Aaron Judge noticed his teammates dancing in the bullpen as he rounded first. He got quite the reception when he crossed the plate too.
Not only did he hit his 300th homer, the New York Yankees’ slugger reached that milestone faster than any other player when he connected against the Chicago White Sox during a 10-2 victory Wednesday night.
It’s a great achievement,” Judge said. “Like I said a couple days ago, I was hoping it would come in a win. It came in a big win for us. We were down for a little bit, couldn’t get much going, so I was just excited it was there in a big moment.”
Judge hit the mark in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat with a three-run drive in the eighth inning. The six-time All-Star and 2022 American League MVP drove a 3-0 up-and-in sinker from Chad Kuhl into the White Sox bullpen in left for his major-league-leading 43rd homer.
The Yankees let loose as the ball cleared the wall, jumping up, raising their arms and banging the dugout railing. After the game, DJ LeMahieu and Austin Wells doused Judge with a tub of water.
“That means a lot,” Judge said. “These guys grind with me every single day. I know the hard work they put in. They see what I do. That was pretty special.”
Ralph Kiner reached 300 homers in his 1,087th game, and Babe Ruth did it in his 3,831st at-bat.
“Those are some guys that have done a lot of great things in this game,” Judge said. “You throw around a lot of those names to people who don’t know baseball and they know who they are. It’s a special group to be in.”
Chicago was trailing 6-2 when interim manager Grady Sizemore intentionally walked Juan Soto to bring up Judge, who had not homered on a 3-0 pitch since 2021 and now has three such home runs in his career.
“I was mad about the intentional walk, so that kind of fueled,” Judge said. “Usually 3-0, I’ll take a pitch, see a pitch, kind of pass it on to the next guy. But in that situation, if they don’t want to pitch to you, you got to come through.”
Judge leads the major leagues with 14 intentional walks. Soto was intentionally walked for the first time this season after hitting three homers Tuesday and another in the first inning Wednesday.
“It locks you in, but I get why he did it,” Judge said. “The way Juan’s been swinging the bat and what he’s done in this series, four homers, driving the ball all over the park, I’d probably walk him too in that situation.”
Sizemore, in his fifth game after replacing Pedro Grifol as manager, said the four homers by Soto caused him to make the decision.
