New York Yankees player Aaron Judge is still stuck in 60 home runs. Judge went 0-for-1 with four walks in Tuesday night’s win over AL East rival Toronto Blue Jays (NYY 5, TOR 2). This is the second of four matches of the Judge’s career. Judge, of course, is chasing the one-season MLS record set by Roger Maris of 61 in 1961.
Most importantly, the Yankees grabbed the AL East title and Wild Card series with Tuesday’s win. The Astros and Yankees will be the first AL seed and therefore go straight to ALDS. The AL Central Guardians champion in the Wild Card series will play the Best of Three, although they will host all three matches. The three points with wild leaves are not specified.
As for Judge, he’s 5 for 19 (.263) with 12 walks and eight hits in seven games since he made his 60th home run last Tuesday. This works out to 0.548 on a percentage basis. Here is the AL season one-time leaderboard:
- Roger Maris, 1961 Yankees: 61
- Aaron Judge, 2022 Yankees: 60 and counting
- Babe Ruth, 1927 Yankees: 60
- Hank Greenberg, Tigers 1938: 58
- Jamie Foxx, 1932 Athletics: 58
A seven-game drought at home tied the second longest spell of the season for Judge. He had seven droughts from April 14-21 and a nine-season drought from August 13-21. The judge shocked eight hosts in his next 10 matches after the April drought, and nine guards in his next 14 matches after the August drought.
In addition to Maris Record, The judge is also chasing the Triple Crown. Tuesday’s game leaves him with a batting average of .314, narrowly ahead of Luis Ariz (.313) and Xander Bogarts (.311). Judge leads the league by good margins with 60 home points and 128 RBI. Miguel Cabrera earned his last baseball triple crown in 2012.
The judge will try to get to his 61st home in the series finale on Wednesday in Toronto. The Blue Jays would start right up to Mitch White, who allowed a two-stroke in a two-hit career against Judge. After Wednesday’s game, the Yankees will return home to watch the weekend series with the Orioles, giving the judge a chance to catch the Maris at Yankee Stadium.
The AL East title is New York’s first since 2019 and only their second since 2012. They’ve had a very up and down season. The Yankees peaked at 61-23 on July 8, the best record in baseball by six and a half games, but they haven’t topped 34-36 since then, including the ugly 3-14 period in August. They have since corrected the ship with a record 16-7 in September.
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