Judge breaks up shutout with massive homer

HOUSTON -- Aaron Judge showed off his immense power yet again, launching the hardest-hit homer of the postseason in the eighth inning of Friday's Game 6 of the American League Championship Series presented by Camping World.
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Judge's titanic solo shot off Astros reliever Brad Peacock approached the train that sits high above left-center field at Minute Maid Park, breaking up Houston's shutout bid, but it was all of the offense the Yankees could muster as their 7-1 loss forced a decisive Game 7.
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"I'm excited. What an opportunity," Judge said. "We wouldn't want it any other way. We've just got to go out there, like I've said before, try to win every pitch and try to jump on them early."
Judge jumped on a first-pitch, 92.7 mph fastball over the heart of the plate from Peacock, rocketing off the rookie's bat at 112.1 mph. It had a launch angle of 36 degrees and went a projected 425 feet, per Statcast™, trimming Houston's lead to 3-1 at the time. The blast surpassed his 111.6 mph homer off Houston's Lance McCullers Jr. in Game 4 for the hardest-hit long ball of the 2017 postseason.
"I tried to challenge Aaron Judge and lost," Peacock said. "I think it was a decent pitch; I haven't watched the replay. It was a pretty good at-bat."
It was Judge's fourth homer of the postseason and his third of the ALCS, tying Darryl Strawberry (1996), Bernie Williams (2001), Jason Giambi ('03) and Alex Rodriguez ('09) for the second-most homers by a Yanks player in an ALCS. Robinson Canó ('10) holds the franchise record with four.

Judge joined Miguel Cabrera (four homers in 2003), Evan Longoria (six in '08) and Kyle Schwarber (five in '15) as the only rookies to hit at least four homers in one postseason.
In addition, Judge's two strikeouts in Game 6 gave him 26 for the postseason, equaling Alfonso Soriano's 2003 record for the most in a single postseason.