Aaron Judge records 1,000th career hit: Yankees slugger becomes 55th active MLB player to reach milestone

New York Yankees star Aaron Judge joined the 1,000 hit club on Monday night. Judge achieved the feat with a line drive single to right field off Washington Nationals lefty Jose Ferrer at Nationals Park (GameTracker). Earlier this month, he became the fastest player to hit 300 home runsHe is the 55th active player with 1,000 hits.

Here is Judge’s 1,000th big league hit:

Judge has 1,000 career hits and 308 career home runs. Only Mark McGwire had more home runs at the time of his 1,000th hit. He had 311. In fact, Judge and McGwire are the only players in baseball history to hit 300 home runs before hitting 1,000.

Judge entered Monday’s game with a .333/.465/.736 batting line and the most home runs (51) and RBI (122) in baseball. He leads all players with 9.4 WAR. Judge is coming off a historically great season, the best ever by a right-handed batter. And it’s not just because he hits a lot of home runs,

“I got to this point trying to be a good hitter and a good teammate, so that’s what I’m going to try to do,” Judge said last weekend (via MLB.com). “I think if I can do that, we’ll be able to do better at the end of the year, and I think the stats will be where they should be.”

Judge is the 42nd player to record 1,000 hits with the Yankees. He could join the top 30 on the franchise’s all-time hits list by the end of next season. Judge already ranks seventh in Yankees history in terms of home runs.

The Yankees are in first place in the AL East with a 77-54 record. They are 1 1/2 games ahead of the idle Baltimore Orioles.