Ranking Yankees' Aaron Judge and Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani's 5 Greatest MLB Moments
Shohei Ohtani won the American League MVP as a member of the Los Angeles Angels in both 2021 and 2023. He finished runner-up in 2022, when Aaron Judge set a new Junior Circuit record of 62 home runs to deny him a historic run of three successive awards.
The two are no longer competing for the AL MVP following Ohtani's move to the Los Angeles Dodgers. And the Japanese star is expected to become only the second player in MLB history to win MVP in both leagues after hitting 54 home runs in his first campaign with the Dodgers.
Judge, meanwhile, is going to win his second AL MVP in three years after leading baseball in home runs (58) and RBI (144), among other categories.
With Ohtani's Dodgers currently competing with Judge's New York Yankees in the World Series, we have ranked the top five moments in the careers of both players to this point, as they always seem to be connected.
5. Judge Launches 496-Foot HR
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Date: Aug. 17, 2017
This was Aaron Judge's first full MLB season, and all he did was win AL Rookie of the Year and finish runner-up to José Altuve in AL MVP voting.
Judge led the AL with 52 home runs in his rookie season. The longest home run he hit that season—and to this point, the longest of his career—was a 496-foot shot that he belted against the Baltimore Orioles:
Statcast began tracking MLB data in 2015. Since then, this is tied for the fifth-longest home run in the sport.
4. Judge Hits 3 Homers For Second Time
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Date: Sept. 22, 2023
Injuries limited Judge to 106 games in 2023, which prevented him from trying to repeat as AL MVP. Still, he homered 37 times, with six of those coming in a pair of three-home run games.
He turned in the first three-homer game of his career on Aug. 23 against the Washington Nationals.
Less than a month later, Judge made franchise history with his second three-homer, six-RBI game of the season. This one came against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sept. 22:
The Yankees are the most successful team in MLB history, having employed some of the greatest home run hitters of all time, including Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez and Lou Gehrig. And yet, Judge became the first Yankee to ever have multiple three-home run games in a season when he did it in 2023.
3. Judge Gets Clase
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Date: Oct. 17, 2024
At least to this point, Judge hasn't had a great 2024 postseason run for the Yankees. However, it would be wrong to say he hasn't hit any big home runs.
With a runner on first base and two outs in the top of the eighth inning, the Cleveland Guardians turned to All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase for a four-out save in ALCS Game 3.
Judge quickly spoiled the plans of Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt, hitting a 99 mph cutter from Clase just over the right field wall for a game-tying home run:
Even though Giancarlo Stanton followed Judge with a go-ahead home run, the Guardians would storm back and win in extra innings thanks to dramatic dingers from Jhonkensy Noel and David Fry.
Still, Judge hit a game-tying home run off of a closer who posted a minuscule 0.61 ERA during the regular season. Because the Yankees bullpen couldn't take advantage of that doesn't make it any less clutch of a swing by the 32-year-old.
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2. Judge Reaches 60 Home Runs
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Date: Sept. 20, 2022
Judge led off the bottom of the ninth inning in a September 2022 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a solo shot.
Not only did it set in motion an inning that ended with a walk-off grand slam by Stanton, but it was also the 60th home run of Judge's MVP season:
Judge tied Babe Ruth's single-season career high with his 60th home run, joining the Bambino, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Roger Maris and Barry Bonds as the only players in MLB history to do that.
1. Judge Sets AL Single-Season HR Record
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Date: Oct. 4, 2022
The aforementioned Maris homered 61 times in 1961, which had been both the Yankees and American League single-season record. Sixty-one years later, Judge broke both.
It took Judge until the penultimate day of the regular season, but in the second game of a doubleheader against the Texas Rangers, he launched a 391-foot home run to surpass Maris:
Bonds (2001), McGwire (1998, 1999) and Sosa (1998, 1999, 2001) have all topped Judge's 2022 mark in terms of single-season home runs, but those achievements were shrouded in controversy amid suspicions of performance-enhancing drug use.
5. Ohtani K's 13
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Date: June 22, 2022
A night after one of the defining offensive performances of his career—more on that in a minute—Ohtani dazzled on the mound at Angel Stadium against the Kansas City Royals.
Across eight innings, he allowed just two hits and struck out a career-high 13 batters.
For good measure, he also got on base three times that night, singling and walking twice:
Though Ohtani would finish runner-up to Judge in AL MVP voting, 2022 was his finest year to date on the mound.
Across 166 innings, Ohtani went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA, earning a fourth-place finish in AL Cy Young Award voting.
4. Ohtani Drives in 8
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Date: June 21, 2022
As noted on the previous slide, Ohtani had one of the finest series of his career when the Royals visited Angel Stadium in June 2022.
A night before setting a new career high with 13 strikeouts on the mound, he homered twice and drove in eight runs, which was the most he ever had in a game at that time:
In what was a fitting tribute to the six seasons Ohtani spent with the Halos, Los Angeles managed to lose the game 12-11 in extra innings. The Tungsten Arm O'Doyle tweet was made for days like this.
3. Ohtani Makes Postseason Entrance
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Date: Oct. 5, 2024
Ohtani didn't make the postseason once during his six years with the Angels, so when he signed a 10-year deal to join the Dodgers prior to the 2024 campaign, there was a ton of excitement to finally see him in the playoffs.
He followed up what will likely be his third MVP season with a three-run home run in the second at-bat of his postseason career:
This erased the early 3-0 deficit the Dodgers faced against the San Diego Padres, and L.A. would go on to win Game 1 by a score of 7-5.
Considering the Dodgers needed all five games of the NLDS to take down the Padres, it's hard to overstate the importance of Ohtani's first October home run.
2. Ohtani's Ridiculous Doubleheader
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Date: July 27, 2023
It's hard to think anyone has ever had a better doubleheader than Ohtani did against the Detroit Tigers while playing for the Angels.
In Game 1 of the doubleheader, Ohtani took the ball for the Halos and pitched a complete-game shutout, striking out eight batters and allowing just one hit:
Always a perfectionist, he was probably frustrated he went 0-for-5 at the plate in Game 1 of the doubleheader. So he responded by homering two times in three at-bats in Game 2:
When the story of Ohtani is being told in 100 years, this will be one of the first games that's cited to put his greatness in context.
1. Ohtani Gets to 50 Homers on Historic Day
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Date: Sept. 19, 2024
Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to record a 50-homer/50-stolen base season earlier this year in a game at LoanDepot Park against the Miami Marlins.
Just accomplishing that feat is amazing, but he did it in one of the greatest single-game performances the sport has ever seen.
In addition to stealing his 50 and 51st bases of the year, Ohtani hit his 49th, 50th and 51st home runs. He also set a new single-game career-high with 10 RBI.
Even if the third bomb came off of a position player in Vidal Bruján, it was still an unfathomable output from Ohtani:
Not only did Ohtani establish the 50/50 Club with his second home run of the day, but he also set a new Dodgers single-season home run record, passing the 49 homers Shawn Green hit in 2001.
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