Judge becomes 7th Yankee ever to hit 45 HRs in a season
Aaron Judge is now firmly entrenched in New York Yankees royalty.
The rookie slugger continued his remarkable debut campaign Wednesday afternoon by smacking his 45th home run of 2017, a two-run shot off Minnesota's Bartolo Colon.
That #Statcast record has been overruled!@TheJudge44 now has the most barrels in a season (78), passing Miguel Cabrera ('16) on this HR. pic.twitter.com/ooL0ut3DYC
— #Statcast (@statcast) September 20, 2017
With the homer, Judge became only the seventh player in Yankees history to hit at least 45 home runs in a single season. The list of men he joined is indeed a who's who of pinstriped legends: Babe Ruth (nine times), Lou Gehrig (four), Mickey Mantle (twice), Alex Rodriguez (twice), Roger Maris, and Joe DiMaggio.
Judge also knocked in his 100th RBI of the season with the two-run shot, making him the eighth Yankee ever with 100 RBIs, 100 runs scored, and 100 walks in a single season. According to MLB.com, he's just the third rookie to reach those heights, joining Ted Williams in 1939 and Al Rosen in 1950.
Judge is four homers shy of tying Mark McGwire's major-league rookie home-run record that's stood since 1987. He already surpassed Williams' modern-era record for walks by a rookie earlier this summer.