Aaron Judge hit his 56th and 57th home runs of the season at Fenway Park on Tuesday night. With 20 games to go, the New York Yankees’ slugger needs just four to equal Roger Maris and five to surpass him as the American League’s top home-run hitter.
The Red Sox had plans to tame the leader of the Yankees’ offense. However, batting first for the Yankees tonight, the leading candidate for AL MVP moved closer to home run history. Judge regain his chase after five no-homer innings and is now back on track to go past the American League record for homers in one season. The record has remained untouched for 61 seasons after Roger Maris hit his way to 61 homers in 1961.
Prior to Tuesday, Judge had not hit a home run in the previous five games. Every home run that Judge hits from here on out represents a new career high for him. This has been the case ever since he hit No. 53 earlier this month.
Judge is trying to join the exclusive five-member 60-home club led by San Francisco’s Barry Bonds who hit 73 home runs in 2001. It also includes two NL hitters Mark McGwire with 70 home runs in 1998 and 65 home runs in 1999 and Sammy Sosa, who hit 66 homers in 1998, 64 home runs in 2001, and 63 home runs in 1999. Two Yankees lead the AL tally with Roger Maris holding an American League record of 61 home runs in 1961 and Babe Ruth at second place after he ended up with 60 home runs in the 1927 season.
Maris’s 61 home runs in 1961 are also the Yankees‘ franchise record. However, Judge holds the record for right-handed batters in a single season. Alex Rodriguez set the old record of 54 in 2007 and Aaron has overtaken it this season.
Judge went into Tuesday with a batting line of .307/.410/.679, 55 home runs, and 121 RBI, which led the MLB. He has now the fifth-highest haul of home runs in a single season and may become the first AL player to hit 65 home runs in one year. The slugger is also in the running for the Triple Crown apart from his much-awaited homer haul.
The Yankees’ 142nd game of the season is on Tuesday. This gives Judge 20 more games to try to beat Maris‘ record.
The latest prediction believes the slugger has the best chance to reach his record haul of 62 home runs while playing the Blue Jays in Toronto.
Can Judge go past 65 home runs? Will he reach 70?
