14G consecutive home runs in front of MVP chasers, Judge's personal longest home run -1...Now, 57 home run pace
Sep 11, 2024
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Judge was silent with no hits in four at-bats in a home game against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium on the 11th (Korea time).
After hitting his 50th and 51st home runs of the season against the Colorado Rockies on the 26th of last month, he failed to add a home run in 14 consecutive games. He stayed 16 days in 51 homers. He batted .216 (11 hits in 51 at-bats), had four RBIs, six runs, 11 walks and 20 strikeouts during the period.
His batting average and OPS, which were 0.333 and 1.202 until the game against Colorado, fell to 0.320 (163 hits in 510 at-bats) and 1.141, respectively. The two leagues are still ranked first in home runs, RBIs (126), on-base percentage (0.453), slugging percentage (0.688), OPS, wRC+ (214), slugging (85), Ruta (351), bWAR (9.6), and fWAR (9.7), but the gap with the second-place pursuers is narrowing.
The game drew more attention because of Kansas City shortstop Bobby Wit Jr., who is closely chasing Judge in the American League (AL) MVP competition. He is challenging Judge's MVP stronghold in the second half of the year. He played as the second shortstop and scored one hit, one RBI, and one run from five times at bat, helping his team win 5-0.
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What Judge needs now is to take the burden off. Judge struck out Kansas City starter Seth Lugo in his first at-bat in the bottom of the first inning with a swing and miss on a low 80-mile sloop. In the fourth inning, Lugo hit a slider in the middle of 86.9 miles on the fourth pitch of 2B1S, but it was missed and flowed to a ground ball to third base.
In the seventh inning, Lugo's 7th pitch, 87.4 miles outside slider in the strike zone in 2B2S, was declared strikeout. In the bottom of the ninth inning, trailing 0-5, he strongly pushed John Shriver's seventh pitch, 80.7 miles low sweeper, but also missed and ended up with a short fly to right field.
Since Judge made his Major League debut in 2016, he has recorded 15 home runs for the longest period of the season. From August 18 to September 3, 2017, he did not hit a home run in 15 consecutive games, and from July 24 to September 28, 2018 (listed as injured in the middle), he also spent 15 games without a home run. In 2017, he hit 15 home runs in 25 games after his thirst for home runs, marking 52 home runs for the season and being selected as the AL Rookie of the Year.
The Yankees maintained their lead in the AL East with 83 wins and 62 losses due to the loss, but their gap with the second-place Baltimore Orioles was reduced to 0.5 games. Judge can hit 57 home runs arithmetically if he applies his pace so far.
jhno@sportschosun.com
