Judge Reaches 50 Homers For 4th Time, Hits Pair As Yanks Tie For AL East Lead By Beating White Sox

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge tied the major league record by reaching 50 home runs for the fourth time, hitting a pair of longballs as the New York Yankees regained a share of the AL East lead for the first time since July with an 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night.

Max Fried (19-5) won his sixth straight start and became the major leagues’ first 19-game winner.

New York (90-68) has won seven of eight, moving a season-high 22 games over .500 and getting to 90 wins for the seventh time in the last eight full seasons. The Yankees, who had not held a share of the division lead since before play on July 3, are tied with Toronto atop the division with four games left. The Blue Jays, who have lost six of seven, hold the tiebreaker.

Judge’s 50th homer, a three-run drive off Jonathan Cannon (4-10), gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead in the second inning. He added a solo shot in the eighth against Cam Booser. Judge hit 52 homers as a rookie in 2017, an AL-record 62 in 2022 and 58 last year. The only other players with four 50-homer seasons were Babe Ruth, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

Trent Grisham added his 34th homer for New York.

Chicago has lost 10 of 11 and reached 100 defeats for the third straight year, tied for second-most in the AL behind Washington’s four in a row from 1961-64. In the NL, Colorado has topped 100 losses for the third consecutive season.

New York used a Fried-Rice battery for the first time, with the All-Star left-hander pitching to Ben Rice. Fried lowered his ERA to 2.86, allowing four hits in seven innings. Chicago got its run on Lenyn Sosa’s second-inning sacrifice fly.

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