What used to be one of baseball’s most magical numbers — 61 home runs — now sits buried, eight lines deep, in the Major League Baseball record book.

Judge’s 58 home runs and 144 RBIs also led the majors. He had four more long balls and 14 more runs batted in than Shohei Ohtani who was second in both categories. The captain also led MLB in homers and RBIs in 2022 while slugging an AL-best 52 home runs in 2017.

The Yankees captain crushed his 58th home run of the season on Thursday night, tying a career-high by homering in a fifth straight game. This one was a two-run shot in the seventh inning that put the Yankees up 9-0 against the Orioles on the verge of wrapping up the AL East.

Yankees superstar Aaron Judge fell short of the hallowed 60-home run mark in 2024, as well as his own American League record. Of course, that's not to say it was a disappointing year. Instead, Judge socked a major league-leading 58 home runs,

And now, it’s the slow wait for the start of what Aaron Judge over the years has called “the real season.” For the Yankees, that begins Saturday at the Stadium against the winner of this week’s best-of-three wild-card series between the Orioles and Royals in Baltimore.