When Aaron Judge hit his 50th home run of the season earlier this year, he was upset about it, because it came in a Yankees loss.
Not so for No. 60, which he hit Tuesday night to tie Babe Ruth for second on the franchise single-season list…although he didn’t know it at the time, and that’s why he was upset about the team pushing him out for a curtain call with the Yankees still trailing 8-5 in the ninth.
“I really didn’t want to do it, especially since we were losing. I was more focused on watching Anthony Rizzo’s at-bat,” Judge smiled in his postgame press conference. “But it’s for the fans, who show up on a nightly basis and grind with us to the end. They stayed and hung out with us, so they deserved that moment, and that’s one of the reasons why I do it.”
Judge said that he was joking with Matt Carpenter earlier in the year, when Carpenter got a curtain call after hitting a pair of home runs, that he himself had only ever had one: the moment he broke the rookie home run record in 2017 against Kansas City, or so he remembers it.
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Now, he has two, and probably two to come that will be even bigger.
“I guess it takes 60 to get another one,” Judge smiled.
Maris' sons, Roger Jr. and Kevin, were two of the people inside Yankee Stadium watching it all - and later, one reporter astutely pointed out that when Roger hit his 61st homer to break Babe’s record, the Yankees had to push him out of the dugout for a curtain call, too.
Seems like he and Judge have a lot more in common than just a number.
“Just from what I’ve seen from old videos of games, the guy was a great teammate who never made it about himself,” Judge said of Maris. “The team pushing him out there shows you what type of leader and what type of player he was: always focused on the team.”
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However, while he’s never about individual accomplishments, Judge did show his human side a bit when asked what he was thinking as he rounded the bases for No. 60.
“I was like, ‘Damn, I wish I would’ve done that earlier in the game with the bases loaded!’” he smiled, referring to an earlier at-bat where he struck out with the sacks full of Bombers. “I had a couple situations earlier in the game to get things going, and that one striking out…I was kind of kicking myself like, ‘Man, you idiot, you should’ve done this earlier!’”
All’s well that ends well, though, as the next three Yankees got on, and Giancarlo Stanton – the only active MLB player to even hit 59 homers – ended it with his 27th of the year, a walk-off grand slam.
“At the time, my homer was a solo shot in the ninth and we were down, but this team has a never die attitude and we fight to the end,” Judge said. “We had four more good at-bats against a good closer, and that makes it so much sweeter.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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