Aaron

Judge

Judge is on pace to get extremely close to the 60-homer mark for the second time in his legendary career after taking Blue Jays starter José Berríos deep for his 41st round-tripper of the season. He’s gone deep six times over his last eight games and joins Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle as the only hitters in the franchise’s storied history to eclipse the 40-homer plateau in three seasons. The 32-year-old generational talent was intentionally walked with the bases empty and two outs his next time up in the ensuing frame and wound up reaching base safely in four of his five plate appearances.

Judge became the first hitter this season to reach the lofty 40-homer and 100-RBI thresholds during Friday night’s loss to Toronto when he went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer off Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman. He’ll get a break from the field on Saturday afternoon with Trent Grisham patrolling center field.

Judge predictably was at the epicenter of New York’s offensive explosion on an 86-degree evening with the wind blowing out at hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park as he delivered his fourth multi-homer performance of the season as the Yankees connected for a whopping six round-trippers in a one-sided affair. The 32-year-old generational talent, who blasted a first-inning solo shot off Phillies ace Zack Wheeler before taking reliever Yunior Marte deep for a two-run blast a couple innings later, leads the majors with 39 big flies this season and has gone deep five times in 10 contests since the All-Star break.

Judge opened the scoring in the ballgame with an RBI single off of Tanner Houck in the top half of the first inning. He then raced around to score on a two-run single off the bat of Gleyber Torres. The 32-year-old superstar is having another absolutely phenomenal season at the plate — slashing a Herculean .314/.446/.684 to go along with 37 homers, 96 RBI and five stolen bases.

Judge went back-to-back with teammate Juan Soto in the opening frame off Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford, launching a colossal 432-foot solo shot over the Green Monster in left-center field for his league-leading 37th round-tripper of the season. He also trimmed New York’s late deficit back to a single run with an RBI double to center field in the eighth inning. The 32-year-old fantasy superstar, who reached base safely in all five of his plate appearances in a back-and-forth marathon at Fenway Park, has paired with Soto as a two-man wrecking crew this season, but they figure to get some much-needed help in the coming days with dynamic speedster Jazz Chisholm Jr. coming over from the Marlins in a trade deadline blockbuster.

As has become the norm, Judge delivered and the Yankees lost. Judge now has 35 home runs and 89 RBI on the season. Juan Soto also had three hits on Sunday, but they’re the only two hitters in the Yankees lineup who seem to hit on a regular basis. Perhaps getting Giancarlo Stanton back or adding a bat at the deadline could help Judge’s counting stats over the final two months of the season.

It seems Bruce Bochy disagrees with Aaron Boone in using Judge as a No. 2 hitter. He has Judge batting behind Steven Kwan, Gunnar Henderson and Juan Soto on Tuesday, so unless someone gets on base, we’ll miss out on a Paul Skenes-Judge matchup. Rounding out the lineup behind Judge will be Yordan Alvarez, José Ramírez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Adley Rutschman and Marcus Semien.

Judge also drew a walk. The homer is the 34th of the season, and it came off Grayson Rodriguez to extend the Yankees’ lead to 6-1. The 6-foot-7 superstar is already up to 85 RBI on the season, and he’s hit a remarkable .308/.431/.6893 in the first half of the campaign.

None of the walks were intentional, but the Orioles didn’t seem all that upset about them. Judge’s homer was projected at 397 feet. He has 33 on the season, and he’s now 83 points ahead of Shohei Ohtani for the major league lead in OPS.

It’s the fourth straight year that Judge will represent the American League in the Mid-Summer Classic. Here’s who will join him in the starting lineup for the American League All-Stars (with their number of times making the All-Star team and starting in the game in parentheses): 1B: Vladimir Guerrero (4 - 3x starter), 2B: Jose Altuve (9, 6x starter), SS: Gunnar Henderson (1 - 1x starter), 3B; Jose Ramirez (6 - 3x starter), C: Adley Rutschman (2 - 1x starter), OF: Aaron Judge (6 - 6x starter), Juan Soto (4 - 1x starter), Steven Kwan (1- 1x starter) and DH: Yordan Alvarez (3 - 1x starter).