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Aaron Judge stuns Yankees after 49th home run: ‘I have no words left to say’
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Aaron Judge stuns Yankees after 49th home run: ‘I have no words left to say’

The Yankees are starting to run out of ways to praise Aaron Rechter.

The batter hit his 49th home run of the season in Friday’s 3-0 win over the Rockies, putting him on pace for 62 home runs this season, tying his American League record and becoming the third player in history to hit 60-plus home runs in multiple seasons.

“It’s hard to comprehend,” Yankees manager said Aaron Boone said after the game. “I get asked about it all the time. People come up to me. I have no words left to say. You’re witnessing greatness. He’s a little bit better than everyone else.”

Judge entered Friday’s regular season with a 228 OPS+ — which measures a player’s on-base plus slugging league-wide and adjusts it to the league average of 100. So Judge is 126 percent better than the league average, which would rank as the 10th best in baseball history, behind only seasons of Barry bonds, Sweetie Ruth And Ted Williams.

“I wasn’t there in (2022), but I feel like he’s more of a complete hitter this year,” Yankee starter said Carlos Rodónwho threw six scoreless innings Friday, said: “He’s hitting .340, he’s getting run out of games at an outrageous rate, he can still do that damage in two at-bats if the other two are intentional hits. It’s impressive.”

It’s almost Bond-esque. Of course, Judge didn’t go in for those kinds of comparisons.

“I try not to think about it,” Judge said. “Even if they said the Yankee greats here: (Mickey) Coat(Joe) DiMaggio(Roger) Maris, Sweetie Ruth. It’s hard to fathom to think about, so just don’t think about it and move on.”

In the meantime, Giancarlo Stanton – who also hit a home run for the second straight game, batting behind Judge on Friday – said the best is yet to come for Judge.

“He’s done it before, so you can’t be surprised,” Stanton said. “We’ve got plenty of time for him to do even more impressive things. Stay the course, we’ve got time.”