New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge on Monday broke Mark McGwire’s 30-year-old rookie home run record, belting his 50th of the season in his team’s victory over the Kansas City Royals.
Judge smacked his record-breaking homer with the Yankees down two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium in New York.
Earlier, the 25-year-old had tied McGwire’s record of 49 homers when he bludgeoned Royals starter Jakob Junis into the right-center stands.
Photo: AP
His 50th homer came off the pitching of Trevor Cahill, with the ball flying into the left-field seats.
Judge was given a resounding ovation after rounding the bases following his record homer.
“It’s been an incredible ride, this whole year,” Judge said.
Judge becomes only the fifth player in Yankees history to score at least 50 home runs in a season.
His record-setting mark sees him join an illustrious club — Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Alex Rodriguez.
New York manager Joe Girardi said he had been quietly confident Judge would have a big rookie season.
“As we got to spring training, what I said is if he gets the barrel to the ball he’s going to do a lot of damage and if he does it on a consistent basis he’s going to have a huge year for us, and that’s what he’s done,” Girardi said.
As well as his homer tally, Judge has now recorded 108 RBIs and 124 runs, the third-best rookie total in Yankees history after Tony Lazzeri and Joe DiMaggio.
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