Judge 61 and -.0013, Cole 248

Let's not bury the lead: Last night, Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run of the season. It drove in the tying and go-ahead runs, and the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-3 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

It tied the American League record set by a previous Yankee right fielder, Roger Maris, in 1961. It surpassed the record that Maris broke, set by yet another Yankee right fielder, Babe Ruth, with 60 in 1927.

Judge magnanimously says that Barry Bonds' 73 in 2001 is the real record. With all due respect to the man who is putting up the greatest season I've ever seen from any player -- noting that he's played great defense, too -- he's wrong about this. Bonds' 73 for a season and his 762 for a career are fake. The career record remains 755 by Hank Aaron. And Roger Maris Jr., who hugged Judge's mother in the stands after the record-tying home run, is right that Major League Baseball should officially recognize 61, or whatever number Judge finishes with.

The Blue Jays began the game by walking Judge. In all fairness, he has worked full counts on most of these walks. But Oswaldo Cabrera then walked as well, and you know what leadoff walks can do. Josh Donaldson and Oswald Peraza hit RBI singles. (We're gonna have to start calling these guys "Ozzie C" and "Ozzie P.") Harrison Bader grounded out, but Marwin González singled home a run. It was 3-0 Yankees before Gerrit Cole even took the mound.

And he was in pursuit of a record, too. In 1978, Ron Guidry stuck out 248 batters to set the Yankee single-season record. Cole came close to breaking it last year. Last night, he had a perfect game going through 5 innings, and had struck out 4 batters, to tie the record.

But he couldn't get the 249th. Worse, he gave up another home run to lead off the 6th, and ended up blowing the lead. It was 3-3 when Aaron Hicks led off the top of the 7th with a single. Pressure on Judge? Maybe late, game-on-the-line pressure was just what he needed. He took ball 1 from Tim Mayza, and then sent a no-doubt-about-er way over the left field fence. Number 61. Yankees lead, 5-3.

A fan tried to catch it, but it bounced off his glove, and down into the Blue Jays' bullpen. As it turned out, his name -- I swear, I'm not making this up -- was Frankie Lasagna, and he owns an Italian restaurant in Toronto. And he couldn't catch it.

The puns have flown. "That's a spicy meet-a-ball." "It got pasta him." "Frankie, ricotta catch that!" My own response was to paraphrase the late, great Ray Liotta in Goodfellas: It was revenge for 1985, and 1993, and a lot of other things. And there was nothing he could do about it. Judge was a made man, and Frankie wasn't. And he just had to sit there and take it.

The Yankees got another run in the 7th, on a Bader single. Two more runs came thanks to sloppy Toronto fielding in the 9th. Cole got the 1st out in the 7th, but had thrown 92 pitches, so Aaron Boone took him out. Zack Britton got the 2nd out, but walked 2 batters. Scott Effross got the 3rd out. Clarke Schmidt pitched a scoreless 8th. And Aroldis Chapman, who doesn't need added pressure, and had hardly any, pitched a perfect 9th.

Yankees 8, Blue Jays 3. WP: Cole (13-7). No save. LP: Mayza (8-1).

The Yankees have today off. Tomorrow, they start a 3-game home series against the Baltimore Orioles, so Judge will have a great chance to hit Number 62 at home. Then, we close the regular season with 4 games away to the Texas Rangers. Then, we wait to see who we play in the American League Division Series, which gives us a chance to properly set our rotation up.

If everybody takes their regular turn in the rotation, then Cole would get his chance to surpass Guidry this coming Tuesday, October 4. Regardless of how he does, that would work out just fine for him to start Game 1 of the ALDS, because he'd get 6 days' rest, as it's on Tuesday, October 11.

The ALCS would run from October 19 to, if it goes to a Game 7, October 26; and the World Series will start, weather permitting, on October 29, and a Game 7 would set a new record for latest-in-the-year MLB game ever, November 5. Why so late? The lockout that began this season, pushing the regular season's start back a week. In other words, without that, Game 7 of the World Series would have been on October 29.

Judge also still has a good shot at the Triple Crown. He easily leads the AL in both home runs and runs batted in. In the race for the highest batting average, he has .3134, trailing Luis Arráez of the Minnesota Twins at .3147 -- .0013 behind. Xander Bogaerts of the Boston Red Sox had been neck-and-neck with Judge, but he has slipped to .309.