Aaron Judge’s 60th Homer Came In Huge Win for Yankees

Judge did that against Wil Crowe, a Pirates reliever and a great-great-nephew of Red Ruffing, a Hall of Fame Yankees pitcher with a plaque in Monument Park. Crowe challenged Judge with a 3-1 sinker at 94 miles an hour, and Judge blasted it 430 feet into the left-field bleachers.

Michael Kessler, 20, a pitcher and outfielder for the baseball team at City College of New York, snagged the ball on a bounce and returned it to Judge. He met Judge and got four autographed baseballs and an autographed bat.

Judge smiled when asked what he had thought after hitting the homer; he had struck out with the bases loaded earlier in the game, and even with his homer, the Yankees still trailed by three runs.

“Man, you idiot,” Judge said he thought to himself. “You should have done this a little earlier.”

In a historical context, though, Judge is plenty early. Ruth reached 60 in the Yankees’ 154th game in 1927, and Maris got there in their 159th game in 1961. Tuesday was only the 147th game for Judge’s Yankees — but he may be having too much fun to process his lofty place in team history.

“Getting a chance to play baseball at Yankee Stadium with a packed house and a first-place team, that’s what you dream about,” Judge said. “I love every second of it.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/sports/baseball/aaron-judge-yankees-60-homers.html