CHICAGO – New York Yankees pitcher Aaron Judge hit his 300th home run, achieving the milestone faster than any other player, when he hit a home run against the Chicago White Sox in a 10-2 win Wednesday night.
Judge recorded his 955th career hit and 3,431st strikeout when he struck out three runs in the eighth inning. The six-time All-Star and 2022 American League Most Valuable Player drove a hard ball from Chad Cole into the White Sox bullpen in left for his 43rd career hit.
Ralph Kiner hit 300 homers in his 1,087th game, and Babe Ruth did so in his 3,831st game.
“I wish I could have won,” Judge said as teammates DJ Lemayo and Austin Wells doused him with a tub of water.
Chicago was trailing 6-2 when interim coach Grady Sizemore intentionally walked Juan Soto to bring in Judge, who had not hit a home run in a 3-0 game since 2021 and now has three home runs in his career.
“I was angry about the walk, so that was the fuel that drove me to do it,” Judge said. “Usually when it’s 3-0, I’d pick up the ball, see the ball, and then pass it to the next player. But in a situation like this, if they don’t want to throw the ball to you, you have to act like it.”
Judge leads the major leagues with 14 intentional walks. Soto was intentionally walked for the first time this season after hitting three home runs on Tuesday and another in the first inning on Wednesday.
“It was locked in your mind, but I understand why he did it,” Judge said. “Given the way Juan was swinging the bat and what he did in this series, four home runs, driving the ball all over the field, I probably would have let him walk, too, in that situation.”
Sizemore made the decision in his fifth game after replacing Pedro Grifol as manager. He said Soto’s four strikeouts prompted the decision.
“I picked the poison. I’m not trying to get to Judge. I got an open base,” Sizemore said. “There’s no easy way out of this, but Soto was definitely the hotter of those two batters, although Judge was hot, too.”
This was only the second time in Judge’s career that a batter was intentionally grounded out. The other time was during Judge’s rookie year, on August 31, 2016 (Kansas City’s Chase Headley was intentionally grounded out in the 13th inning).
Judge, who was named the 2022 American League MVP after hitting a league-record 62 home runs, has a .333 batting average and leads the majors with 110 RBIs. His 300th hit came eight years and one day after Judge hit a home run in his first major league at-bat.
“It definitely surprised us, but Aaron was ready to pitch,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of the intentional walk.
“I thought he stretched the area a little too wide at 3-0,” the coach joked.
The home run was 361 feet long, his second-shortest of the season, behind only a 339-foot hit on May 19. It wasn’t a home run at Yankee Stadium.
Judge is the seventh different player to reach 300 home runs for the Yankees in club history, joining Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Alex Rodriguez.
Judge needed 671 games to reach 200 home runs in his career, but he only needed 284 games to go from 200 to 300.
Judge became the 162nd player ever to reach 300 goals. His goal total ranks 13th among active players.
ESPN Stats & Information, Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.