At first glance, there didn't seem to be anything too out of the ordinary with Aaron Judge's 16th home run of the 2025 MLB season, hit during the New York Yankees' 5–2 win over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night. Judge's homer was an opposite field, two-run shot, one that just squeaked over the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium.
But the long ball was, in fact, a milestone of shorts, er, sorts, for the Yankees slugger.
At 326 feet, it was the shortest home run of his career thus far, just barely sailing over the 318-foot fence in Yankee Stadium. After the game, Judge joked that he was resorting to drastic measures to try to help the ball get over the fence.
"That one I'm kind of blowing out right there," Judge said. "You're hoping it sneaks over, but just trying to put a good swing on a pitch out of the zone. Yeah, we'll take them all, they all count the same."
When told it was the shortest home run of his career, Judge smiled and feigned disappointment.
"Like I said, we'll take it," Judge continued with a laugh. "It counts the same as the longest one I've hit..."
For the record, the longest home run of Judge's career was a titanic, 496-foot shot against the Toronto Blue Jays in September of 2017. But the Yankees captain is right. Tuesday's homer counts the same as the rest of his dingers, even the one he hit last week against the Seattle Mariners, a no-doubter that even the outfielders didn't bother to pursue.
So far, in terms of home runs that count, Judge leads the American League with 16, trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies' Kyle Schwarber and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani for the big league lead.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Aaron Judge Had Funny Reaction to the Shortest Home Run of His Career .
