Aaron Judge continues to break his own barriers.
On Friday night, the Yankees captain belted his 40th home run of the season off Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman in the bottom of the first inning, a two-run shot that cut high and deep into a rain-soaked Bronx sky before landing halfway up the left-field bleachers.
When Judge’s ball returned from orbit, it ultimately traveled 477 feet — the third-longest of his career and farthest since his rookie season in 2017.
Judge’s homer came just six days after he hit a homer 470 feet to center in a win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Friday’s shot was the second-longest in the majors this season, trailing only Jorge Soler at 478 feet.
With the homer — the sixth in his career off of Gausman — Judge became the first MLB hitter to reach the 100-RBI threshold this year.
“We were kind of sitting on 39 [homers] and 99 [RBIs] for a while,” Judge said. “Juan [Soto] told me in Philly, ‘I’m going to keep getting on base because I want to be that 100th RBI.’ He was able to do that tonight.”
The six-time All-Star joined Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle as the only players to don pinstripes who amassed three or more 40-homer seasons.
“If it would’ve came with a win tonight, that would’ve been pretty sweet,” Judge said when asked about the feat.
Judge also matched a slew of notable non-Yankees to reach that echelon, including David Ortiz, Jeff Bagwell, Carl Yastrzemski and Mike Trout.
Though Judge’s mammoth dinger put the Bombers back in the game at 3-2 in the first inning, Toronto ultimately scored four runs in the top of the third inning before securing an 8-5 win.
Judge later added a 110-mph single off Gausman in the bottom of the fifth inning, finishing 2-for-4 with two RBIs, a walk and two strikeouts.
With his 40th home run in 109 games played this season, Judge is on pace for 59.4 to leave the park in 2024, fewer than three shy of his American League record 62 from two seasons prior — which coincided with his first career MVP award.
If it holds, Judge’s 1.144 OPS would be the highest by an MLB hitter in a single season (playing 100 or more games) since Barry Bonds in 2004.
