Newly crowned American League home run king Aaron Judge didn’t play in the New York Yankees’ regular-season finale against the host Texas Rangers on Wednesday, one day after hitting blast No. 62 to break Roger Maris’ single-season record.
Judge broke Maris’ record of 61 years when he went deep in the first inning on Tuesday in the second game of a doubleheader.
The 30-year-old Judge said afterward that he wanted to play in the finale but manager Aaron Boone said the club would make a decision based on “what makes the most sense.”
In addition to homers, Judge led the AL in RBIs (131), runs (133), walks (111), on-base percentage (.425), slugging percentage (.686) and OPS (1.111).
Judge finished the season with a .311 batting average, which ranked second in the AL behind the .316 mark of the Minnesota Twins’ Luis Arraez.
Judge played in 55 consecutive games, all starts, prior to Wednesday, when the Yankees fell 4-2 to the Rangers.
The Yankees have a bye for the first round of the American League playoffs so their next contest won’t be until Tuesday in the AL Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays or the Cleveland Guardians.
–Field Level Media
