Aaron Judge breaks out of slump with two home runs

Slump? What slump?

Aaron Judge is having one of the strongest first halves of a season in MLB history, and the slugger reminded baseball fans Saturday night why he’s considered one of the best players in the game.

The All-Star outfielder entered Saturday hitting .184 (9-for-49) with only two home runs since June 29. Before that date, he was hitting a home run once every 9.1 at-bats. Since then, he had dropped to one homer nearly every 25 at-bats.

For someone having the type of season Judge is having, any minor blip can result in an (irrational) fear by fans that a long-term slump and the law of averages are on the horizon.

Judge put that to rest Saturday night. The 6-7 slugger hit two home runs as the Yankees defeated the Red Sox, 14-1, at Yankee Stadium.

He sent a 3-and-2 slider 401 feet over the leftfield fence for a solo home run to give the Yankees a 5-1 lead in the fifth. In his next at-bat, he drove a first-pitch slider 444 feet off the back of the Red Sox  bullpen for a three-run home run to give the Yankees a 10-1 advantage in the sixth in his seventh multi-homer game of the season.

“It wasn’t just one of those [pitches] that hangs above the belt that you clear out,” Aaron Boone said of the second homer. “And to ride it out the way he did to the back of the bullpen on a pitch like that, [there’s] a small amount of people that can do that and put that kind of swing on that ball.”

Judge has hit 33 homers and tied Roger Maris for the most before the All-Star break in club history. When did Maris accomplish that? In 1961, when he finished with 61, which set an MLB record at the time. Only Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa have surpassed that, and all three are at least suspected of having PED help.

When asked about being tied with Maris, Judge was quick to remind reporters that he’s not done. “We still have one more day. Don’t cut me short now,” he said with a laugh.

“It’s incredible to be mentioned with some of the Yankee greats like that. It’s an incredible honor, but we have one more day, so let’s see what happens.”

The Maris and Judge connections won’t be going away anytime soon. This summer and early fall could be filled with game trackers and comparisons to Maris’ 1961 season. Maris still holds the Yankees single-season (and American League) home run record, and although Bonds has the official single-season home run record with 73, many baseball fans will tell you Maris’ 61 is still the holy grail.

Judge will need 28 in the final 71 games to tie Maris, meaning a home run every 2.5 games. Even with the Yankees entering Saturday with a 12 1⁄2-game lead in the AL East, Judge’s home run chase could keep fans engaged throughout September.

And Saturday served as a powerful reminder of that.

“I’ve been feeling good, just trying not to hit it at people and good things happen,” Judge said. “So it was good to get those two and give us a couple more runs.

“That was a big win. After last night, we couldn’t really come up with that big hit, so us coming out early and jumping on him early was big-time for us.”