CHICAGO — One, potentially two, acts of baseball history became solidified Wednesday night.
First, the undisputed: Aaron Judge smashed his 62nd home run of the season to set the new American League record in the second game of a doubleheader Tuesday at the Rangers. He went 1-for-2 and and will have just Wednesday's regular-season finale to claim a Triple Crown.
That's where Luis Arraez comes in, as he currently leads the AL batting title race at .315 with Judge at .311. Arraez went 1-for-4 in the Twins' 8-3 loss Tuesday to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Should Arraez maintain his lead through Wednesday, he'd break up Judge's Triple Crown, as the Yankees center fielder also leads the league with 131 RBI. But there are a lot of ifs still in play.
The Yankees — unlike the Twins — are bound for the playoffs starting Oct. 11, and with the home run history rewritten from Roger Maris' 61 homers in 1961, it's possible the Yankees might give Judge another day off to prepare for the postseason. It's also possible Arraez won't play, as he missed the two previous games with left hamstring tightness that has hobbled him for a couple months. He was still limping around during the game Tuesday.
Should they both play, Judge would need to go 3-for-4 if Arraez went 0-for-4 to catch him. If Arraez didn't play, Judge would have to go 4-for-4 to nab the title.
There were several injury delays on the Twins side Tuesday. In the second inning, where the Twins took a 1-0 lead on Jake Cave's sacrifice fly, rookie Jose Miranda had to leave the game after taking a pitch off his left wrist that then ricocheted off his face. The Twins said it was a lip/mouth contusion and his availability is day-to-day.
Pitcher Aaron Sanchez took a line drive off his arm as well, while Ryan Jeffers had a foul ball sting his knee.
The White Sox put up four runs each in the third and fourth innings with starter Josh Winder then Sanchez on the mound. The Twins took some late consolation runs with a Nick Gordon RBI single in the sixth and a Jermaine Palacios home run in the ninth, the first of his career.
The Twins are 77-84 and will finish third in the AL Central to the second-place White Sox at 81-80.
