New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is closing in on history thanks to perhaps his best performance of the season on Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers where he hit two homers, a double, and a single while driving in 4 runs in the 12-8 victory.
With the performance, Judge is now set up to potentially break the American League single-season home run record at home this week, but when asked about what is on tap this week, Judge downplayed his individual performance saying – “We’ve got some big games coming up. That’s really the only thing on my mind right now.”
Judge is only two homers shy of Roger Maris’ American League record, with his 127 RBIs leading all of baseball and .316 batting average is one point shy of earning Judge a potential Triple Crown this season.
Judge currently has 59 homers on the season, the most by a right-handed batter in AL history, and his performance against Milwaukee marked Judge’s 11th multihomer game this season, which tied the season record set by Detroit’s Greenberg 1938 and matched by the Chicago Cubs‘ Sosa in 1998.
“Sorry to repeat the same line, but it’s historical,” Yankees starter Gerrit Cole said of Judge, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. “I got nothing else for you. It’s the greatest offensive season that I’ve personally ever witnessed. I don’t know what else to say. I mean, it’s wonderful. I’m riding it, dude. It’s amazing.”
“Obviously we’re in a pennant chase, and Judge sitting where he is, so there’s gonna be that added buzz every time he comes up,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I experienced that playing in the NL Central playing against Sammy [Sosa] and McGwire in ’98 where it’s like every time — it’s an event. And I think the fact that we’re where we are in the pennant race and what he’s doing hopefully should create for an awesome environment at the stadium.”
“I focus on doing what I can to be a good teammate, help the team win,” Judge said. “If that means hitting a homer, then it means hitting a homer, but it’s never been my focus, never been my main objective.”
“It’s all noise,” Judge said. “I got a job to do on the field and I’m focused on doing that. We got a long way to go. There’s quite a few games left this month and the playoffs ahead of us. So I’m staying locked in on that.”
“I’ll tune it out,” he continued. “I try to stay off all that stuff as much as I can, because it’s really no good. You have a bad game, they’re gonna say some things. You have a good game, they’re gonna say some things. So I try to stay off it throughout the year and just focus on what I gotta do here and focus on helping this team and listen to the opinions from my teammates and coaches. Those are the ones that matter to me.”
