Aaron Judge makes history with milestone homer

The New York Yankees fell to defeat against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday but there was a moment of celebration for Aaron Judge, who broke a long-standing MLB record with a milestone home run.

After a stunning 11-0 victory over the Cubs on Friday, the New York Yankees were caught cold on Saturday. In the second game of the series against Chicago, the Bronx Bombers were defeated 5-2, with Judge providing the only good news for the New York franchise.

He hit a ninth-inning home run that sent Bellinger to the plate and prevented Aaron Boone’s team from being shut out in front of their home fans. With that hit Judge also reached 350 career home runs in the Major Leagues, a major milestone for the Yankees.

With this, Judge joined the select list of players who have reached this mark for the team. Still ahead of him in the standings are Alex Rodriguez (351), Yogi Berra (358), Joe DiMaggio (361), Lou Gehrig (493), Mickey Mantle (536) and Babe Ruth (659). While the historical first three places are still far away, Judge could still topple Rodriguez, Berra and DiMaggio this season.

Even more impressively, with Saturday’s 350th home run Judge becomes the fastest player to that mark in MLB history, having done so in 1,088 games. In doing so Judge surpasses Mark McGwire (1,280), Juan González (1,298), Alex Rodríguez (1,301), and Harmon Killebrew (1,319).

He has knocked 192 games off the previous record, set by McGwire two decades ago. Speaking after the game his manager paid tribute to Judge’s incredible consistency of performance with the bat.

“I don’t know what to say about it. He is playing in a different league, really,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I congratulated him and said that’s a pretty big number along the way. The fact that it is [close to] 200 games, it’s just a testament to his greatness.”

The player himself paid tribute to his teammates and reiterated that he wished that the Yankees could have marked the achievement with a victory over the Cubs on Saturday.

“It would have been great if we got a win today if you do something like that,” Judge said. “I’ve had a lot of great teammates and I’ve been on some good teams. They put me in the best position to go out there and perform at my best. It’s just a shout out to all the teammates I’ve had over the years.”

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