Yankees superstar Aaron Judge fell short of the hallowed 60-home run mark in 2024, as well as his own American League record. Of course, that's not to say it was a disappointing year. Instead, Judge socked a major league-leading 58 home runs, taking the Yankees to the best record in the AL and a Wild Card Series bye.
Only Mark McGwire (twice) and Sammy Sosa (three times) have gotten to the 60-homer barrier multiple times. Judge's 62 in 2022 is the American League record, breaking Roger Maris' 61. A weird quirk? The top six seasons all came on the National League side and the other three 60-homer seasons were completed by Yankees players.
Here's the list of 60-homer seasons in MLB history:
Judge followed up his 62-homer season with a torrid pace in 2023. Through 49 games last season, he had 19 homers. He was on pace to top 50 homers again, but he injured his big toe and had to settle for 37 home runs in 106 games and 367 at-bats (a 57-homer pace over a 162-game season).
This season, he started slow. Through 24 games, Judge was hitting .180/.315/.348 with three home runs. Between April 25 and Aug. 31, he went .364/.497/.804 with 47 home runs in 109 games. September, though, did him no favors and he finished the month with just seven, giving him 58 on the year.
With three games remaining, Aaron Judge is two home runs shy of his second 60-homer season. He slugged No. 58 Thursday night against the Orioles. To the action footage:
Judge is hitting .325 with 58 homers and 144 RBI. He's eight points behind Bobby Witt Jr. for the AL batting title and has healthy leads in home runs and RBI. Judge has a chance to win the Triple Crown, though it'll take a torrid weekend.
Thursday was also the fifth straight game in which Judge went deep. It's the third time this season he's homered in at least four straight games, the first time a player has done that since Alex Rodriguez in 2017.
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No. 57
Judge pushed his 2024 homer tally to 57 on Wednesday night against the Orioles, his fourth home run in as many games. Here's a look:
That one went 412 feet off a Matt Bowman slider and left the bat at more than 112 mph. As well, the three-run blast made Judge the first player since 2009 to reach 140 RBI in a season. The Yankees fell to the O's in this one, 9-7.
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No. 56 for Judge
Judge homered against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night, launching his 56th long ball of the year in the bottom of the fourth inning. Judge's blast had a 110 mph exit velocity and carried 407 feet. Here's a look:
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No. 55 for Judge
Judge homered for the second consecutive day, launching his 55th home run of the season on Sunday against the Athletics:
Judge entered Sunday batting .321/.456/.688 (219 OPS+) with 54 home runs and 137 runs batted in. The Yankees have six games left after Sunday, suggesting Judge should become the first player to clear the 140 RBI mark since 2009.
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No. 54 for Judge
Aaron Judge homered on Saturday night in Oakland for his 54th on the season.
Judge was removed from the game shortly after the home run, so he'll move to Sunday with 54 home runs. The Yankees have seven games left this season, so it's a tall order for Judge to get to 60 for the second time.
Still, Judge getting to 54 is pretty notable. Only 19 players in MLB history to have hit at least 54 home runs in a season and Judge is now one of six to have done so multiple times. Babe Ruth got there four times while Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire did it three times each. Judge joins Alex Rodríguez and Ken Griffey Jr. in having done so twice.
Also keep in mind that in addition to Judge's 62-homer season and this year, he also hit 52 homers in 2017. He joins Sosa, McGwire, Ruth and A-Rod as the only players to reach the 50-homer barrier three different times.
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Judge homers again on Sunday
Maybe Judge is about to go on one of his customary heaters after finally snapping his home run drought on Friday? Against the Red Sox in Sunday's series finally, Judge in the third inning hit his 53rd homer of the 2024 season. In typical Judge fashion, it was not a cheap one:
Judge remains on pace for 57 homers for the season, but maybe this is the start of a surge that puts his very own single-season AL record back on the radar. He's now just nine home runs from tying the 62 he hit in 2022, and the Yankees after today will have 12 games left in the regular season. Judge isn't likely to get there, but he's on the incredibly short list of sluggers capable of hitting, oh, nine out in 12 games.
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Judge ends his drought at 16 games
He did it in grand style too. Judge's first home run since Aug. 25 was a go-ahead grand slam against the Boston Red Sox on Friday. Here is the drought-ending dinger:
Judge had gone 16 games without a home run prior to Friday. That was the longest home run drought of his career, surpassing a 15-gamer during his rookie season in 2017.
Friday's home run is Judge's 52nd of the season. He is on pace to hit 57, though he has a tendency to hit home runs in bunches -- Judge went deep 10 times in the 13 games immediately prior to the home run drought -- so a surge over the next few days could put him on pace to top 60 homers for the second time in three years.
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Judge's home run drought reaches 13 games
Now a baker's dozen for Judge. He failed to go deep Monday, and the 13-game home run drought is the fifth longest of his career. It's his longest within a single season since 2019. Here's the list:
1. 15 games: Aug. 17 to Sept. 2, 2017 2. 14 games: Aug. 26, 2020 to April 4, 2021 3. 14 games: July 20 to Aug. 3, 2019 4. 14 games: July 23 to Sept. 27, 2019 5. 13 games: Aug. 26, 2024 to present
Judge went 2 for 4 with a walk and a game-tying single in Monday's win over the Royals. It was his first two-hit game since Aug. 25, when he hit two home runs against the Rockies. Judge has 51 home runs with 18 team games remaining. He's on pace for 57 homers.
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12-game homerless streak
That's now an even dozen games without a home run for Aaron Judge, who hasn't been hitting much of anything lately. As always, never count out Judge but it's getting late early for him to get back on track to break his record.
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10 games without a homer for Aaron Judge
The Yankees were 3-0 winners over the Cubs on Friday afternoon. Aaron Judge plated the first of those runs with an RBI double. However, the slugger once again did not go deep, making it 10 consecutive games without a home run.
Judge has not homered since hitting two against the Rockies on Aug. 25 and his season total remains stuck at 51. Judge would need 11 homers in the Yankees' last 21 games to match his record-setting mark from two seasons ago. Certainly something he is capable of, but it's looking less and less likely that he'll make more home run history in 2024.
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Time to take 'drought' out of the quotation marks?
Judge now hasn't homered in eight games, the last coming on Aug. 25 when he slugged two against the Rockies. That puts him not just behind his record-breaking pace, but also below 60 home runs on the season mathematically. And yet would it surprise anyone to see him go on a tear? Absolutely not.
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Judge's home run 'drought'
Aaron Judge has gone three whole games (and four whole days) without hitting a single home run. Despite a series against the Nationals without a dinger, Judge has still homered 10 times in his last 16 games. This three-game "drought" is in fact only the second time in August that he's gone three or more games without hitting a home run (Judge went six games without homering between Aug. 4-10).
Judge and the Yankees return home for Labor Day weekend where they'll face the Cardinals. Judge will see Cards right-hander Erick Fedde on Friday. He has never homered against him in eight plate appearances.
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Judge's season special for more than the homers
Aaron Judge is likely going to win his second AL MVP award in three seasons this year. He is having another phenomenal year at the plate, and while the focus is on his home runs as he blows past the 50-homer mark once again, CBS Sports' Mike Axisa urges fans to look at other reasons how Judge is performing at the dish.
From Axisa: "Judge leads baseball in home runs, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, WAR, on and on we could go. He is on pace for 101 extra-base hits and 418 total bases. Only 15 times has a player recorded 100 extra-base hits in a season and only 29 times a player has reached 400 total bases. It's been done 13 times in the same season, and only four times in the last 76 years."
Aaron Judge is having an incredible power surge in August. The Yankees slugger has 12 home runs this month and is hitting .425/.558/.986 in 21 games this month. More impressively, he has seven home runs in his last six games.
That includes his two-homer showing on Sunday against the Rockies at Yankee Stadium. Judge's pair of longballs totaled more than 800 feet of distance. Take a look:
Judge is still technically behind his 2022 pace. He hit 52 homers in his first 129 games in 2022 vs. 51 homers this year. But if he keeps up his season-long pace, Judge will hit 63 HR and break his own American League record.
He'll be back at it tonight in Washington against the Nationals. The Nats are scheduled to start three left-handed starting pitchers this week against Judge in the Yankees.
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