The Home Run Barrage of New York Yankees Star Aaron Judge Re-Wrote the Team History Books on Friday
The New York Yankees beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night 7-1 to move to 78-76 on the year.
The loss put a damper on the D'backs playoff chances as they fell to 81-73 and are now just 2.0 games up in the race for a National League wild card spot.
While the Diamondbacks' playoff odds are important, the story of the night was Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, who connected for three home runs.
The slugger, who missed nearly two months with a toe injury, has still been very productive in the power department, hitting 35 home runs thus far with 70 RBI. He's got a .267 batting average and a 1.010 OPS. There's still an outside chance he could get to 40 homers, which would be an amazing accomplishment considering all the time missed.
His big night on Friday also re-wrote the team history books.
Per ESPN Stats & Info:
Aaron Judge is the first player in Yankees history to have multiple games with 3 HR in a single season.
Judge’s 35 HR this season matches Rudy York in 1937 for the most HR in MLB history by a player to miss 50+ games in a season.
Judge won the MVP Award in 2022 after hitting the most home runs in American League history (62) and is regularly one of the most feared sluggers in the sport.
The Yankees will play the Diamondbacks again on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium.
Carlos Rodon gets the ball for the Pinstripes.
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