Aaron Judge hit his 50th and 51st homers to lead the New York Yankees to a 10-3 victory over the visiting Colorado Rockies on Sunday afternoon.
Judge joined Hall of Famer Babe Ruth along with Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez as the fifth player to reach 50 homers at least three times. Ruth, McGwire and Sosa each achieved four 50-homer seasons while Rodriguez had three, including 2007 when he hit 54 with the Yankees.
Judge reached the milestone in New York’s 131st game this season. When he hit 62 to break Roger Maris’ single-season American League record, Judge reached 50 homers in New York’s 129th game.
Judge’s 50th occurred two batters after Gleyber Torres opened the game with a walk. He lifted an 0-2 changeup from Colorado starter Austin Gomber (4-9) and sent it into the visiting bullpen beyond the left-center-field fence to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
Judge hit his 51st in the seventh when he sent a first-pitch fastball from reliever Jeff Criswell into the right field seats.
It was Judge’s fifth multi-homer game this season and 39th of his career.
Judge homered after Juan Soto’s blast and before Giancarlo Stanton went deep for the third straight game in the seventh to push New York’s lead to 7-3.
It was the first time the Yankees hit three straight homers since Sept. 17, 2020, against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Gleyber Torres added a three-run shot in the eighth after scoring on Judge’s first blast.
Torres and Soto contributed RBI singles in the second to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead.
Colorado settled for one run in the first when Jazz Chisholm Jr. committed a pair of errors. Drew Romo had an RBI single in the fourth and Ryan McMahon produced a run-scoring double in the fifth to get the Rockies within 4-3.
New York’s Marcus Stroman (9-6) pitched on extended rest for the third straight time and allowed three runs on five hits in five innings. The right-hander struck out five and walked three.
Gomber allowed four runs on six hits in six innings. The left-hander struck out four and walked three.
There was a scary moment in the fifth when plate umpire Nick Mahrley was hit in the neck by Stanton’s broken bat. Stanton shattered his bat on a single and the barrel knocked Mahrley’s mask off and hit him in the neck. Mahrley was checked on by the Yankees’ training staff and left the field on a stretcher.
–Field Level Media