CHICAGO – With runners on first and second, one out and the Yankees up 6-2 in the eighth inning, Aaron Judge drilled the 300th home run of his career off White Sox reliever Chad Kuhl on Wednesday.
The three-run missile, Judge’s league-leading 43rd home run of the season, came on a 3-0 count. It also followed an intentional walk to Juan Soto, who homered for a fourth straight at-bat back in the first inning of the Yankees’ 10-2 win.
As Judge began his trot around the bases, his teammates erupted in the dugout, as their captain became the fastest player to reach 300 home runs by a wide margin in terms of games played (955) and at-bats (3,431).
Judge, meanwhile, celebrated with a salute to the Yankees’ bullpen as he rounded first. When he crossed home plate, Soto, Alex Verdugo and other teammates were waiting with celebratory handshakes.
🚨 NO. 3️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ FOR AARON JUDGE 🚨 pic.twitter.com/8r8q5rj5vE
— MLB (@MLB) August 15, 2024
The Yankees didn’t stop scoring with Judge’s milestone, as Austin Wells followed with a solo home run. Earlier in the eighth, Oswaldo Cabrera had an RBI single while Verdugo added an RBI double.
The Yankees ended up blowing the White Sox out, but they were trailing until a Verdugo sacrifice fly tied the game in the seventh. Cabrera scored from second on the play, as White Sox right fielder Dominic Fletcher got tripped up while making a running catch.
Wells then added a two-run single.
Meanwhile, Will Warren only permitted two runs in his third major league start. He also totaled five innings, seven hits, zero walks, five strikeouts and 94 pitches after being called up earlier in the day.
Gavin Sheets continued his big series with an opposite field, bases-empty blast off Warren. He added an RBI single in the fourth after Trent Grisham misread an Andrew Vaughn double that had a 90% catch probability.
With the Bombers’ bats coming to life later in the game, Tim Hill and Michael Tonkin kept Chicago off the board the rest of the way, thus ensuring the Yankees would avoid what would have been an embarrassing series loss. The White Sox — on pace to be the worst team in major league history — entered the series with just 28 wins, so Yankees fans were certainly stunned when their team lost 12-2 on Monday.
But with Soto recording the first three-homer game of his career on Tuesday and Judge launching No. 300 on Wednesday, the Yankees’ trip to The Windy City ended on high notes.
They now have off on Thursday before heading to Detroit for two games against a sub-.500 Tigers team. The clubs will then travel to Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the Little League Classic on Sunday.
Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Marcus Stroman are scheduled to start those games for the Yankees. The Tigers had yet to announce their probable pitchers at the time of publication.