NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit his 361st career home run Thursday night, tying Hall of Fame outfielder Joe DiMaggio for fourth place in New York Yankees history.
The two-time AL MVP went deep twice in the first three innings of a 9-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers, with President Donald Trump in attendance at Yankee Stadium on the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
“Joe DiMaggio, Joe DiMaggio, it feels like that’s been there forever,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Joe DiMaggio in a lot of ways transcended baseball. So to be next to him on the list and as he’s going to be waving as he’s going by, it’s impressive and a bit of privilege having a front-row seat to that.”
Judge homered shortly after meeting Trump in the clubhouse, along with the rest of the Yankees.
“It’s just an important day for all of us to come together, so it’s just kind of a surreal moment, surreal day,” Judge said.
Judge launched homer No. 360 in the first inning, a 413-foot drive to left-center field off Tyler Holton that put New York up 1-0.
With Trump sitting in a suite on the third base side, Judge matched DiMaggio in the third inning by driving a 1-0 fastball from Sawyer Gipson-Long to the back of the Tigers’ bullpen in left-center for his second homer of the game.