Yankees' Aaron Judge Felt 'Some Relief' Hitting 61st HR to Tie Roger Maris' Record

New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge said he felt "some relief" after tying Roger Maris' American League record with his 61st home run Wednesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Judge ended a seven-game homer drought with a seventh-inning blast off Toronto relief pitcher Tim Mayza as part of an 8-3 Yanks road win at the Rogers Centre.

It's been a career year for the 30-year-old California native, who's also in the running for the AL Triple Crown. He's tied with the Minnesota Twins' Luis Arraez in batting average (.313) and leads the Junior Circuit in runs batted in (130).

His dominance of the home run charts is the main story, however, as his 61 long balls are 19 more than anyone else in baseball. It's not like the steroid or juiced-ball eras where there was a league-wide surge in homers; he's just a one-man wrecking crew this year.

So it left enough time for him to tie Maris, who played for New York from 1960 through 1966, despite the recent homer-less drought, and he'll likely establish a new AL mark in the coming days.

"It's an incredible honor to get a chance to be associated with one of the Yankee greats, one of the baseball greats," Judge told reporters. "To be enshrined with them forever, words can't describe it. That's one thing that's so special about the Yankee organization, all the guys that came before us and paved the way, played the game the right way."

He'll still face some individual pressure over the regular season's final seven games as he attempts to establish the new AL record, but his MVP-level campaign has helped the Yankees clinch the AL East title and at least the No. 2 seed in the AL playoffs.

Judge is still not interested in shifting the focus to himself, though.

"My game plan is what got me to this point," he said. "I never really thought it would be fair to my teammates or the Yankees to be up here trying to chase a record. My job is to go out there and be the best hitter I can be."

His first chance to hit No. 62 will come Friday night when the Yanks host the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium.