CHICAGO — In the city where Babe Ruth purportedly hit his first home run, Aaron Judge made home run history Wednesday night, as expected.
Didn’t you get the feeling the White Sox would regret their strange strategy in the eighth inning?
“Oh man, that was crazy,” Austin Wells said of rookie interim manager Grady Sizemore’s choice to intentionally walk Juan Soto with first base open to face the Yankees captain.
“Yes, here it is,” rookie starting pitcher Will Warren yelled from the visiting dugout.
Judge hit a 3-0 pitch to hit his 300th career home run, becoming the fastest player to reach the milestone in the Yankees’ 10-2 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“It definitely caught us off guard,” manager Aaron Boone said of Soto hitting a three-run homer for the MLB home run king on the first intentional pass of 2024. “But Aaron was ready.”
Elias said Judge hit his 300th career home run in his 955th game, breaking Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner’s record for fastest home run to 300, set in 1,087 games.
In terms of at-bats, Judge hit his 300th home run in 3,431 at-bats, surpassing Babe Ruth’s previous record of 3,831 home runs.
“I hope he breaks the (all-time) home run record,” Soto said. “Why not?”
Aaron Judge’s thoughts on intentional walks
“Why not?” was Judge’s postgame reaction to Soto’s intentional pass.
In all, Soto hit another home run in the first inning on Wednesday following his three-home run game on Tuesday night, giving him six home runs in 11 at-bats since Sunday.
“You make one mistake and he hits a home run,” said Judge, who struck out the first two times but then hit a key double.
But…is it true?
“I was pissed off about the intentional walk, so that’s what fired me up,” Judge told YES Network’s Meredith Maracowitz immediately after the game.
“Usually when it’s 3-0 you take the pitch, watch the pitch and pass it to the next guy. But in that situation, if they don’t want to throw it to you, you’ve got to get it done.”
Soto, a Triple Crown threat, wasn’t expected to be sent to first base after Alex Verdugo’s double gave the Yankees a 6-2 lead.
“I really thought they were going to intentionally walk the batters in a row” at that point, Soto said, before watching right-hander Chad Kuhl lose 3-0 to Judge.
“I figured (he) would hit a grounder into the ground and maybe even give up a walk,” Soto said. “I was really surprised when I saw the pitch come up that close to home plate.”
Though he wasn’t aiming for the middle of the plate, Judge smashed his 300th home run, his 43rd of the year, over the White Sox relief corps.
Then, inspired by his walk from last weekend, Judge handed the ball to Giancarlo Stanton, who responded with a home run.
“Yeah, I saw Big G do it the other day at home against the Rangers, so that was an inspiration for me,” Judge said.
“Hey, if they’re going to do that, you’ve got to come out and score.”
Yankees celebrate Aaron Judge hitting his 300th career home run
What was most satisfying was that Judge’s breakthrough shot “gave us a big win” considering “we were a little bit off and didn’t make much headway” Wednesday night.
The historically worst White Sox (29-93) were leading 2-1 after six innings and had a chance to win the series against the Yankees (72-50), who lead the American League East.
However, some nimble base running by Oswaldo Cabrera put Verdugo’s fly ball on the warning trajectory to right-center field, and Dominic Fletcher made a sensational catch to score from second base, tying the game in the seventh inning.
Three batters later, Wells hit a two-run single to give the team the lead (sending Soto and Judge home), then followed that up with his ninth homer of the year, matching Judge’s 300th career homer.
“You couldn’t ask for a better guy,” Wells said of Judge’s accomplishment. “He’s been great for us and for him to accomplish that so early in his career… we’re excited to see what happens next.”
“That was the coolest thing,” Judge said of his teammates’ reaction after the home run. “I always point to the bullpen. I saw them jumping up and down” before getting a hero’s welcome in the dugout.
“It means a lot. They work hard with me every day. They work hard and they see what I’m doing, so it’s pretty special.”
“He’s very beloved over there,” Boone said. “Everybody respects him” and “everyone is just so excited to share it with him, maybe even more than he is.”
Somehow, Soto didn’t realize that Judge had hit his 300th home run until Verdugo told him after the ball crossed home plate.
“You don’t see this very often,” Soto said, “and it’s really impressive to see him stay calm and collected.”
