Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees slugger and impending free agent who entered Friday leading Major League Baseball in homers, launched his 35th and 36th home runs of the season on Friday night against the Baltimore Orioles. Judge has now recorded eight multi-homer games to date, including a pair in July, tying him for the Yankees franchise record for the most in a single season, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.
Judge staked out some additional room in history, too. According to ESPN Stats & Info, he became the fourth Yankees player to ever homer 35 or more times in the team’s first 95 games of a season, joining Babe Ruth (who did it four times), Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Additionally, Judge’s 36 home runs are the most in a team’s first 95 games since Chris Davis hit 36 of his own for the 2013 Orioles.
Judge’s first home run on the night came against Tyler Wells in the third inning, and it gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Statcast estimated that the ball left the bat traveling at 108.6 mph and carried some 436 feet. Take a look:
Judge’s second blast, meanwhile, was a solo shot off Wells that occurred during the fifth inning, and that put New York up by a score of 5-2. This one had an estimated distance of 465 feet and an exit velocity of 113.5 mph, again per Statcast. Behold the miracle of the modern motion picture by clicking play on this convenient video clip:
Judge entered Friday batting .282/.366/.619 (178 OPS+) with 34 home runs and eight stolen bases (on eight tries) in 91 games. He’ll qualify for free agency after the season, having previously rejected the Yankees’ seven-year extension offer worth more than $210 million back in April.
The Yankees as a team came into play on Friday with a 64-30 record on the season, good enough for a 12-game lead in the American League East.
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