Aaron Judge had gone seven games since his last home run, 34 plate appearances of fans quieting to a hush and snapping photos with every pitch.
Then with the score tied in the seventh inning on Wednesday night, he drove a 94.5mph belt-high sinker to left, a no doubt rocket.
He had tied Roger Maris’ American League record of 61 home runs in a season, what many fans consider baseball’s ‘clean’ standard for the sport.
Judge’s two-run homer lifted the Yankees to an 8-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays and brought relief to the 6ft 7in slugger, who admitted having to try to block out distraction. “Getting a chance to sit at 60 for a while there with the Babe was nice,” he said, “but getting a chance to now sit at 61 with another Yankee right fielder that hit 61 home runs and MVPs, world champions, this is pretty cool.” Judge has seven games to break the record, starting with a series opener against Baltimore at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.