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Yankees slugger Aaron Judge recorded his hardest hit ball in nearly three years on Tuesday night, launching a two-run home run against Kansas City Royals left-hander Noah Cameron to give New York an early advantage (GameTracker). Judge’s home run, his 24th of the season, had an exit velocity of 117.9 mph and carried 469 feet, according to Statcast.
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Make no mistake, Judge has recorded higher exit velocities during his big-league career. Back in 2017, for example, he maxed out at 121.1 mph on a home run against Baltimore Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman. Tuesday night’s home run nevertheless represented his hardest struck batted ball since June 23, 2022, when he hit a 118.4 mph ground out. (He did, on May 14, hit a different home run that cleared the 117 mph threshold.)
Additionally, Judge’s home run on Tuesday wasn’t his longest. He’s delivered six longer home runs in the majors, including two of 495 feet or longer. (Both of those, coincidentally, also came back during the 2017 season.) Tuesday’s home run wasn’t even his longest in the last 365 days: he launched a 477 footer against the Toronto Blue Jays last August.
Judge, 33, entered Tuesday hitting .396/.493/.771 (250 OPS+) with 23 home runs, 55 runs batted in, and 19 additional extra-base hits. His contributions had been worth an estimated 5.2 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference’s calculations.
Although Judge has put on a personal home-run derby all season long, it doesn’t sound like he has any plans of partaking in Major League Baseball’s annual event come the All-Star break. “Nope. Same answer,” he said last week. “Only if I’m talking about it here [in New York].”