On the second to last day of the regular season, Aaron Judge passed Roger Maris for the all-time single-season American League home run record. The Triple Crown, though, will have to wait.
Judge sat out the Yankees’ season finale against the Rangers on Wednesday, thus ending the year with a .311 batting average. Minnesota’s Luis Arraez came into the day with a .315 mark, then went 1-for-1 with two walks to raise it to .316 in the Twins’ 10-1 win over the White Sox. That prevented Judge from becoming the first player to win the Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera in 2012 and just the second since 1967.
Judge led the AL in home runs by 22 over Mike Trout, and finished the year with 131 RBIs—five more than Cleveland’s José Ramírez.
Judge not playing on Wednesday essentially sealed the batting title for Arraez, who would have needed to go 0-for-8 to have his average fall below Judge’s. Had Judge played and gone 3-for-4, he would have raised his average to .314, and would have surpassed Arraez had the Twins second baseman gone 0-for-3.
With Judge leading the league in nearly every other offensive category, he likely won’t be too dismayed at not bagging the Triple Crown. The 6’7” outfielder is the favorite to win the AL MVP award, which would be the first of his career.
