Yankees’ Judge Fastest to 300th HR

All rise, here comes the Judge. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has etched his name in the hallowed record book again.

For the last few weeks, teams have been shaking in their boots and have wanted no part of facing the best slugger in baseball. Opposing managers have been willing to flash four fingers, signaling an intentional walk, as he takes his place in the batters’ box, walking him to face anybody but the Yankees slugger who has been on an absolute heater, knocking the cover off the ball for the past few months.

Then the unthinkable happened Wednesday night in the ‘Windy City’, and it gave way to history.

The White Sox actually intentionally walked the red-hot Juan Soto, who has hit four home runs in his last four at bat, to bring up Judge, who responded appropriately by crushing a three-run shot, the 300th home run of his iconic career, as the ‘Bronx Bombers’ ran away with a 10-2 win at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Judge became the fastest player in MLB history to reach 300 career home runs, doing it in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat, easily surpassing Ralph Kiner (1,087 games) who played for the Cleveland franchise and Babe Ruth (3,831 at-bats).

“It’s a great achievement,” said Judge, whose teammates were much more jubilant about it than him. “I’ve been in the game a little while now I guess — we still got a long way to go — but like I said a couple days ago, I was hoping it’d come in a win. It came in a big win for us. We were down for a little bit and couldn’t get much going. So, I was just excited it was in a big moment.”

The milestone blast came in the top of the eighth inning on a 3-0 pitch from righty reliever Chad Kuhl, who threw an inside sinker off the plate that Judge, who went 2-for-4, with a walk, pounced on for a 361-foot bullet and his 43rd home run of the season.

“That’s really impressive what he’s been doing and how quick he’s been doing it,” Soto said. “When you look at it, just incredible. So fast and so unbelievable.”

It put the Yankees (72-50), who are in first place in their division, ahead by a landslide, 9-2, and ensured they escaped the South Side with a series victory against the historically bad White Sox (29-93).

The controversial decision to intentionally walk Soto to get to Judge was met with a mix of both shock and bewilderment inside the Yankees’ dugout.

They led 6-2 with one out in the eighth and a runner in scoring position when the White Sox chose to intentionally walk Soto, who launched four home runs in a span of five plate appearances Tuesday and Wednesday, with first base open.

It marked the first time Soto had been intentionally walked this season, which is the benefit of having Judge bat behind him.

Soto had a feeling the White Sox would issue back-to-back free passes, then thought they at least would not give him anything good to hit. Austin Wells did not believe it, saying, “That was crazy.”

Manager Aaron Boone was taken by surprise also. “Wow … but then you kind of want to see what’s going to happen now,” the skipper said with a grin.

The only Yankee who claimed he was not surprised was Judge.

“You guys all saw how he was swinging the bat this week,” Judge said of Soto. “It makes sense. Guy had three homers [Tuesday], homered to start the game today. Why wouldn’t you [walk him]?”

Said Soto: “They just missed a spot, and they paid the price.”

The ball came to rest in the White Sox’s bullpen, making it easy to retrieve for Yankees security. Judge said he would likely give the ball to his wife, Sam.

Judge’s journey to the 300-plateau included breaking Roger Maris’ American League single-season record in 2022 with 62 home runs and setting the MLB rookie record with 52 home runs in 2017, which has since been broken by the New York Mets Pete Alonso.

The 32-year-old Judge, who is the front runner to take home his second career American League MVP this season, finished Wednesday night batting .333 with a 1.174 OPS and is on pace for 57 long balls.

Soto believes Judge is capable of doing even more damage down the road.

“I hope he breaks the home run record,” Soto said, referencing Barry Bonds’ 762 career home runs. “Why not? I think he’s the guy who can literally break the record. He’s been showing it off every time. I hope he got the health to do it. I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can, too.”

Prior to Judge making history, the Yankees trailed 2-1 entering the seventh inning. They got a much-needed spark from Oswaldo Cabrera, who scored the tying run from second base on a sacrifice fly into the gap that right fielder Dominic Fletcher caught before stumbling onto the warning track. Then, after Soto walked and Judge doubled, Wells lined a two-out, two-run single for the 4-2 lead.

The Yankees finally had some breathing room, then the rest of the night turned into a party for their captain.

“It’s incredible,” Boone said. “We almost talk about it every night, seeing what him and Juan are doing. It’s not something you maybe ever see — two guys doing it like that, and what Aaron’s doing, it’s a select few in the history of the game that you start talking about these seasons he’s having. Just a great player and great leader and everyone’s really pumped in there [the clubhouse] that he got that done.”