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Aaron Judge hit the 300th home run of his career Wednesday night versus the Chicago White Sox.
The milestone arrived in the top of the eighth inning with the Yankees leading, 6-2. With runners on first and second base and a 3-0 count, White Sox reliever Chad Kuhl threw a 94 mph sinker belt-high and inside. Judge turned on it and launched the ball into the bullpen beyond the left-field wall to make history and extend New York‘s lead to 9-2 in a 10-2 win.
The New York Yankees slugger becomes the 162nd player to hit 300 homers, and he did so in 954 games played, the fewest to reach the mark in MLB history. The previous fastest to reach No. 300 was Ralph Kiner, who did it in 1,087 games. The home run was Judge’s MLB-best 43rd of the season.
Judge also surpassed Yankees legend Babe Ruth by getting to 300 in 3,428 career at-bats. Ruth reached the number in 3,830 at-bats.
Two seasons after winning American League MVP honors, Judge is putting up another award-caliber season and no longer has Shohei Ohtani blocking his path. He entered Wednesday leading the majors with 42 home runs, 108 RBI, 101 walks, a .466 on-base percentage and .699 slugging average and second with a .332 batting average.
He now ranks seventh all-time in Yankees home-run history behind Alex Rodriguez (351), Yogi Berra (358), Joe DiMaggio (361), Lou Gehrig (493), Mickey Mantle (536) and Ruth (659).
Among active players, Judge trails teammate Giancarlo Stanton, who has 462 homers in his career. That puts 12 current players ahead of him, including teammate Anthony Rizzo (303), Andrew McCutchen (315), Carlos Santana (316), J.D. Martinez (327), Manny Machado (331), Bryce Harper (332), Nolan Arenado (336), Freddie Freeman (338), Joey Votto (356), Paul Goldschmidt (358) and Mike Trout (378).
Judge is in his ninth season with the Yankees after making his debut in 2016. In his first full MLB season, he won AL Rookie of the Year and finished second in AL MVP voting. In 2022, Judge set the AL single-season home run record with 62.