New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge seemingly couldn't stop hitting home runs right out of the All-Star break and had been favored at Caesars Sportsbook for a while to break the Yankees' single-season and American League record for home runs of 61, set by Roger Maris in 1961. While Judge leads the majors by a mile with 43 homers, he has just one in his past six games and now Caesars is listing his Over/Under season total at 60.5, with the Under a -180 favorite.
Judge is the 10th player in history to hit 43 homers through his team's first 109 games and on pace to hit 63.9 of them, but that's assuming he doesn't miss any games -- and the Yankees have been giving him the occasional night off. Judge's Yankees teammate Giancarlo Stanton made the most recent run at 60 homers, going deep 59 times in his 2017 NL MVP season while with the Marlins. Judge has played in 105 of the Yankees' 109 games and his slugging percentage of .669 is the best ever by a Yankee through 105 games of a season. Maris is second at .651 in that '61 campaign.
Perhaps it's not a coincidence that the Yankees have lost their past four games with Judge not going yard – he last did on Aug. 1 at home against Seattle. New York opens a series in the Pacific Northwest tonight and Judge is +165 to hit a homer. The Mariners start Logan Gilbert, and Judge is 0-for-4 off him with two walks.
Judge is hitting well this month at .368 with six RBI. He knocked in four runs Sunday in a 12-9 loss in St. Louis. It was the first time in his career that Judge drove in in four runs in a game in which he didn't homer. Of course, the MLB record for homers in a season is 73 by Barry Bonds in 2001. DraftKings offers a Judge Over/Under 73.5 homers prop, but the Over is huge +3000 underdog with the Under at -20000.
To win AL MVP, Judge is a -500 favorite, and he's -1400 to lead MLB in homers. Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber (+1000) is second with 34.
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