The Aaron Judge Home Run Tracker: Game 141

Welcome back to the Aaron Judge Home Run Record Tracker! We’re taking a daily look at where Aaron Judge’s monster season tracks compared to some of the other historic single-season home run leaders in anticipation of Judge potentially joining their ranks. We’ll be going by Team Game because not every player’s seasons were in sync with the calendar days and everyone didn’t play all of the team’s games, which makes this our universal standard. Now, onto Game 141:

Aaron Judge through Game 141 of 2022: 55 HR

Team Game 141: 9/11 — 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 K, sacrifice fly

Aaron Judge has been on a tear lately, and he continued his hot hitting with another base knock in this game. On top of that, he lifted a sacrifice fly for his league-leading 121st RBI of the season. Other than that though, there isn’t much to report — it’s been a few days since Judge has hit one out now. While that’s concerning for our chase here, it has been nice to see the offense thrive without Judge forcing it into motion singlehandedly.

Roger Maris through Game 141 of 1961: 55 HR

Team Game 141: 9/7 — 3-for-3, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, sacrifice fly

And just like that, the pace is dead even again. Maris homered in back-to-back games at this point to bring himself up to 55, and his latter bomb came in the form of a solo shot in the third inning to put the Yankees up 3-0. Maris was also responsible for an earlier run on an RBI single and later lifted a sacrifice fly, contributing three runs in a game where the Yankees beat Cleveland by four.

Babe Ruth through Game 141 of 1927: 52 HR

Team Game 141: 9/14 — 1-for-3, 1 BB, 1 K

The Babe wasn’t particularly active in this one, finding a single in the first inning and later walking in the seventh. The quiet day ended a streak of four straight games with a home run, a streak that massively improved his chances of reaching 60 before the end of the season. He may not have gotten a hold of one on this day, but he wouldn’t have to wait long for his next shot.

Barry Bonds through Game 141 of 2001: 60 HR

Team Game 141: 9/6 — 1-for-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 R, 1 BB

In the second inning of this game, Bonds lifted a fly ball to right on a 2-2 offering from Albie Lopez. His solo shot placed him at 60 home runs, the first of anyone on this track that we’ve been following to do so. It’s only natural for the man who would set the single-season record to be the leader at this point, but the sheer lead that Bonds had on some of his contemporaries at this point is something to marvel at.

Mark McGwire through Game 141 of 1998: 59 HR

Team Game 141: 9/4 — 0-for-3, 1 BB, 2 K

All of that being said, McGwire had a chance to set the pace himself here after his torrid couple of days previously. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to get his fifth homer in three games to join Bonds at this breaking point, though by virtue of time he was the one setting the pace originally.

Sammy Sosa through Game 141 of 1998: 57 HR

Team Game 141: 9/4 — 2-for-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, 1 K

Sosa had watched as his tie with McGwire vanished in the blink of an eye, and set out to catch up again as quickly as he could. He opened this game against the Pirates with a solo shot in the first inning, earning his second homer in as many days to bring him within two of Big Mac. Sosa singled in his next at-bat, but wouldn’t get on base for the remainder of the game.