CHICAGO — For weeks, teams didn’t want to play Aaron Judge.
It would have been much easier for opposing managers to just hold up four fingers when he came up to bat and walk him, allowing him to face anyone other than the Yankees’ slugger, who has been in a state of extraordinary form in recent months.
Then on Wednesday night, the unthinkable happened and history was made.
The White Sox did in fact intentionally walk Juan Soto to put Judge on base, and Judge responded with a three-run homer (his 300th career homer) to give the Yankees a commanding 10-2 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Judge became the fastest player in MLB history to reach 300 career home runs, accomplishing the feat in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat, comfortably surpassing the records of Ralph Kiner (1,087 games) and Babe Ruth (3,831 at-bats).
“It’s a great accomplishment,” Judge said, although his teammates were much happier than he was. “I feel like I’m a little bit in the game. We’ve still got a long way to go. But like I said a few days ago, I was hoping it would come with a win. It was a big win for us. We’ve been a little off and not doing very well, so I was happy it came in a big moment.”
The memorable homer came in the top of the eighth inning when right-handed reliever Chad Kuhl was pitching a 3-0 leadoff pitch. Kuhl smashed an inside sinker away from home plate and Judge (2-for-4, walked) caught it and launched a 361-foot bullet for his 43rd homer of the season.
“It’s really amazing what he does and how fast he does it,” Soto said. “When you watch it, it’s unbelievable. It’s so fast, it’s unbelievable.”
The win gave the Yankees (72-50) a 9-2 series lead and secured their escape from the South Side with a series victory over the historically underdog White Sox (29-93).
The decision to intentionally walk Soto to get the ball to Judge drew a mixture of shock and confusion in the Yankees dugout.
The White Sox were leading 6-2 with one out and a runner on second in the eighth inning when they intentionally walked Soto, who had hit four home runs in five at-bats on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the bases loaded.
Soto was intentionally walked for the first time this season, a benefit of having Judge at bat behind him.
Soto thought the White Sox would allow consecutive intentional walks, or at least not allow anything close to a hit. Austin Wells didn’t believe it, saying, “That’s crazy.”
Even manager Aaron Boone was caught off guard: “Wow… but I’m curious to see what happens next,” he said with a smile.
Judge was the only Yankee who claimed he wasn’t surprised.
“You saw how he swung the bat this week,” Judge said of Soto. “It makes sense. He hit three home runs. [Tuesday]hit a home run at the start of today’s game. Why? [walk him]?”
“They just missed one spot and they paid the price,” Soto said.
The ball fell in the White Sox bullpen, making it easy for Yankees security to retrieve, and Judge said he would likely give it to his wife, Sam.
Judge’s path to 300 home runs also includes breaking Roger Maris’ American League single-season record with 62 home runs in 2022 and setting the MLB rookie record with 52 home runs in 2017 (since broken by Pete Alonso).
The 32-year-old Judge, who is the favorite to win his second MVP award this season, entered Wednesday night’s game batting .333 with a 1.174 OPS and is on pace for 57 home runs.
Soto believes Judge can achieve even greater things in the future.
“I hope he breaks the home run record,” Soto said, referring to Barry Bonds’ 762 career home runs. “Why not? I think he’s the guy who can literally break the record. He’s shown it off every single time. I hope he gets healthy enough to do it. I’m going to enjoy it while I can.”
Before Judge made history, the Yankees were down 2-1 going into the seventh inning.
The team was energized by Oswaldo Cabrera, who hit a sacrifice fly into the gap when right fielder Dominic Fletcher made the catch but stumbled and fell on the warning track, scoring the tying run from second base.
Soto then walked, Judge doubled and Wells then hit a two-run single with two outs to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead.
The Yankees finally caught a breather, and the rest of the night was a party for their captain.
“It’s unbelievable,” Boone said. “Watching him and Juan do it, we talk about it almost every night. I’ve probably never seen two guys do something like that. What Aaron’s doing, there are only a handful of guys in the history of baseball who start talking about what he’s done this season. He’s a great player, a great leader and everybody’s really fired up.” [the clubhouse] He accomplished that.”
