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You can’t blame a pitcher for preferring to play against anyone other than Aaron Judge in the New York Yankees lineup. He is his AL MVP front-runner and the rest of the team has struggled.
Slugger continues to break records. On Saturday, he achieved his first Yankee feat in 65 years.
Judge’s three hits in Saturday’s 10-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays allowed him to get on base at least three times in seven straight games, the first Yankee to do so since Mickey Mantle in 1957. It was something I had never done before.
Judge’s on-base percentage ranks among the top in the American League with a .412 on-base percentage, but now he’s effectively an automatic baserunner. He has a .636 on-base percentage in his last seven games.
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The judges are well on their way to breaking the Yankees franchise record for most home runs in a season, held by 61-year-old Roger Maris.
Judges already owns the record for most home runs in a season by a right-handed Yankee, previously held by Alex Rodriguez, who hit 54 during the 2007 AL MVP season.
In 1937, Lou Gehrig went on base three times or more in nine straight games, the most of any Yankee. Babe Ruth said in his 1920 he achieved this in eight games in a row. The record so far is his ten games for Ty Cobb in 1925.
Aaron Judge breaks Yankees record with 55 home runs
Mantle won MVP in 1957 in a close race against Ted Williams. This year is also his two-man race with the judges and Shohei Ohtani, who ranks him fifth in the AL in both OPS (.891) and ERA (2.58, min). 135 innings pitched). He also has 33 home runs and 265 total bases that rank him second in the AL and will be out on Saturday.
But Judge leads all baseball in home runs (55), RBI (120), slugging percentage (.683), OPS (1,095), runs scored (112), and total bases (342). 307, so he is now in contention for the AL Triple Crown. Going into Saturday, Boston’s Xander Bogaerts led his AL with a .318 average.
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The MVP race has effectively plummeted to once-in-a-lifetime numbers.
Oh, and in case you haven’t heard yet, Judge is a free agent this year and Ohtani is set to hit the market next season.