Aaron Judge’s 60th the latest in a long line of historic home runs against the Pirates
Share this post:
When Aaron Judge hit his 60th home run of the season in the ninth inning Tuesday night, the New York Yankees slugger became the latest major league star to reach a milestone against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Judge tied Babe Ruth for the second-most homers in a single season in Yankees history and remains one shy of tying another Yankee, Roger Maris, for the American League record of 61, set in 1961.
• The final three homers of Ruth’s legendary career — Nos. 712, 713 and 714 — came against the Pirates on May 25, 1935, at Forbes Field, when he was playing for the Boston Braves in the final season of his 22-year Hall of Fame career. Ruth homered off Red Lucas in the first inning and Guy Bush in the third and seventh innings of an 11-7 loss, then retired from baseball eight days later.
• Ruth’s career home run record stood until Henry Aaron broke it on April 8, 1974, hitting No. 715 while playing for the Atlanta Braves. Aaron finished the previous season one homer shy of Ruth’s record, and his 709th home run came against Pirates pitcher Jim Rooker in a 9-7 win over the Pirates on June 11, 1973, at Atlanta Stadium.
• Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt hit the 499th and 500th home runs of his Hall of Fame career at Three Rivers Stadium in 1987, homering off Bob Patterson on April 17 and hitting the milestone marker off Don Robinson in the ninth inning of an 8-6 win over the Pirates.
• Both Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs homered against the Pirates, an NL Central rival, late in their chase to break Maris’ single-season record in 1998.
McGwire hit his 53rd homer off Ricardo Rincon on Aug. 23, at Three Rivers Stadium. Sosa hit No. 57 off Jason Schmidt on Sept. 4 and No. 58 off Sean Lawrence a day later, both at Three Rivers. McGwire broke the record with his 62nd homer against the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 8, then hit No. 63 off Jason Christiansen on Sept. 15 in the first game of a doubleheader at Busch Stadium.
• Barry Bonds would break McGwire’s record of 66 homers in 2001, and he hit No. 46 that season off Joe Beimel on Aug. 1, at Pacific Bell Park. One year and eight days later, Bonds hit his 600th career homer off Kip Wells at Pacific Bell to become the fourth member of baseball’s 600 club. Three days after Bonds broke Aaron’s all-time home run record of 755 in 2007, he hit No. 756 off Matt Morris on Aug. 10, at AT&T Park.
• Judge’s 60th homer came just nine days after St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hit Nos. 496 and 497 against the Pirates at PNC Park. Pujols tied former Yankees great Alex Rodriguez for fourth all-time with his 496th off JT Brubaker in the sixth inning of a 7-5 win over the Pirates on Sept. 10, then moved into sole possession with a two-run homer in the ninth inning off Chase De Jong in 4-3 win Sept. 11.
[gps-image name=”5450735_web1_5420209-802bbb94d9244854a01b9be312e3dc94.jpg”]
Both Judge and Pujols have a chance to reach milestones against the Pirates. Judge faces the Pirates on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium needing one homer to tie Maris for most in Yankees and AL history. Pujols, who has 698 career homers, faces the Pirates for three games in St. Louis from Sept. 30-Oct. 2 and three at PNC Park from Oct. 3-5.