Aaron Boone seemed in no mood to expound on the topic.
After the Yankees battered the Cleveland Guardians, 6-0, on Thursday afternoon to further solidify their status as the American League’s top team, I reminded the manager that Aaron Judge was now on pace to hit 61 home runs and asked if he had thought about Judge breaking his own American League record of 62.
“No,” Boone said, his face appearing to telegraph, albeit good-naturedly, a sentiment of “do we really have to start talking about this?”
He added, “But I guess we’re on the ‘on-pace’ portion of the season. Look, anything is possible with him.”
It was easy to sympathize with the impulse behind Boone’s abbreviated answer. The Yankees want to win the World Series, dammit. More than ever, in Judge’s eighth year and Boone’s seventh, that is the unsated craving. And while Judge’s pursuit of Roger Maris’ storied record two years ago provided memories to last a lifetime, it was a daily grind for everyone involved.
But the big boy won’t stop hitting homers. After blasting two on Wednesday and one more on Thursday, he is on pace for 61 on the season — one big game away from the new magic number of 63.
And so, there is no getting around it. A new chase for history is on. This time, Judge, a noted Peloton aficionado (Google it), is chasing his own mark on the leaderboard. He is also trying to become the only player in baseball history with no performance-enhancing drug links (Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are the only ones, for now) to top 60 homers in two different seasons.
This time, his biggest obstacle might be opposing managers’ wise aversion to giving him pitches to hit. Most of the intentional walks came later in the 2022 season, but lately, the league has given Judge the Barry Bonds treatment, putting him on base in situations that typically don’t call for it.
One of those came in the fifth inning on Thursday, with runners on first and third and one out. Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt summoned reliever Nick Sandlin, a sidearming right-hander. This was a matchup designed for Judge — not the lefty hitter that followed, Austin Wells.
And yet, after dabbling in a pitch-around, Vogt instructed Sandlin to walk Judge, a decision that loaded the bases.
Given the game situation, did Judge expect a chance to swing the bat there?
“Oh, definitely,” he said. “He’s had my number in the past. I think he walked me in my last at-bat in Cleveland. He’s got a great sinker that he’ll throw in. A good feel for his slider, and he’s been throwing the four-seamer and splitter more. So I’m expecting to hit … [but] I can’t focus on if I might get walked, might get pitched to.”
Like Bonds in his prime, Judge is taking advantage of the pitches he does see. He has now hit 44 homers in his past 99 games.
“It seems like another level,” says Giancarlo Stanton, himself a generational power-hitting talent.
Another level from ‘22, one of the greatest seasons that any hitter has ever produced?
“Yeah, since May to now, the stats say it, too,” Stanton says.
This home run chase should be less stressful, and less covered, than Judge’s first encounter with history. Maris’ record — the AL record, the clean record, however one wanted to think of it — had stood for more than 50 years. His children followed Judge around at the end, as did Judge’s parents.
It’s Judge’s own mark this time, and it’s a mere two years old. But that doesn’t mean that anyone should ignore it, or forget what a special number 60 or 63 would be. It’s a tangible measure of what the Yankees themselves try to verbalize when speaking to the press.
“There’s no one that can compare to him, certainly not walking around right now, outside of Bonds,” said the day’s winning pitcher, Gerrit Cole. “What a wonderful experience to have him on my team and be around him.”
And how did Judge frame the topic? Predictably.
“If it comes with a ring and a lot of fun in the playoffs, then definitely that would be cool,” he said.
He’s right. Those are things that matter most around here. But an individual measure of greatness is about to become a major story too, whether or not the Yankees want it. Buckle up for September — and then, once this story resolves, for the month that Judge cares about even more.
Source Agencies
