WATCH: Yankees' Aaron Judge Hits 53rd Home Run of 2022, On Pace for 64
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The New York Yankees may be backsliding, but star outfielder and American League MVP candidate Aaron Judge continues to push forward in his pursuit of the American League single-season home run record.
After blasting his 52nd home run of the 2022 season Saturday, tying a single-season best for him, Judge led off Sunday's game with another long ball.
On a 1-0 count in the top of the first inning, Judge turned on a 94-mph inside sinker from Tampa Bay Rays' starting pitcher Shawn Armstrong, sending the ball into the left field upper deck and giving the Yankees an early 1-0 lead.
Judge has now passed his single-season high for home runs that he set in 2017, when he won AL Rookie of the Year and finished second in AL MVP voting behind Houston Astros' second baseman Jose Altuve.
With four and a half weeks remaining in the regular season, Judge is in pole position to win his first MVP award. He is currently a heavy odds-on favorite in most sportsbooks.
Judge, now with 53 dingers, is on pace to finish the season with a total of 64. He has homered 53 times over 130 games this season. If he plays in all of the Yankees' 28 remaining regular season games and keeps pace, he'll close the season with 64 home runs, which would be a new American League record, passing a record of 61 previously set by another Yankees outfielder — Roger Maris — in the summer of 1961.
Maris' record of 61 stood as the Major League Baseball single-season record for 37 years, before sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa passed his mark in 1998. Three years later, Barry Bonds surpassed both McGwire and Sosa, setting a new single-season home run record of 73 in 2001.
In order for Judge to tie Bonds' record, he would need to hit 20 home runs over his final 28 games. In other words, Judge would need to homer once in at least 71.4% of the Yankees remaining games. It would be an uphill climb for the slugger to pass Bonds, but Judge is in a good position to pass Maris.
