Aaron Judge Ties Roger Maris with 61st Home Run

When Tim Mayza made a mistake pitch, Aaron Judge made sure the Blue Jays left-hander wound up on the wrong end of history.

Judge tied Roger Maris’ American League record of 61 home runs in a season with a tiebreaking, two-run drive in the seventh inning that lifted the New York Yankees over the Toronto Blue Jays 8–3 on Wednesday night.

Mayza said he was trying to attack Judge with sinkers in the hopes of inducing a ground ball, but missed his spot.

“Just one too many good pitches over the plate to a really good hitter,” Mayza said.

The 30-year-old slugger drove a 94.5 mph belt-high sinker with a full-count from Mayza (8–1) over the left-field fence at Rogers Centre. The 117.4 mph drive took just 3.8 seconds to land 394 feet from the plate, and it put the Yankees ahead 5–3.

“When I hit it, I thought I got enough, but it’s been a couple of games since I did that,” Judge said.