, the New York Yankees' slugger reached that milestone faster than any other player when he connected against the Chicago White Sox during a 10-2 victory on Wednesday night.
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“It's a great achievement,” he 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 the mark in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat with a three-run drive in the eighth inning. The six-time All-Star and 2022 American League MVP drove a 3-0 up-and-in sinker from Chad Kuhl into the White Sox bullpen in left for his major league-leading 43rd homer.
The Yankees let loose as the ball cleared the wall, jumping up and raising their arms and banging the dugout railing. After the game, DJ LeMahieu and Austin Wells doused Judge with a tub of water.
“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 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 amaze his teammates. Juan Soto thinks Judge has a chance to surpass Barry Bonds' 762 homers.
"Why not?” Soto said. “I think he’s the guy who can literally break the record. ... I hope he got the health to do it and I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can, too.”
Chicago was trailing 6-2 when interim manager Grady Sizemore intentionally walked Soto to bring up 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 leads the major leagues with 14 intentional walks. Soto was intentionally walked for the first time this season after hitting three homers Tuesday and another in the first inning Wednesday.
Judge wouldn't say if he thought the White Sox made the right call. But either way, he made them pay.
“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.”
Sizemore made the decision in his fifth game after replacing Pedro Grifol as manager. He said the four homers by Soto caused him to make the decision.
“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 an American League-record 62 homers in his MVP season, is batting .333 and leads the major leagues with 110 RBIs. No. 300 came eight years and one day after he homered in his first big league at-bat.
“Definitely caught us off guard,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of the intentional walk, "but Aaron was ready to throw up a great at-bat.
"I thought he expanded the zone a little bit too much there on 3-0," the manager added playfully.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB