Judge hits 41st HR, then is intentionally walked with 2 outs, no one on
Bryan Hoch
NEW YORK — On a steamy afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Aaron Judge continued to be one of the planet’s hottest hitters, slugging his Major League-leading 41st home run in the first inning on Saturday against the Blue Jays.
Judge connected with a 94.2 mph José Berrios sinker, powering a Statcast-calculated 426-foot blast into the visitors’ bullpen. The drive, which came off Judge’s bat at 102.5 mph, occurred with Juan Soto on first and gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead at the time.
Judge is so hot that when he came up to bat with two outs and no one on and the Yanks’ lead up to 4-1 in the second, the Blue Jays opted to intentionally walk him. The next batter, Austin Wells, hit a single, then Gleyber Torres struck out to end the inning.
It’s the first time someone had been intentionally walked with the bases empty this season. It happened three times in 2023 — including once to Judge, on May 31 vs. the Mariners in the ninth inning of a tied game.
The last intentional walk with the bases empty and two outs in the first two innings of a game was Glenn Borgmann of the Twins on Aug. 10, 1972 vs. Angels.
The first-inning drive came one day after Judge became just the fourth Yankee to hit 40 or more home runs in three seasons, joining Babe Ruth (11), Lou Gehrig (five) and Mickey Mantle (four).
Judge’s Statcast-projected 477-foot homer in Friday’s 8-5 loss was his longest since his rookie season of 2017, and the third longest of his career.
Saturday’s shot was the 298th career homer for Judge, who will soon become the fastest player to reach 300 career homers in terms of games played. Ralph Kiner (1,087) holds the current record; Judge is playing in his 945th career game on Saturday.
Judge entered play on Saturday with a 1.114 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging), which would be the highest by any qualifying player in a non-shortened season since Barry Bonds (1.422) in 2004.
