After hitting his 48th home run of the season, New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has built a 14-homer gap with the second-ranked player in MLB.
When it comes to power threats, Judge has no peers.
However, if you want more proof that his season has been thoroughly dominant to this point, let’s examine the leaders in one of the most important, yet underrated categories: runs scored.
The objective of the game, some people would say, is to score runs: at the end of the day, you will win if your team crossed home plate more times than the opponent.
When it comes to contributing runs, Judge is far and away the best player in the American League.
“AL leaders in runs scored: 1) Aaron Judge – 100; 2) Yordan Álvarez – 77; 3) Alex Bregman – 74; 4) DJ LeMahieu – 71; 5) Marcus Semien – 71,” MLB Network tweeted.
AL leaders in runs scored:
1) Aaron Judge – 💯
2) Yordan Álvarez – 77
3) Alex Bregman – 74
4) DJ LeMahieu – 71
5) Marcus Semien – 71 pic.twitter.com/oSFNHsqJJW— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 24, 2022
Judge Is Having His Best Year As A Major Leaguer
So there you have it: not only is Judge dominating in the power categories, he is also doing it in perhaps the most elemental stat of all.
Judge is hitting .297/.394/.663, and is having by far the best season of his career.
He is just four home runs shy of his personal best of 52, established in 2017.
We would say he has a good shot at getting there, since he has the rest of August, all of September, and a handful of October games.
The biggest question may be if he can break Roger Maris‘ record of 61 home runs in a single season, set in 1961.
He is currently at 48 and is on pace to hit 63.
Will he get there?
It will be one of the most fascinating storylines for the final month of the season.
NEXT: Aaron Judge Has Raised His Record Pace Once Again