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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 29: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees celebrates his seventh inning two run home run against the Athletics with his teammates in the dugout at Yankee Stadium on June 29, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

By his own standards, Aaron Judge was in a slump. In his first 25 games across the month of June, the New York Yankees slugger had hit only for a .247 batting average, hitting seven home runs, recording 13 RBIs, scoring 16 runs and striking out 38 times, on his way to a .247/.374/.528 line.

That is not a slump by anyone else’s standards, of course. To anyone else, that is an MVP-calibre season. Yet for Judge – who is streets ahead of any other American League hitter at the plate, with only breakout Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh coming close – that was a down stretch of production.

Naturally, though, that slump ended with some bombs. In tonight’s game against the Athletics – going up against disgruntled starting pitcher and former Yankee, Luis Severino – Judge hit two more home runs, including one moon shot to center field, as the Yankees ran out comfortable 12-5 winners.

In doing so, Judge overtook Lou Gehrig’s total of 44 multi-home run games in a Yankee uniform. He is now in third place on that list, only games behind Mickey Mantle, 24 games behind Babe Ruth, and gaining all the time.

Judge Among Game’s Greatest Sluggers

Tonight’s two-homer game was Judge’s fifth multi-home run game of the season. At the rate he is going, Mantle will be surpassed in a month, and catching Ruth’s record is very feasible. Indeed, Ruth’s Yankees record is not his only one in increasing jeopardy.

Ruth had 72 multi-homer games across his entire career, which remains baseball’s all-time record, one ahead of Barry Bonds. The rest of the names that round out the top ten – Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Albert Pujols, Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez, Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr and Jamie Foxx – are a veritable Who’s Who of baseball’s greatest sluggers. This is the kind of esteemed company that Aaron Judge continually finds himself in.

Judge’s 44th multi-home run game also sees him take the lead amongst active players. Previously, he was tied on 43 with Manny Machado, currently of the San Diego Padres, himself seven ahead of fellow Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton. And according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone, Judge is doing all of this with a bad back.

A Hall-Of-Fame Hitter’s Campaign

On the season, Judge has hit 30 home runs already, and is quite clearly on pace for another 60-bomb campaign. It is his fifth consecutive season of at least 30 dingers, and marks the fourth time in his career that he has homered 30-plus times before the All-Star Game. (A game in which, inevitably, he has been named as a starter.)

Judge’s performance against the Athletics has boosted his batting line for the season back up to .356/.458/.722. Raleigh is the only other player in the majors within 90 points of Judge’s slugging percentage, and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers is the only player other than Raleigh to be within 150 points.

There always seems to be new accolades and records for Judge at the plate, as he continues to make his way up the all-time leader boards. In some perverse way, perhaps it gets a little jading. Yet the price of greatness is constant exposure. Judge would not continuously be lauded if he was not constantly delivering. This is by far the best season of what will almost certainly be a Hall-of-Fame career, and he is now halfway through one of the best seasons ever record in the history of Major League Baseball. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Mark Deeks I am continuously intrigued by the esoterica and minutiae of all the aspects of building a basketball team. I want to understand how to build the best basketball teams possible. No, I don’t know why, either. More about Mark Deeks