ANAHEIM, Calif. — Roger Maris’ American League home run record stood for 61 years before Aaron Judge broke it last season.
Less than nine months after Judge hit No. 62, a worthy challenger has emerged with a shot to break his record.
Shohei Ohtani entered Wednesday with 35 home runs through the Angels’ first 96 games, putting him on pace for 59.
After the Yankees’ 96th game last year, Judge was sitting at 36 home runs. In addition to pitching every six days, it’s possible that Ohtani might just give Judge a run for his money.
“Records are meant to be broken,” Judge said Wednesday afternoon inside the visiting dugout at Angel Stadium, where he spoke with a large scrum made up mostly of Japanese and Los Angeles-area reporters. “It’s just a record.
“It’ll be exciting for the game if he went out there and got 63-plus. We’ll see what happens.”
Asked whether he wouldn’t want to enjoy his record for a little longer, Judge grinned.
“I still got quite a few years left in this game,” he said. “So if [Ohtani] breaks it, that’ll give me another opportunity to go out there and try to do something special. But I’m not really too focused on that right now. I’m always wishing him the best, always excited to see what he can accomplish. But I’m not too worried about the record right now.”
Judge will not have a chance to go homer for homer with Ohtani this year because of the torn ligament in his right big toe that has kept the Yankees’ captain out since June 3.
The closest Judge got this week was taking batting practice on the field before each game and then running the bases on Wednesday for the first time since his injury.
But he was sitting in the Yankees dugout on Monday night when Ohtani crushed homer No. 35, a two-run shot off Michael King that tied the score in the seventh inning of what became a 4-3 Angels win.
“I don’t like watching it in person when he’s playing against us, doing what he’s doing,” Judge said. “But it’s fun when you can turn on the TV and see that he’s throwing eight innings, striking out 10 and hitting two homers in a game. It’s pretty impressive.
“Excited for what he’s done so far and looking forward to what else he does when we get out of town.”
While Ohtani has a ways to go before he is actually breathing down Judge’s neck, he is close to being on pace with that historic 2022 season.
He gave himself a shot by hitting 19 home runs in his past 32 games before Wednesday.
Around this time last year — starting in the Yankees’ 97th game of the season — Judge got a boost from hitting seven home runs in an eight-game stretch.
Still, Judge reiterated on Wednesday that he never focused on his pace during the season “until maybe I got to 61 homers,” at which point the stadium atmosphere for his at-bats had turned into silence with every pitch thrown to him.
“When it gets to that point, it’s all mental,” Judge said. “Physically, even Shohei, he can hit 100 homers, 80 homers. He’s got that type of talent. … But moments like that, it’s about being able to block out the noise, or lack of noise.”
While Judge said he was “sad” to be missing out on competing against Ohtani this week, he has had some extra time to watch the left-handed hitter’s mechanics, part of which he would like to adapt.
“I tried a little toe tap like he does,” Judge said. “I was actually talking with [Anthony] Volpe during the game the other day, I was like, ‘That’s what I want my toe tap to look like, is what he does.’ But I haven’t mastered that yet. I still got a couple more years. He just does a good job. He stays through the baseball and he has power to all fields.
“When he comes to the plate, right now, you just don’t want to pitch to him.”