Updated: Aaron Judge adds home runs No. 56 & 57 in his pursuit of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris in Yankees lore. Fenway Park is one of the US' most historic ballparks, and it witnessed even more history on Tuesday as Aaron Judge hit his 56th and 57th homers of the 2022 season, guiding the New York Yankees to a 7-6 win against their bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox.
With
these latest two home runs, Judge edged closer to immortalizing his
season in Yankees lore alongside Babe Ruth's 60 home runs in 1927 and
Roger Maris' record 61 in 1961, which has also stood as the American
League record for 61 years.
Judge's
first homer of Tuesday night -- a 383-foot drive through right-center
field -- tied the game at three in the third inning.
His
next one was even bigger, as he blasted a high ball 389 feet through to
deep left field and into the stands to tie the game at 4-4 in the
sixth.
"You
really just don't look at it. If you're checking the numbers, you're
gonna get caught," Judge said afterwards, according to ESPN.
"I
just keep trying to do what I can do, and the numbers will take care of
themselves. If I have a good plan and have a good approach, do what I
need to do in the box, all that other stuff will show up."
The Yankees have opened up a six-game lead in the AL East.
As well as Maris' American League record, Judge is now within sight of several other landmarks.
He
is one homer short of tying the AL record for right-handed hitters,
currently held by Hank Greenberg (1938) and Jimmie Foxx (1932); has now
notched up 20 more home runs than the next highest total in the MLB this
season -- the first time such a gap has existed since the final day of
the 1928 season; and achieved his 10th multi-homer game of the season on
Tuesday, just one behind the major league record of 11.
"I'm
out of adjectives. Just really impressive," Yankees manager Aaron Boone
said, according to ESPN. "To take one out the other way, and then get
[Red Sox pitcher Garrett] Whitlock on a breaking ball, he's riding balls
out so well... Just in such good hitting position and so strong and
lays the bat in the zone to ride it out so long that he gets a good
piece of it and puts it up in the light stand. Just amazing what he's
doing."
If
Judge is able to finish the season with 65 homers -- which would
require one every 2.5 games -- it would be the fifth 65-plus home run
season in MLB history.
The most ever in a single season was by Barry Bonds in 2001 when he finished with 73.
