Aaron Judge on record pace after hitting his 50th, 51st HRs

NEW YORK — Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit his 50th and 51st home runs of the season in Sunday’s 10-3 win over the Colorado Rockies, putting him on pace to break his own American League home run record. 

Home run No. 50 came off a 0-2 changeup from Austin Gomber in the first inning; it was Judge’s 18th homer in the first inning this season, matching Alex Rodriguez (2001) for the major league record.

Judge hit No. 51 in the seventh inning, following a solo homer from Juan Soto with one of his own. Giancarlo Stanton hit a homer in the next at bat as the Yankees sluggers went back-to-back-to-back.

The two homers Sunday put Judge on pace to hit 63 this season, which would break his AL record of 62 set in 2022.

Judge also became just the fifth player to hit 50 home runs in three different seasons, joining Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Babe Ruth.

Rodriguez had a pair of 50-homer seasons for Texas in 2001 and 2002 and hit 54 for the Yankees in 2007.

Sosa had four straight 50-homer seasons from 1998 to 2001, McGwire did the same from 1996 to 1999, including his 70-homer season in 1998. Ruth had back-to-back 50-homer seasons in 1920 and 1921 and 1927 and 1928 with the Yankees.

Judge first reached the 50-homer threshold in his rookie year in 2017, when had 52.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.