Aaron Judge hits 300th career home run in Yankees' win over White Sox

CHICAGO — Aaron Judge entered the history books.

Again.

The centerfielder Wednesday night became the fastest player — in terms of number of games and at-bats — to reach 300 homers, his three-run blast to left off Chad Kuhl on a 3-0 pitch accomplishing the feat.

“It’s a great achievement,” Judge said in a rare public nod of acknowledgment from the Yankees’ captain to one of his on-field successes. “I’ve been in the game a little while, I guess, still have a long way to go. But like I said a couple of days ago, I was hoping it would come in a win, and it came in a big win for us.”

It came in a 10-2 victory over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field that gave the Yankees a series victory, one that was far from assured as they entered the seventh inning trailing 2-1.

But the Yankees (72-50) erupted for three runs in the seventh — tying it on some daring baserunning by Oswaldo Cabrera, who scored from second on a sacrifice fly to the track in center. The Yankees went ahead for good on a two-out, two-run single by Austin Wells, who continues to thrive in the cleanup spot — and six runs in the eighth.

The 32-year-old Judge, playing in his 955th career game, hammered Kuhl’s 94.2 mph sinker on a line, the ball coming off his bat at 110.1 mph, 361 feet for his MLB-leading 43rd homer. It came in Judge’s 3,431st career at-bat.

Ralph Kiner held the previous record, reaching 300 homers in the 1,087th game of his career. Babe Ruth reached 300 homers in his 3,831st career at-bat.

“It’s incredible,” Aaron Boone said. “We almost talk about it every night, seeing what him and Juan [Soto] are doing . . . what Aaron’s doing. It’s a select few in the history of the game that [have] the kind of season he’s having. Just a great player and a great leader. Everyone’s, obviously, really pumped in there.”

One of the oddities of the season came before Judge’s blast: Soto, who homered in the first inning for his fourth homer in his previous five at-bats, was intentionally walked with a runner on second. It was the first time this season Soto was intentionally walked, that total not a surprise given who follows him in the order.

Perhaps Chicago’s interim manager Grady Sizemore, a teammate of Boone’s nearly two decades ago when they played together in Cleveland, wanted to witness a different kind of history than what the 29-93 White Sox, losers in 29 of their last 32 games and only recently snapping a 21-game losing streak, are chasing.

“Wow,” Boone said of his initial reaction to seeing Soto intentionally walked.

“Surprised,” Cabrera said of the dugout reaction.

“Yeah, that was crazy,” Wells said with a smile. “I didn’t believe it. It didn’t work out too well.”

Soto said he was “definitely not” expecting the free pass.

“I was really thinking they’re going to do back-to-back intentional walks when they walked me,” said Soto, who has 34 homers, including six in his last four games, and who has reached base in 106 out of his 118 games, the most such games in the big leagues this season. “I don’t know. It’s their strategy. I don’t know what they were thinking.”

Judge, who leads the majors in intentional walks with 14, said the move “made sense” given the roll Soto has been on (and, naturally, downplaying the roll he’s been on).

“You guys all saw how he’s swinging the bat this week,” Judge said with a smile. “The guy had three homers yesterday, homer to start the game today. Why wouldn’t you?”

Cabrera’s RBI single and Alex Verdugo’s RBI double preceded Judge’s blast. After Judge’s homer, Wells made it back-to-back shots, his ninth homer making it 10-2.

It was somewhat lost because of Judge’s historic blast. But Cabrera lit the fuse for the late-inning eruption, tying it at 2-2 in the seventh when he scored from second on Alex Verdugo’s flyout to rightfielder Dominic Fletcher, who made a terrific diving catch on the track. Cabrera alertly stayed near the bag and, at the catch, raced for third and was waved in by third base coach Luis Rojas. Wells then stung a two-out, two-run single to make it 4-2.

Still, unsurprisingly, it was the homer by Judge, who received a dousing from a Gatorade tub from Verdugo and Wells after the game on the field, dominating postgame talk in the clubhouse.

“Super special,” Wells said. “Couldn’t happen to a better guy. He’s awesome to us and for him to achieve that, it’s amazing. And still so young in his career, so I’m excited to see what he continues to do.”