CHICAGO – Aaron Judge is Mr. 300, quicker than anyone else.
The Yankees captain crushed his 300th career home run on Wednesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, becoming the fastest player in major league history – both by games and at-bats – to reach the milestone.
It took Judge just 955 games to reach 300 home runs.
The previous record holders were Ralph Kiner, who hit his 300th in his 1,087th game, and Babe Ruth, who hit his 300th in his 3,831st at-bat.
The record blast came off White Sox righty Chad Kuhl in the ninth inning with two runners on base.
Judge, who broke the American League single-season record by blasting 62 home runs in 2022, has now belted 43 home runs this season while putting together another MVP-caliber campaign.
Entering Tuesday, Judge was on pace for 57 home runs. But he was not just putting on a power display.
Judge came into Monday batting .328, which trailed only Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. for the highest batting average in the game.
Witt was the only thing standing between Judge and a shot at a Triple Crown, as the outfielder led the majors in home runs and RBIs (106 entering the series against the White Sox).
In recent weeks, Judge has been getting fewer and fewer pitches to hit, but when he gets them, he is consistently doing damage.
On Sunday, he became only the fifth player in major league history to hit at least 42 home runs through his team’s first 119 games of a season multiple times.
He joined Babe Ruth (four times), Sammy Sosa (three times), Mark McGwire (twice) and Mickey Mantle (twice).