CHICAGO — New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit his 300th homer, reaching the milestone faster than any other player on Wednesday night when he combined against the Chicago White Sox.
Judge, in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat, scored three runs in the eighth inning of New York’s 10-2 victory. The six-time All-Star and 2022 American League MVP drove a 3-0 up-and-in singer Chad Kuhl into the White Sox bullpen in left for his major league-leading 43rd homer.
Judge’s home run was 361 feet, his second shortest of the season, trailing 339 feet on May 19. There would have been no home run at Yankee Stadium.
Ralph Kiner hit 300 homers in his 1,087th game and Babe Ruth in his 3,831st at-bat.
Chicago intentionally took Juan Soto to bring up Judge, the second time in Judge’s career that the batter before him was intentionally walked. The other time was Judge’s freshman year, on August 31, 2016 (Chase Headley walked intentionally in the 13th inning at Kansas City).
It was Judge’s third career home run on a 3-0 pitch and first since 2021.
Judge is the seventh different player to hit 300 home runs for the Yankees, joining Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Alex Rodriguez.
Judge took 671 games to reach 200 career home runs; It took him 284 games to go from 200 to 300.
Judge became the 162nd player to hit 300 homers. His total ranks 13th among active players.
ESPN Stats and Information, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
