Aaron Judge has such a historic home run streak, he’s drawing comparisons to the greatest home run hitter of all time.
The New York Yankees slugger hit his 50th home run of the season against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday and now has 52 on the season after hitting one on Tuesday and another on Saturday.
Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins joined KNBR 680’s Marty Lurie on “Talkin’ Baseball” before Saturday’s game between the Phillies and the Giants, and he talked about the incredible gravity that both the umpire and leader of the National League and his Phillies teammate Kyle Schwarber (36 home runs). ) as two of the best home run hitters in the league, reminiscent of MLB home run king Barry Bonds.
“Those guys walk into the box, everybody in the stadium knows who they are, everybody in the stadium is on the edge of their seat waiting for the loud crack of the bat,” Hoskins said of Schwarber and Judge. “What they’re both doing, but specifically Judge, (he) seems to be getting a little bit of the Bonds treatment, at least recently. I think he hit (his 50th home run) earlier this week. game, I think they had intentionally walked him twice and unwittingly walked him one more time.”
“The first pitch of a very competitive at-bat he got in that game and he was able to hit a home run. To me, that’s pretty Bonds-ian, right? To see a pitch every game or two and not miss it. That’s how you hit home runs in bunches and that’s what they’re doing this year.”
Interestingly, both Judge (Linden) and Hoskins (Sacramento) grew up in Northern California and probably watched a lot of Bonds as kids.
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The Yankees have 29 games left this season and Judge is just eight homers away from reaching 60, a milestone not reached since Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa (64) and Bonds (73) hit and surpassed the brand in 2001.
Hoskins and the rest of the baseball world will no doubt have their eyes on the Yankees slugger in the final weeks of the season.
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