Aaron Judge has crossed the 60-home run plateau, doing so on Tuesday night as the New York Yankees rallied to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-8 at Yankee Stadium to send the home fans away more than happy. Judge’s 60th proved to be a solo shot no-doubter that reduced the deficit from 8-4 to 8-5. He wasn’t exactly happy, though, as he rounded the bases, knowing that they were headed for a disappointing loss to a well below .500 team in the Bucs.
If he had any frowns, though, those were turned upside down a few hitters later as Giancarlo Stanton strolled to the plate and smacked a game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. With his homer, Judge joins rarefied air of just five others to have gotten to 60+ in a season. He is also now only one behind Roger Maris’ all-time AL record of 61. To put this season in perspective, no one else has over 40… so he’s obviously way ahead. Elsewhere, the New York Mets won for the sixth straight time to keep their NL East lead over the Atlanta Braves at a single game (the defending World Series winners have won five in a row). The Mets knocked off the Brewers by also coming from behind, much like the Bronx Bombers had done. They were down 4-0 after five, but a Francisco Lindor grand slam in the top of the seventh turned it around and allowed them to scoot to a 7-5 victory over Milwaukee. In Atlanta, meanwhile, the Braves took down the Nationals 3-2 to keep the pressure on in the division race.
