02 September, 2023
Even though the New York Yankees aren’t doing much this season, Aaron Judge is still making history.
The slugger increased his season total of long balls to 30 and his career total to 250 on Friday against the Houston Astros by slamming a leadoff home run on the opening pitch of the fifth inning. The Yankees won the game 6-2 thanks in part to their youngest player’s home run in his Major League Baseball debut.
Judge became the quickest player in MLB (AL/NL) history to achieve the 250-homer plateau when he did so in his 810th career game.
Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies, who reached 250 in 855 games, held the previous record. After Howard, the new top five is completed by Albert Pujols (933 games), Ralph Kiner (871 games), and Harmon Killebrew (905 games).
Judge, whose career.586 slugging percentage leads all active MLB players, is in some very good company. It should be emphasized that the 31-year-old Judge, who made his debut at the somewhat advanced age of 24, is by no means the youngest player to reach 250 home runs. Some supporters would also point out that he has benefited from Yankee Stadium’s hitter-friendly outfield walls.
This season, Judge is hitting.265/.392/.622 with 62 runs and 57 RBI, a good continuation of his MVP campaign in which he smashed 62 home runs to shatter Roger Maris’s American League single-season home run record, which had stood since 1961. Due to a broken toe, he missed nearly two months of this season.