News/Commentary

Aaron Judge Becomes Fastest To 300 Homers

August 15, 2024 by Staff

“What Aaron (Judge is) doing, it’s a select few in the history of the game that you start talking about these kinds of seasons he’s having,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Just a great player, great leader and I think everyone’s obviously really pumped in there that he got that done.”

Judge hit career home run number 300 on Wednesday night in a 10-2 win at the lowly Chicago White Sox who are 29-93 (.238). They did, however, pound New York 12-2 on Monday for just their second in 26 games.

As for Judge, he reached 300 in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat to top Ralph Kiner and Babe Ruth. Kiner reached 300 homers in his 1,087th game, and the Babe did it in his 3,831st at-bat.

The New York Yankees (72-50) now have a 0.5-game lead on the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East and own the second-best American League record, just barely behind the Cleveland Guardians (72-49). They open a 3-game set at Detroit on Friday.

Other upcoming MLB games include matchups today that feature the NL West-leading LA Dodgers at Milwaukee, the first-place team in the NL Central.

Arizona and San Diego have both been on tears lately. The Diamonds have won 10 of their last 11, and the Padres have taken 11 of their last 12. Arizona will be in Tampa for the weekend, while San Diego goes to Colorado for a 3-game series tomorrow. The Diamondbacks just finished a home sweep of the Rockies.

A light schedule today includes four day games with Oakland at the New York Mets, and the Seattle Mariners at the Detroit Tigers in 1:10 pm ET starts. That first Dodgers-Brewers game gets underway at 2:10 pm ET/1:10 local, and the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants get going at 3:45 ET/12:45 local by the bay. The Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles are scheduled for a 6:35 first pitch tonight at Camden Yards.

Getting back to the White Sox, just how bad is the 2024 season? Well, they are on pace to finish with the second-worst Major League record in the modern era, topping only the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics who were 36-117 (.235). They have now dropped 12 straight series. Oakland had the MLB's worst record a year ago at 50-112.

Still, it doesn't rival the ineptitude of some other recent pro sports franchises. For instance, it wasn't that long ago that the National Football League's Cleveland Browns posted consecutive seasons of 3-13, 1-15 and 0-16 from 2015-2017. And the 2008 Lions went 0-16, followed by 2-14.

The National Basketball Association's 2011-2012 Charlotte Bobcats were just 7-59 (.106) in that strike-shortened season, surpassing the Philadelphia 76ers previous record of 9-73 (.110) in 1972-73.