In case you needed further confirmation that Aaron Judge is monster, you got it on Monday night.
The 25-year-old rookie took the 2017 Home Run Derby crown on Monday night from Marlins Park, defeating Miguel Sano of the Minnesota Twins X-X in the finals.
While he didn’t necessarily have the easiest road to the finals, his largest expected roadblock, Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton, was knocked out of the first round by Yankees teammate Gary Sanchez.
He still had to put on a show just to get out of the first round after Justin Bour, also of the Marlins, put up a huge 22 home-run performance to set a blistering pace.
It wasn’t a problem for Judge though, as he managed to hit 23. He really hit 24, but one was not counted because it hit the roof. Had it not been obstructed, the ball probably would have gone 600 feet (that is an exaggeration):
Facing a 22-homer mountain, a #MagentaMoment comes in handy for @TheJudge44 in the @TMobile #HRDerby. pic.twitter.com/dFoYON35BV
— MLB (@MLB) July 11, 2017
He made it look easy as he hit with power to all fields, while the rest of the field made a concerted effort to pull the ball. All it took was a flick of the wrists.
While it looked pretty easy, Judge was mashing with power that could not be equaled. He eclipsed the 500-foot mark four times in the first two rounds with three of them coming in the semifinals against Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
His longest of the night went 513 feet to compliment moon shots of 507, 504 and 501:
513 FEET!! #AllRise for Aaron Judge! #HRDerby2017 #HomeRunDerby pic.twitter.com/ZYaY5oNjpN
— Chat Sports (@ChatSports) July 11, 2017
The final against Sano was a cakewalk, as he was easily able to get past Sano with 11 home runs in three minutes.
