Aaron Judge just hit one OVER THE BLEACHERS at Yankee Stadium. Guy is super human. Fmr @ChasRiverDogs t.co/uAJ3G6yhVN
Did that ball land yet? Wow.
New York Yankees rookie outfielder Aaron Judge has been doing this all season — hitting mammoth home runs that make you think “is he human?” But what he did on Sunday at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx was actually record-setting.
In the sixth inning of Sunday’s matinee tilt against the Baltimore Orioles, O’s pitcher Logan Verrett delivered a cement-mixing 85-mph hanging breaking ball the league’s leading home run hitter and boy did he do what he does best.
Judge took the pitch DEEP, and I mean deep, to left center field — clearing the visiting bullpen AND the bleachers. I’ve watched and been to plenty of Yankee games. Not once have I ever seen a ball travel that far.
According to MLB’s Statcast, Judge’s 20th home run of the year traveled 495 feet — tied for the second longest in the so-called Statcast-era which began in 2015. The Miami Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton holds the all-time record at 504 feet.
The blast was the longest in the Major’s this season and had an exit velocity of 118.6 miles per hour. –the sixth hardest hit home run in 2017. Judge does have the hardest hit home run of 2017, 121.1 mph, which he did just last night against Baltimore’s Chris Tillman.
Here’s how Twitter and even some of the Yankees reacted to Judge’s home run on Sunday:
Didi is all of us. 😮😅
I’ve seen a lot of players hit a lot of home runs. I haven’t ever seen what Aaron Judge is doing right now.
#StartSpreadingTheNews Yankees Win great Job by Bullpen.. 👨🏽⚖️900ft homers, 🌟lin 2run homer, 🦑3run homer … WHAT A GAMEE!!!!
Oh, and Judge homered again in his next at-bat — his 21st of the season, a two-run shot that traveled a pedestrian 402 feet.
According to research guru Katie Sharp, Judge, 25, is the first New York Yankee age 25 or younger to hit 20 more or home runs before the All-Star break since Roger Maris did it in 1960.
Yankees age 25 or younger 20+ HR before All-Star Break (since 1933):
Aaron Judge
Roger Maris (1960)
Mickey Mantle (3x)
Joe DiMaggio (1937)
That’s good company.
After the game, Judge paid homage to the Great Hambino — Patrick Renna’s character from “The Sandlot” — with this t-shirt:
Aaron Judge is wearing this “Great Hambino” shirt. Said he got it in the mail.
I’m really not quite sure what that has to do with hitting the ball a mile but it just makes Judge all the more awesome.
Judge currently leads the American League in not only home runs (21), but batting average (.344), RBI (47) and runs scored (54). He leads all AL players in All-Star voting with over 1.2 million votes at last count.
And with Los Angeles Angels superstar and reigning MVP Mike Trout out for the next six to eight weeks, it’s not unreasonable to think Judge could make a legitimate run at the award.
Teammate Brett Gardner is on board with that, saying after the game, “He’s leading in the All-Star voting, and if the MVP were voted on today, he’d win that too.”
Of course, it’s only June but my, oh my, is this getting interesting.