Yankees Slugger Aaron Judge Nearly Goes Wire-To-Wire To Claim Dominant Batting Title

In 1998, Bernie Williams hit .339 and edged Mo Vaughn by two points for the batting title. Williams. He won the title by getting two hits to nudge his average from .336 after being tied with Vaughn through Game 161.

Until this season, no Yankee won the batting title in a full season until Aaron Judge did so with a .331 average and he did so rather decisively – beating Bo Bichette and Jacob Wilson by 20 points. It was the second widest margin in the nine times a Yankees won a batting title in a full season, only one behind Joe DiMaggio beating Jimmie Foxx .381 to .360 in 1939.

It was the first time an AL batting title was decided by at least 10 points in a full season since Mookie Betts hit .346 and beat JD Martinez by 16 points as the duo helped the Red Sox win their most recent title in 2018. The last time an AL batting race was decided by at least 20 points was 2016 when Jose Altuve hit .338 and beat Betts by 20 points in a season when Judge debuted with a homer in his first at-bat and finished with .179 before an oblique injury on a swing ended his first taste of the majors.

Judge’s season of 53 homers and a .331 mark represented the second straight season he hit at least .300 with at least 50 homers and third time overall. His first of four 50-homer seasons was as a rookie in 2017 when he slugged 52 homers and hit a respectable .284 but also struck out 208 times in 542 at-bats.

This season was a dominant batting title as Judge took over the lead on April 16 when his average went from .381 to .409 with a 3-for-3 showing against Kansas City. He ended April at .427 for a 71-point lead over Goldschmidt.

Judge stayed over .400 through May 21 when his .402 mark gave him a 61-point edge on Jacob Wilson. The Yankees were 42-25 through June 12 and Judge was a .392 hitter, placing him 26 points ahead of Wilson.

New York went lost six straight after that night in Kansas City and went scoreless for 30 innings. Judge was 2-for-25 in those games and his .366 average left him with a seven-point lead over Wilson.

The Yankees went 6-4 over 10 games from June 19-June 29 and Judge’s 10-for-36 showing left him with a .356 average and an 18-point lead on Wilson, who was 1-for-10 when the A’s visited Yankee Stadium.

A four-game sweep in Toronto knocked the Yankees out of sole possession for the AL East lead but Judge was 6-for-16 and ended the series at .364 and 25 points ahead of Wilson. From July 4 to July 25 when his elbow eventually flared up with a flexor tendon that comprised his throwing, Judge was 13-for-58 and was placed on the injured list with a .342 average and a 20-point lead on Jeremy Pena, the MVP of Houston’s 2022 ALCS sweep. It was a time when the Yankees split 16 games, including two more in Toronto when Judge went 1-for-10 July 21-22.

Judge was out from July 26-Aug. 4 and but nobody could make up any major ground. Pena was 18 points out and Wilson was trailing by 30 points at a time when he missed nearly a month from July 26-Aug. 22 with a fractured left forearm.

Upon returning, Judge was 13-for-65 in 19 games, the Yankees were 12-7 and his average dropped to .321, putting him five points ahead of Jonathan Aranda, who was injured July 31 in a collision at first base with Giancarlo Stanton. He also led Wilson by 10 points, Pena by 13 points and Bichette by 15 points.

Judge’s average was down to .319 after an 11-1 loss to the Tigers on Sept. 10 as he was 13-for-44 (.295) and the Yankees were 8-5. After the second straight blowout loss to Detroit, he was tied with Wilson.

The next night Judge tied Joe DiMaggio for fourth on the Yankees’ all-time home run list with 361 and it nudged him three points ahead of Wilson. Judge gradually surged ahead again, going 12-for-36 on a 10-game trip through Boston, Minnesota and Baltimore and when the Yankees returned home following a six-run 10th inning, his lead was nine points over Wilson.

Judge ended the season on a six-game hitting streak and had at least one hit in 107 games, two hits in 51 games, three hits in 14 games and a trio of four-hit games, including March 29 when he hit three of the Yankees’ nine homers with some players using torpedo bats that caught the attention of national network news.

In 1998 when Williams won the batting title, he batted .291 in the first month as Ivan Rodriguez’s .446 mark was 12 points ahead of Hal Morris. In May 1998, Williams hit .402 and his hot month left at .352, good for third in the AL at 29 points behind Rodriguez and 15 behind Todd Walker, who was with Minnesota.

In June 1998, Williams batted .355 in nine games before missing time with a right knee injury and officially made it a close race as he was at .353, one behind Morris and Rodriguez. A .314 showing in 12 games in July after returning, left him tied with Walker at .345, seven ahead of Rodriguez and 11 ahead of Vaughn.

He fell two points behind Walker on Aug. 1, 1998 and five points back the following day. The average dropped to .344 on Aug. 5, 1998 and Williams trailed Walker by 10 points. The Yankees went 10-1 over their next 11 games and when Williams hit a game-ending homer off Xavier Hernandez on Aug. 16, his average was at .355, 15 points ahead of Walker and 21 in front of Vaughn.

Williams ended August at .340 and faced a new challenger as Derek Jeter moved within three points while Vaughn was at .334. Williams was at .334 four times in September and following the last time on Sept. 24, he was tied with Vaughn.

The race was still tied entering the final game as Williams went 5-for-8 on the final weekend as part of a season-ending 11-game hitting streak while Vaughn was 5-for-11 on the final weekend and finished his final season in Boston on 16-game hitting streak.

On the final day, Vaughn’s first inning groundout dropped him to .335 while Williams singled in his first at-bat to get to .337. Vaughn homered on his second at-bat against Mike Mussina for a .336 average and Williams was still at .337 because a sacrifice fly is not an at-bat.

In his third at-bat, Vaughn hit an RBI single in the fifth, pushing the average to .337. Williams also singled in his third at-bat for a .339 average. In the fourth at-bat, Vaughn struck out to stay at .337 while Williams was lifted for a pinch hitter.

While a batting race coming down to the final day is always compelling, holding the top spot for virtually the entire season is an impressive achievement, which is what Judge pulled off.