Aaron Judge brought Yankee Stadium to its feet on Friday night with a single swing of the bat.
The Yankee captain and former MVP came up with the bases loaded and no one in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Yankees trailed the Boston Red Sox 4-1.
Then Judge crushed a 2-0 pitch to deep right field for the type of home run that the crowd knows is gone before it leaves the infield. It gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead. The Yankees held the lead to win, taking the first two games of the series against Boston and extending their lead in the AL East over the Baltimore Orioles by three games.
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The Yankee Stadium crowd erupted to one of its loudest cheers of the year, as the fans celebrated their star player’s big moment over their hated rival.
For Judge, the grand slam actually broke one of his rare home run droughts. Going into Friday night’s game Judge had not hit a home run in 16 straight games, which was the longest stretch of his career without one. It’s a stretch that came amid, arguably, Judge’s best hitting season yet.
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With the grand slam in hand, Judge collected the 52nd home run of the season, improving his average to .321 with a 1.143 OPS and 130 RBI.
But before Friday, hfter he hit two home runs against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 26, the six-time All-Star is hitting .204 (11 for 54) with 22 strikeouts in his net 15 games.
The prior longest homerless streak of Judge’s career came during his rookie season, when he did not leave the yard in 15 games from Aug. 17 through Sept. 2 in 2017.
Before his current drought, Judge was on a torrid pace, hitting nine home runs over 10 prior games, making people wonder if he had a chance to break his own American League record for most home runs in a season that he set in 2022 with 62 home runs.
Still Judge is currently in the driver’s seat to win his second American League MVP award in three years.
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