New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge belted his 19th, and 20th home runs of the season on Friday to take sole possession of the Major League lead. He continued his dominance on Saturday night, crushing his 21st homer of the season.
The blasts capped off a big month for the Yankees’ Captain, who smashed 14 home runs in May, a complete 180 from an uncharacteristically subpar April. And he has already gotten his June campaign off to a red-hot start.
Judge surpasses Jorge Posada for eighth all-time in Yankees home runs
Judge first captured the Major League lead in the third inning of the first game of a three-game set against the San Fransisco Giants, crushing a three-run home run off of Giants SP Jordan Hicks for his 19th of the season. The home run was the 276th of Judge’s career, breaking a tie with Jorge Posada for eighth all-time in franchise history.
Additionally, the home run marked Judge’s 25th extra-base hit in May, surpassing Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig for the most extra-base hits in May in franchise history.
Yankees captain continued his big day at the plate with his second home run in the sixth inning
Judge would then add another home run in the sixth inning, once again off of Hicks, for his 20th of the season, tying him with Mickey Mantle in 1956, and Tino Martinez in 1997 for the most home runs through May in Yankees history.
It is Judge’s 35th career multi-home run game, tied with Joe DiMaggio for fourth in franchise history. As if that wasn’t enough, the slugger is now on pace for 54 home runs this season, a sentence that would’ve sounded blasphemous less than a month ago.
Judge erased forgettable April with a memorable May
After a brutal start to the season which saw Judge manage just a .220 batting average, and just 11 extra-base hits in April, the Yankee Captain has responded in a big way, hammering 14 home runs, 36 hits (26 extra-base hits), 27 RBI, and boasting an otherworldly slash line of .371/.488/.928. His 1.415 OPS in May is the second-highest by a Yankee in May since Babe Ruth’s 1.547 OPS in May 1928 (min. 100 PA). Judge accumulated 2.9 fWAR in May to boost his season total to 3.7 (tied-1st in MLB).
Judge’s scorching hot May has catapulted him to the top of many offensive categories. Judge now has sole possession of the Major League lead in home runs (20), SLG% (.648) OPS (1.056), and WRC+ (194). The Yankee Captain will look to follow up his video game-esque month with an encore in June.
The Yankees are going to need Judge to continue his hot hitting, as June presents the most difficult challenge the Yankees have faced this season with matchups against the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets, and Toronto Blue Jays.
June is already off to a hot start for Judge
After capping off an incredible campaign in May, Judge bombed another one deep on Saturday evening to total his 21st home run of the season. It seems as though the captain’s dominance from May will be carrying over into June.