Aaron Judge is the Second Fastest to Reach 200 Home Runs
The New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals 8-2 on Saturday, with Aaron Judge becoming the second-fastest player in major league history to reach 200 career home runs.
The 6-foot-7 slugger’s 200th homer came in his 671st career game, trailing only Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard, who accomplished the feat in 658 games in 2009.
Judge, who gave his first home run ball to his parents, was able to obtain his 200th without much difficulty from a “good family.” He believes this one will also go to his parents.
New York won its third straight game after dropping a pair of games to the New York Mets, as DJ LeMahieu homered and had an RBI single, and Matt Carpenter homered for the 15th time in 40 games.
The American League-leading Yankees have won seven straight games against the Royals, as well as ten of the last eleven.
Judge hit his 40th home run of the season in the second inning, after fouling off two breaking balls from starter Jonathan Heasley. He had two hits and walked twice.
This season, Judge has 42 home runs and is on pace for 67. He is tied with Sammy Sosa and two behind Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire for the most in MLB history before August 1. Bonds set a season-high with 73 home runs in 2001.
Judge, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, has nine home runs, 21 RBI, and a .436 batting average in 10 games since the All-Star break. After hitting just one home run in his first 13 games, Judge has hit 36 in his last 79 games and is on pace to break Roger Maris’ 1961 club record of 61.
New York Yankees All-Star Nestor Cortes (9-3) pitched five innings and gave up two runs. He struck out five batters and walked two. In the second inning, he made a great fielding play, catching Hunter Dozier at third after slipping to the ground while fielding MJ Melendez’s grounder. In five July starts, Cortes has a 2.60 ERA.
In the fourth inning, the Yankees capitalized on back-to-back Kansas City errors to put the game out of reach. Merrifield whiffed on Nicky Lopez’s throw on Jose Trevino’s grounder, allowing Kiner-Falefa to reach third. To chase Heasley, LeMahieu singled to center, and Andrew Benintendi hit a sacrifice fly off reliever Wyatt Mills. LeMahieu had three hits in total.
Clarke Schmidt pitched the final three innings for his second career save after Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless inning.
For the first time since 2019, New York held its annual Old-Timers’ Day ceremony before the game, though the traditional playful exhibition game did not take place.
COMING UP
In the series finale, Yankees LHP Jordan Montgomery (3-3, 3.50 ERA) takes the mound. Greinke will be his opponent (3-6, 3.44 ERA).
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