61 Homers! Aaron Judge Ties Roger Maris With Another Monster Blast.

In 1961, Roger Maris of the Yankees mashed 61 home runs, breaking the major league record set by another Yankees star, Babe Ruth, who had hit 60 in 1927.

Maris’s record was eventually surpassed by three different players, all of whom have been connected to performance-enhancing drugs. But on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Aaron Judge — yet another Yankee, and an outfielder who has played his entire career in the era of aviator drug testing — matched Maris’s famous mark, hitting his 61st home run of what has been a spectacular season.

With seven games remaining after Wednesday’s, Judge is tied with Maris for the American League record and has ample opportunity to stand alone. A 62nd home run would not break Barry Bonds’s overall single-season record of 73, which was set in the National League in 2001, but for many it could erase some of the bad memories of an era in which steroids seemed to dominate the game.

Judge, who is leading the major leagues in numerous statistical categories, is having one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history. And after going seven games and 31 plate appearances without a home run entering Wednesday — seemingly an eternity by Judge’s standards — his size and strength were on full display against the Blue Jays when he finally caught Maris by clobbering a 394-foot, two-run blast to left field in the top of the seventh inning against the left-hander Tim Mayza.

Judge, like Maris before him, has handled the pressure of the chase, and any momentary slumps, with a quiet smile and an insistence that his priority is winning games for the Yankees.

“He’s totally equipped for all this, and he’s proven to be right in that regard. He’s handled it perfectly,” Manager Aaron Boone said last week, adding that Judge keeps the game simple. “In a tough, difficult, not-so-simple game sometimes it’s important to keep it simple, and he does a great job of that.”

Judge, who may win his first A.L. Most Valuable Player Award this year after finishing as the runner-up as a rookie in 2017, is threatening the records books in more ways than hitting balls over the fence. Entering Wednesday, he was leading in the A.L. in batting average (.314), and he led in home runs (of course) and runs batted in (128). Should he finish the regular season still leading all three categories, he would claim the first triple crown since Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers did it in 2012 and only the second since 1967.

Judge, 30, hasn’t just been the best hitter in baseball this season, the margin between him and his peers is substantial.

The player with the next most home runs in the majors entering Wednesday? Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber with 42. The player with the next best on-base plus slugging percentage after Judge’s 1.119? Houston’s Yordan Alvarez with a 1.021. The position players with the next highest wins above replacement after Judge’s 10.9? Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt of the St. Louis Cardinals, with 7.1 each, according to Fangraphs.

By reaching the 60-home run plateau alone, Judge entered rarefied air in baseball. Only six players in history have hit that many in a season, and three of them — Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Bonds — have been connected in various ways to the use of performance-enhancers. While their statistics remain in baseball’s record books, their accomplishments are widely viewed with skepticism.

A wave of 50-homer seasons in the 1990s and early 2000s slowed with the implementation of Major League Baseball’s drug testing program in 2004, but Judge, with a relentless approach at the plate and no shortage of power in his 6-foot-7, 282-pound frame, quickly established that he could reach that level when he hit 52 home runs as a rookie in 2017. Injuries suppressed his totals in the seasons that followed, but he hit 39 home runs last year while setting a new career high in batting average — .287 — helping set the stage for his breakout 2022 season.

Entering Wednesday, Judge had indeed broken out, homering every 9.13 at-bats, the 12th-highest rate in baseball history. In 1961, Maris had averaged a home run every 9.67 at-bats.

For the rest of the regular season, Judge, known for his reserve with the news media, will remain the center of sport’s attention. His eye-popping statistics will do most of the talking for him.

Jesus Jiménez contributed reporting.