Yankees' Aaron Judge gets halfway to his record-setting home run total before end of June
Yankees' Aaron Judge gets halfway to his record-setting home run total before end of June
New York Yankees super-slugger Aaron Judge on Sunday against the Blue Jays (NYY-TOR GameTracker) cracked his 31st home run of the 2024 season. Here's a look:
It was a no-doubter to deep center – 109.8 mph off the bat, 423 feet of distance, all at the expense of a Kevin Gausman fastball. As such, it gets the "alternative angle" treatment:
As noted in those color-television highlights, that's Judge's 31st home run of the season, we're not even out of June yet. As you would expect, that tally leads the majors by a wide margin (Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers and Gunnar Henderson of the Orioles are tied for second place with 26 each). It's also a significant total because it means Judge is now halfway to 62. Judge of course holds the American League record for home runs in a season -- 62 in 2022. In other words, Judge's recent sustained heater means it's perhaps time to eyeball the possibility that in 2024 he'll wind up making a run at his own all-time AL record.
When it comes to pace, there are a couple of ways to think about it. In terms of games played, Judge has now amassed 31 home runs by this, his team's 85th game of the season (Judge has played in 83 of those games). Scale that out and adjust for playing time and Judge is on pace for 58 homers this year. The other, more compelling method is to compare his current pace to that of his record-setting 2022 campaign.
As it turns out, Judge didn't hit his 31st home run of 2022 until July 14, which means he's roughly two weeks ahead of that clip right now. For Judge, Yankee partisans, and those with an interest in seeing records totter and fall, that's encouraging.
Speaking of that 2024 pace, Judge has accelerated it in a big way in recent weeks. You'll recall he was limited by an abdominal injury during spring training, and that may have exacted a price over that first month of regular season. Coming out of April, Judge had just ("just") six homers. Then, however, he found his peak level and clouted 14 in May and then 11 (and perhaps counting) in June. Provided he avoids notable injury moving forward, Judge could make a real run at a new record. Generally too much is made of lineup protection, but batting just behind the ruthlessly patient and dangerous Juan Soto has probably helped Judge's cause in 2024. Go ahead and clock "Judge goes for 62" as a leading subplot the rest of the way.
Very much related to Judge's MVP-grade first half of the season is the Yankees' success over that same span. They came into Sunday's slate just a tick behind the Orioles in the AL East and on pace to top 100 wins.