With seven games left in the season, Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge is right on track to win the Triple Crown. He leads the American League in home runs, RBI, and batting average. What’s even more impressive is the Triple Crown seems to be a secondary story to Judge’s home run total.
Judge mashed homerun number 61 last night, equaling Roger Maris for the most single-season home runs in Yankee history. His 1 for 4 night ended up slightly lowering his average, but history was still made. If he can hang on to his lead in the batting average category Judge will make even more history, by becoming the second player since 1967 to win the Triple Crown.
What Judge Will Need to Do
Aaron Judge has the home run and RBI categories locked up with only a week left in the season. The only thing left for him to wrap up is the batting average category. Twins second baseman Luis Arraez is second to Judge. Arraez trails him by just over a point. At this point in the season, Judge is getting pitched around. His walk numbers have skyrocketed, but he’s still finding a way to get hits.
Arreaz continues to produce as well. The second baseman is riding a 5 game-hitting streak. Minnesota has 4 games left against the White Sox and 3 against the Tigers. Arraez won’t have many tough pitching matchups the rest of the way, so it’s possible that he could catch Judge.
Red Sox shortstop Xander Boegarts is another guy that has a shot at catching Judge for the AL batting title. Boegarts held the top spot for some time, but his recent slump has dropped him to third in the AL. At .310, Bogaerts will have to get red hot if he wants to catch Judge.
No one else has a remote chance at catching Judge in batting average. The Yankees will now head home for a 3 game set with the Orioles, their final home series of the regular season. They’ll then head off to Texas to finish the season with a 4 game set against the Rangers. Aside from Martin Perez, the Yankees right fielder won’t have to face much elite pitching the rest of the way either.
The fate is now in Judge’s hands to become the first player since Miguel Cabrera in 2012 to win the Triple Crown.
What SportsBooks are Saying
Aaron Judge has captured the attention of NY Sportsbooks with his historic season. Most of the sportsbooks ended up taking down his odds to break Roger Maris’ record because it appeared he’d do so easily.
The Triple Crown prop is one that recently started becoming available for sports bettors. You can take Judge to win the Triple Crown on FanDuel for -162 odds. If you don’t think he’ll get it, those odds are listed at +126
With an overwhelming amount of New York bettors looking to place money on Judge, FanDuel knows they’re going to get action on the yes. This makes the odds a little less favorable for the Judge bettors, but because of what he’s doing this year the yes is better than the no when it comes to him winning the Triple Crown.
Before the games on September 28th, DraftKings had the odds for Judge to win the Triple Crown at -150, while the ‘no’ was listed at +125. Caesars had similar odds as well. FanDuel had slightly better odds for Judge bettors than each of these other books. This means If DraftKings and Caesars put their odds back up, FanDuel will still likely be the best bet for those who think Judge will continue making history.
The kind of individual success Aaron Judge is having is something baseball fans don’t get to see every year. His 2022 season is going to be remembered for generations to come. We’ll find out in about 8 days or so whether or not he’ll have a Triple Crown to speak for the kind of season he’s had.
