Before the Yankees popped champagne, Aaron Judge added to the party with another moonshot.
The Yankees captain crushed his 58th home run of the season on Thursday night, tying a career-high by homering in a fifth straight game.
This one was a two-run shot in the seventh inning that put the Yankees up 9-0 against the Orioles on the verge of wrapping up the AL East.
Judge may not make it all the way back to the AL-record 62 he hit in 2022 by Sunday’s regular-season finale, with a 16-game drought earlier this month likely costing him, but he has suddenly put himself in striking distance with a late surge.
And his season may still end up being better than his first MVP campaign in 2022.
“We’re watching a historically great player now, really, [with] what we’re seeing,” manager Aaron Boone said before Thursday’s game. “Obviously his power speaks for itself, but he takes a lot of pride in being a well-rounded hitter. Like a lot of great players in whatever sport it may be, he is intent and obsessed with trying to get a little bit better at baseball year in and year out.
“I don’t want to get hyperbolic and say he’s gone to another level from [when he] hit 62 homers and won the MVP. I don’t know if it’s another level, but is he incrementally a better hitter today than he was then? I think the answer’s yes.”
Judge entered Thursday batting .324 with a 1.163 OPS and 142 RBIs (compared to hitting .311 with a 1.111 OPS and 131 RBIs in 2022).
Unless Bobby Witt Jr. (hitting .333 coming into Thursday) strings together a few 0-fers to finish out the season, Judge will likely miss out on the Triple Crown, but he still appears headed for his second AL MVP.
The home run Thursday gave Judge 144 RBIs on the season, the most by any player since Ryan Howard’s 146 in 2008.
