NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge put himself in some rare company while lifting the New York Yankees into a share of the AL East lead for the first time in 3 1/2 months.
Judge became just the fourth player to reach 50 home runs four times and, just like last year, he followed by hitting No. 51 in the same game.
“If you sit back and admire it, then you’re going to stop your momentum,” Judge said after he drove in four runs to lead the Yankees over the Chicago White Sox 8-1 on Wednesday night. “Hopefully
I have a long career here and we do some special things that we can talk about at the end.”
New York (90-68) has won seven of eight, moving a season-high 22 games over .500 and getting to 90 wins for the seventh time in the last eight full seasons. The Yankees, who hadn't been in first place since before play on July 3, are tied with Toronto atop the AL East with four games left — though the Blue Jays hold the tiebreaker. Toronto led by five games with 11 remaining but has lost six of seven.
“All across Major League Baseball it's been a crazy 10 days, two weeks,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
A day after the Yankees clinched their 60th postseason berth and eighth in nine years, Judge joined Babe Ruth (1920, ’21, ’27, ’28), Mark McGwire (1996-99) and Sammy Sosa (1998-2001) as the only hitters with four 50-homer seasons.
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 the second inning.
“Obviously made a mistake to the best hitter in the game and punished me for it,” Cannon said. “He hits everything.”
Judge followed Trent Grisham's two-run homer in the eighth with a solo shot off Cam Booser on a fastball for his 46th mulithomer game, matching Mickey Mantle for the Yankees' second-most behind Ruth's 68.
Judge had three hits, raising his major league-leading batting average to .328 along with 109 RBIs. The 6-foot-7 Yankees captain, who turned 33 in April, is on track to become the tallest batting champion in big league history. He also has the top OPS at 1.136.
“The consistency is incredible,” said teammate Max Fried, who won his sixth straight start and became the major leagues’ first 19-game winner. “Every game that he plays, everyone’s giving their best stuff to him every single day.”
Judge became the fourth player to hit 50 homers this year, joining Seattle’s Cal Raleigh (59), 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.
A two-time AL MVP, 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 overthrew shortstop Anthony Volpe at second, and the ball went on two hops to third baseman Ryan McMahon, Judge's hardest throw since hurting his right elbow in late July.
“Still a work in progress," Boone said. "That was by far the most he’s let one go so, hopefully, that’s a good sign.”
Judge came back on Aug. 5 from a 10-day stint on the injured list caused by the strained flexor tendon in hir right elbow and threw gingerly upon his outfield return on Sept. 5.
“It’s feeling great,” he said. “I've got to get back the accuracy a little bit, but that’ll come. That’ll come. I don’t like air-mailing balls like that.”
Defending AL champion New York still hopes for its second straight AL East title and third in four seasons. It's been a topsy-turvy season, in which all three AL summer division leaders have frittered away leads. Toronto topped the East by 6 1/2 games, Detroit the Central by 14 and Houston the West by seven.
“It’s unbelievable, but that’s baseball,” Judge said. “Especially with the expanded postseason, you’re going to have some moments like this where teams are going back and forth. When I go home, turn on MLB Network, check all the scores, see what’s happening, it’s pretty amazing. It’s just a lot of competitive teams out there doing their thing and we’ll see what happens here in the next four days."
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