NEW YORK — Aaron Judge hit his 361st career home run, tying Hall of Fame outfielder Joe DiMaggio for fourth place in New York Yankees history.
The two-time AL MVP went deep twice in the first three innings of a 9-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers, with at Yankee Stadium on the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
“Joe DiMaggio, Joe DiMaggio, it feels like that’s been there forever,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Joe DiMaggio in a lot of ways transcended baseball. So to be next to him on the list and as he’s going to be waving as he’s going by, it’s impressive and a bit of privilege having a front-row seat to that.”
“It’s just an important day for all of us to come together, so it’s just kind of a surreal moment, surreal day,” Judge said.
Judge launched homer No. 360 in the first inning, a 413-foot drive to left-center field off Tyler Holton that put New York up 1-0.
Judge matched DiMaggio in the third inning by driving a 1-0 fastball from Sawyer Gipson-Long to the back of the Tigers’ bullpen in left-center for his second homer of the game.
That solo shot gave New York a 4-1 lead. It had an exit velocity of 114.9 mph and traveled 434 feet.
It was Judge’s 45th career multihomer game, one behind Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle for second place in Yankees history. Babe Ruth’s 68 multihomer games are the most.
Judge reached 361 homers in his 1,129th game. DiMaggio played 1,736 games and hit his last homer on Sept. 28, 1951, at the end of a 13-year career that was interrupted for three seasons because he served in World War II.
Judge’s 46th homer of the season raised his major league-best batting average to .322, three points ahead of Athletics rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson.
“He’s probably the best player in baseball,” Yankees rookie pitcher Cam Schlitter said about Judge.
Holton and Gipson-Long became the 272nd and 273rd pitchers to allow a homer to Judge, who has six multi-homer games this season.
Judge, the Yankees’ captain, broke a tie with Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra for fifth on New York’s career list in a 12-2 loss when he hit a solo shot off Casey Mize in the first inning.
“Just two legends, greats in the game, all-time Yankees,” Judge said. “Pretty cool being on a list with them.”
Ruth (659 homers), Mantle (536) and Lou Gehrig (493) are the only players ahead of Judge on the Yankees’ career home run chart.