Aaron Judge on Thursday turned around a fastball in the ninth inning, and the already-standing crowd of 43,123 at Yankee Stadium erupted in noise, wondering, hoping he had hit a record-tying 61st home run and clinched a playoff berth with one mighty swing.
Seconds later, groans arose in unison. Kike Hernandez made the catch a step in front of the fence, 404 feet (123m) from the plate.
Judge remained one shy of the American League record set by New York slugger Roger Maris in 1961, but the Yankees did accomplish goal No. 1 — Josh Donaldson’s 10th-inning RBI single gave them a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox and clinched their sixth straight playoff berth and 24th in 28 years.
Photo: AFP
“A great accomplishment. A lot of hard work over the course of the season to get to this point,” said Judge, who also threw out a runner at second base to help hold off Boston in the ninth inning. “But I think you could ask anybody in this room: The job’s not finished. We have an ultimate goal of going out there and winning our division, and setting ourselves up for the post-season, and this is step No. 1, step No. 1 of many steps to come.”
Coming within a few feet of his fourth walk-off homer this year, Judge went without a long ball for the second straight game since hitting No. 60 to match Babe Ruth’s 1927 season.
Judge has 13 games remaining. He walked three times and struck out once before his drive off Matt Barnes just to the right of straightaway center.
“I thought it would have been pretty showy to drop it at Monument Park out there,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Judge did not think it was gone, not on the first night of autumn with the game-time temperature a crisp 20°C.
“I just got underneath it a little bit,” he said. “A pretty windy night, so I was hoping maybe it was blowing out at the time I was hitting, but just missed it.”
The ball left the bat at (182kph), the hardest-hit by anyone in the game.
“I go out there and get caught up in the history of what he could potentially be doing and I start tiptoeing around the at-bat, I’m probably going to hang something,” Barnes said.
Before each of the 26 pitches to Judge, Yankee Stadium’s usual cacophony was replaced by a silence more familiar at a church.
“Literally, you could hear a pin drop,” Donaldson said. “It’s kind of spooky, really.”
Jameson Taillon, who pitched six scoreless innings, said that Judge’s pursuit altered teammates’ routines.
“There’s guys that are inside and stuff watching the game, and whenever he comes up, everyone runs outside to watch the at-bat because no one wants to miss it,” Taillon said.
After a none-for-two night, Judge remained on track for an American League Triple Crown with a .316 batting average and 128 RBIs. Boston’s Xander Bogaerts is second in batting at .314 after going hitless in five at-bats.
Donaldson gave a speech to his teammates after the Yankees secured their record 58th post-season appearance with their major league-high 16th walk-off win of the season, one shy of the team standard set in 1947.
“Welcome back to the playoffs,” he said.
New York have a 7.5 game lead in the American League East over second-placed Toronto, on track for a first-round bye. Boone became the first manager to reach the post-season in each of his first five seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“We’re in the dance and we got a chance now,” he said.
Elsewhere, the Brewers routed the Reds 5-1, the Phillies blanked the Braves 1-0, the Rays battered the Blue Jays 10-5, the Guardians whipped the White Sox 4-2, the Dodgers downed the Diamondbacks 3-2 and the Orioles outlasted the Astros 2-0.
The Cubs sank the Pirates 3-2, the Rangers downed the Angels 5-3, the Royals thrashed the Twins 4-1, the Giants mastered the Rockies 3-0, the Mariners mastered the Athletics 9-5 and the Cardinals pipped the Padres 5-4.
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