Aaron Judge Speaks Out on His Recent Home Run Slump
If Aaron Judge was cognizant of going two weeks with an RBI and a homer, his poker face was on full display in front of the media on Sunday.
Except this time, his unawareness of such a drought did not come after it became 12 straight games without either thing. Instead, it occurred sometime Sunday afternoon, about an hour after both droughts, with Judge driving a pitch into the wind and parking it in the right field seats.
The drought ended four games, or 11 hours, 45 minutes, of frustration for the Yankees against the Rays. Each of the five meetings was decided by two runs or fewer, and the Yankees experienced some major frustration Friday by not adding to a one-run lead and allowing four runs in the eighth inning after a mistake opened the door.
Aaron Judge's at-bats between homers and RBIs
To hit 385 homers shortly before appearing in your 1,200th career game is impressive and likely means lengthy streaks without homers are rare.
Before his drive off reliever Kevin Kelly, Judge last homered in the first inning against Logan Henderson on May 10 in Milwaukee. At that point, he was at 16 homers in his first 143 at-bats, or one homer every 8.9 at-bats.
Judge struck out in his next two at-bats in Milwaukee and entered the ninth inning with eight hits in his next 45 at-bats. And in more recent times, he began Sunday hitless in 15 at-bats and with one hit in his previous 24, dropping his average to .246.
"I really didn't know about it until you guys bring it up," Judge said. "But there's no frustration. I got a job to do. Obviously, I want to get the job done and help the team win. And we weren't winning, so I was mad about that. But no homers, no RBIs? You can find other ways to help your team win, so that's what I was trying to do. I'm glad the homer and the RBIs came in a win for us."
Judge's two-week drought saw 14 at-bats end with strikeouts, but a few others ended in tough luck.
Among them was a 396-foot flyball sent right into left fielder Chandler Simpson's glove to end Friday's maddening loss.
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The strikeouts were part of a 25.9% chase rate entering Sunday and marked the highest since he hit .179 in his first two months as a major leaguer in 2016 and had a chase rate of 31.5%. That time ended early due to an oblique injury, and Judge motivated himself not to hit that poorly by writing .179 in the notes section of his phone as a motivating reminder.
Aaron Judge's other homerless streaks
Judge's fourth game-ending homer tied him with Dwight Evans for 68th on the all-time list. While Evans reached 385 in 10,569 plate appearances, Judge is there in 5,236 plate appearances.
Judge's homerless drought was noticeable because the Yankees lost seven of the 11 games, with six coming by three runs or fewer.
In 2025, Judge went 10 games without a homer April 6-15, but it was not necessarily noticeable since he was hitting .381 in the final game of that drought on the way to a wire-to-wire AL batting title.
Judge homered to end the drought on April 16 and then went nine straight games without homering, but was hitting .412 at the end of that slide.
Two years ago, Judge threatened his own AL record by hitting 58 homers. Along the way, Judge went 16 games without a homer from Aug. 26-Sept. 13, and the Yankees split those games, but he was still hitting comfortably above .300 in the power drought.
On the way to 62 homers and eclipsing Roger Maris' AL single-season record, Judge homered once in his first 13 games. In his record-breaking season, Judge never went more than nine games without a homer, and that "skid" occurred during an emotional swoon for the Yankees Aug. 13-21. After the final game of that slide, Judge homered 16 times in his final 39 games to break the record.
If history is our guide, breaking the skid, especially with a game-ender into the wind might start a fairly prolonged hot streak and maybe give Judge a chance at 400 career homers before the All-Star break.
"It really feels like a matter of time," Bellinger said. "This game is so difficult, and he's literally one of the best hitters of all time. But he's always grinding, always working and it was good to see that one go over the fence for sure."
Rays, Yankees appear to be class of AL East
Until proven otherwise, the race for the AL East crown and likely best record in the American League will come down to the Rays and Yankees.
Judge's homer left the Yankees 4 1/2 games out of first place, a figure that can hardly be described as insurmountable, especially when you consider that around this time a year ago, the Blue Jays were eight games behind the Yankees and made up the deficit by the All-Star break.
The Yankees and Rays do things differently when it comes to payroll and power. While the Yankees are third in the big leagues in payroll, the Rays are 28th.
Still, each team boasts a potent power trio with the Yankees getting a combined 38 homers from Judge, Ben Rice, and Bellinger, and the Rays getting a combined 29 homers from Junior Caminero, Jonathan Aranda, and Yandy Diaz.
The Rays have only 41 homers, 34 fewer than the Yankees. While the Yankees boast a .235 average, the Rays are tied with the Braves for the major league lead at .260.
And based on what the Yankees and Rays saw of the Red Sox and Orioles so far, it does not appear those teams will enter the division race conversation. The jury is still out on whether Toronto enters the mix, though their current 6-2 stretch seems to indicate it will happen.
Related: Aaron Judge Shares Opinion After Yankees Quiet Offseason
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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 6:51 AM.