NEW YORK (AFP) — New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge homered twice in a 7-6 victory over the Red Sox in Boston on Tuesday to edge closer to the American League record of 61 in a season.
Judge connected for solo shots in the sixth and eighth inning — his 56th and 57th homers of the season stretching his major league lead.
Judge is now four homers away from equalling Roger Maris's 61-year-old American League record of 61 home runs in a single season.
Maris's mark set a Major League record in 1961, breaking the record of 60 Babe Ruth had established in 1927.
Barry Bonds now holds the Major League Baseball single-season record of 73.
Both of Judge's blasts tied the game, which went to 10 innings.
The first came on a hanging curveball from Nick Pivetta that Judge belted 383 feet into the Red Sox bullpen.
In the eighth Judge smacked a slider from Garrett Whitlock over the Green Monster left field wall.
It was Judge's 10th multi-homer game of the season. Hank Greenberg holds the American League record for multi-homer games of 11 — set in 1938.
Judge also ended a string of five games without a homer, although he had reached base in 13 of 24 at-bats going into the contest.
Despite the little dry spell, he remains on pace to hit 65 home runs this season.