Colorado Rockies manager, Bud Black, has incited discussion around LA Dodgers star, Shohei Ohtani, and Yankees slugger, Aaron Judge, potentially rising to the performance level of Barry Bonds, the all-time home run leader, after Judge hit his 50th and 51st homers in a game against Rockies. Bonds’ record of 73 home runs in a single season, set in 2001, is yet to be beaten, although some suggest that Judge could be the one to do it. Following the August game, Judge seemed to be on track to hitting 63 home runs, exceeding his own American League record from 2022.
In this particular game, Judge achieved his 50th and 51st home run. The latter formed part of a streak of 3 consecutive home runs alongside fellow Yankees, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton. He is currently experiencing a strong run of form, having achieved 7 home runs in as many games prior to this event. He had also stamped a consecutive 15 game streak of reaching base. Black described Judge as one of the best players in the game, having seen him prove his impressive performance.
In reaching his 51st home run of 2024 five days earlier than he did in his previous record-breaking season, and despite a slower start to the year, Judge is on good form to push his own records further. He has become only the fifth player in MLB history to hit at least 50 home runs in 3 separate seasons. He is seemingly set to become the third player to achieve multiple 60 home run seasons, following Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. He would also stand alone in this accolade, however, as he has not been tied to the use of performance-enhancing drugs as the other two had.
Faith in Judge’s capacity for further achievement has been echoed by his teammates. His captain, Soto, praised his consistent ability to hit home runs and remained unfazed by Judge’s slower start to the season. Stanton expressed his amazement at Judge’s success, pointing out the way in which he has consistently proven his worth to the team.
This season, Judge has hit a home run approximately once every 9 at-bats. In contrast, Bonds hit an average of one every 6.5 at-bats in his record-breaking season, showing the speed at which Judge would have to improve to achieve the same title. Nevertheless, both Stanton and Boone were open to the possibility, acknowledging the changing nature of the sport and the need to uphold records in order to see them be broken.
Beyond his home-run achievement, Judge is also leading MLB in certain stats such as OPS (1.201), RBIs (122) and on-base percentage (.465). Currently, his season’s batting average of .333 puts him second in the majors to Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals. As Judge ended the month of August in 2022 with 51 home runs and continued to accomplish 11 in the following month, he might well be on track for a new AL record.
