Aaron Judge, 30 home runs in first 80 games of 2022.
Aaron Judge: 30 home runs in first 80 games of 2024.
He’s doing it again.
The Yankees captain hit a two-run homer that epitomized what the team’s offense is all about and that he hits almost every day in Wednesday’s 12-2 loss to the Mets at Citi Field.
Judge’s incredible run of another incredible (and perhaps historic) season continued in the sixth inning, when he hit a 112.3 mph sweep ball off Danny Young’s bat into a rocket ball over the left field fence.
He also went 2-for-2 with a single and a walk, but Trent Grisham took over and the game was a big win.
Judge didn’t seem too pleased when manager Aaron Boone replaced him in the eighth inning of a game the Yankees were losing, 11-2, but downplayed the decision after the game.
“I want to go to every at-bat. The game is never over,” Judge said. “I want to go to every at-bat, but the decision is up to the manager. I’m not upset at all.”
The player who leads the American League in home runs, RBIs (77) and OPS (1.145) in just about every category you can think of has hit five homers in his last eight games and nine in his last 15 games.
His latest home run was his 287th career, tying him with Bernie Williams for seventh on the franchise’s all-time home run list.
With his 30th hit of the season, he became just the fourth player in MLB history to get 30 hits in three consecutive games before the All-Star break.
His peers included Mark McGwire (four times), Ken Griffey Jr. and Babe Ruth.
As Judge enters his own stratosphere, even his fellow superstars are left behind.
That’s 100 points behind Shohei Ohtani’s OPS of 1.045.
“It’s hard to comprehend what level he’s playing at right now,” Boone said before the game. “Especially at this time of day, he’s really hard to hit. The league average OPS is probably around .700 right now, and he’s [100] That’s a higher point total than Ohtani, and it came on the heels of a tough April stretch.
“I was really moved.”
