NEW YORK -- Yankees megastar Aaron Judge is used to breaking new ground with his prodigious power -- and Saturday was no different. In the ninth inning of a 5-2 loss to the Cubs, Judge connected on the 350th home run of his sensational career, becoming the fastest to reach that milestone by a long shot.
Saturday was the 1,088th game of Judge's career. The previous fastest to reach 350 long balls was Mark McGwire, who achieved the milestone in 1,280 games -- 192 games more than Judge.
“I don’t know what to say about it. He is playing in a different league, really,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about Judge. “I congratulated him and said that’s a pretty big number along the way. The fact that it is [close to] 200 games, it’s just a testament to his greatness.”
At first, Judge was at a loss for words and then talked about having great teammates during his 10 years in the big leagues.
“It would have been great if we got a win today if you do something like that,” Judge said. “I’ve had a lot of great teammates and I’ve been on some good teams. They put me in the best position to go out there and perform at my best. It’s just a shoutout to all the teammates I’ve had over the years.”
It’s ironic that Judge has talked to McGwire over the years. According to Judge, they didn’t talk much about baseball. They started chitchatting around 2020 when one of McGwire’s sons suffered a fractured rib, an injury Judge also suffered that year.
“[McGwire] asked, ‘How did I heal, what did I do?’ I gave some tips on that. We chitchatted a little bit. He has been great over the years,” Judge said.
The homer by Judge on Saturday was also his 35th of the season, which ties him for fourth all-time in big flies hit in the first half of the season. Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh actually leads Judge with 38 this season, which is one shy of Barry Bonds' MLB record -- 39.