NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge tied a major league record by reaching 50 home runs for the fourth time, hitting a three-run drive for the New York Yankees in the second inning against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.
The seven-time All-Star added his 51st of the season in the eighth.
Judge drove a 96.6 mph sinker from Jonathan Cannon (4-10) into the Yankees bullpen in right-center field for a 3-1 lead in an 8-1 victory. He hit a solo shot six innings later against Cam Booser for his 46th mulithomer game.
Judge hit 52 homers as a rookie in 2017, an AL-record 62 in 2022 and 58 last year. The only other players with four 50-homer seasons were Babe Ruth (1920, ‘21, ’27, ’28), Mark McGwire (1996-99) and Sammy Sosa (1998-2001).
A two-time AL MVP, the 33-year-old Judge leads the major leagues in batting average (.328) and OPS (1.136). He has 109 RBIs.
Judge became the fourth player to hit 50 homers this year, joining Seattle’s Cal Raleigh (58), Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber (56) and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (53). The only prior seasons with a quartet reaching that mark came during the Steroids Era, by McGwire, Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr. and Greg Vaughn in 1998, and by Barry Bonds, Luis Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez and Sosa in 2001.
Judge made an 85.8 mph throw to second base on Colson Montgomery’s second-inning drive that went off the right-field wall on a hop, Judge’s hardest throw since hurting his right elbow in late July.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
