Boston — Not long ago, both the Yankees and Aaron Judge were playing at historic pace.
The Yankees could challenge his franchise record of 114 wins in a regular season, set in 1998, or his MLB record of 116, set by the Mariners three years later. I was considering.
and the judges were ready to challenge Roger Maris' record of his 61 home runs. This was the most in Yankees and American League history and is still considered a true home run record.
But after a month of mediocrity for him (including a week of downright poor play), the total winning milestone became unrealistic.
That's why the judges still have their numbers, even though he hit 45 homers in Friday's series opener against the Reds at his park at Fenway. They claim that they are not concentrating on
"I don't think about it at all," Judge said of his own numbers. "I'm not close yet."
It's a problem. He hit 65 homers with less than two months left this season.
"It helps that we're playing important games," said the judge. "We've got this big lead in the division and we want to keep it and we know we want home field [advantage] in the playoffs, so we have other things to play. We have to win. I'm not worried about the stats because I have matches to play."
One of the stats he's interested in is the standings. The Yankees trailed the Astros by half a game in his AL record when Houston beat Texas 7-3 on Thursday, but 10- In he holds firm control over the AL East. Game lead to Toronto.
Reed said he had reached 15½ games on July 8—it was the last time the Yankees were in Boston. AL and probably the best record in the majors.
But since then, the Yankees have lost his last two games at Fenway, going 10-18, and he has lost seven in his last eight games. .
"It's not that easy," Judge said of winning the division. “There is a lot of work to be done to get the job done and this is part of it. Every good team goes through moments like this and times like this. , will be better.It's good that it happened in August instead of September when we go into the postseason.We can learn from that."
They recently witnessed an over-reliance on judges' bats. He was in tears most of the season, but he's gotten even better in his last 21 games, going 76-33 (.434) with 5 doubles, 14 home runs, and 14 home runs. 20 strikeouts with 19 walks and 1.614 OPS.
Aaron Boone and most of Judge's teammates were left without more ways to explain what he was doing. But without the contributions of injured Giancarlo Stanton and Matt Carpenter, as well as Anthony Rizzo, who had just returned from a back strain and didn't look comfortable at bat in Seattle's loss Wednesday, the Yankees' offense wouldn't be much. Don't be intimidating. No matter what the judges do.
For example, the Yankees hit another homer off the judges in his seventh inning, but it was only one of his four hits.
They hit 52.6% of him on home runs this season. This is the highest number in the major. This is by design, but it is more susceptible to drought, especially when slugger is present. out of the line-up.
