New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge on Wednesday night etched his name in the history books once again, as he became the fastest player in MLB history to hit 300 career home runs during the club's 10-2 win over the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
But not before the White Sox made Judge "mad."
Right before Judge belted the 300th home run of his career—a three-run shot in the eighth inning—the White Sox decided to intentionally walk the red-hot Juan Soto to bring up Judge. After the game, the hulking Yankees slugger admitted the decision "fueled" him to go yard.
"I was mad about the intentional walk, so that kind of fueled it," Judge told Meredith Marakovits of Yes Network in a postgame interview. "Usually 3-0, I'll take a pitch, see a pitch, kind of pass it on to the next guy. But in that situation, if they don't want to pitch to you, you got to come through."
"I was mad about the intentional walk. So that kind of fueled it. Usually 3-0 I'll take a pitch." -Aaron Judge on his 300th home run pic.twitter.com/6nAucR1RU8
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 15, 2024
Entering the series, White Sox interim manager had told the media he planned to be "extremely careful" with Judge-and the club largely had done so, allowing four hits, none of which were home runs, to the Yankees outfielder while walking him three times entering Wednesday's game.
But Sizemore also wasn't taking any chances with Soto, who homered three times in Tuesday's game and left the yard once again in the first inning Wednesday. So, he walked Soto to pitch to Judge. And Judge took that personally, hitting the historic 300th career home run.
Judge needed just 955 career games and 3,431 at-bats to reach the mark, breaking the previous records set by Ralph Kiner, 1,087, and Babe Ruth, 3,831, respectively.
"Those are some guys that have done a lot of great things in this game," Judge said. "You throw around a lot of those names to people who don't know baseball and they know who they are. It's a special group to be in."
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Yankees' Aaron Judge Says White Sox Made Him 'Mad' Before He Hit Historic Home Run.
