Aaron Judge up to 58 home runs after fifth straight game with a long ball

Before the Yankees popped champagne, Aaron Judge sprayed another ball into orbit.

The Yankees captain crushed his 58th home run of the season on Thursday night, tying a career-high by homering in a fifth straight game on the way to a 10-1 win over the Orioles that clinched the AL East in The Bronx.

“He’s still playing video games and we’re out there working,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “Incredible to watch.”

Judge’s two-run shot put the Yankees up 9-0 in the seventh inning and sent the crowd into a frenzy, with “MVP” chants raining down on him.

“It’s just Aaron Judge — it’s greatness right in front of us,” manager Aaron Boone said.

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With the division secured, Judge indicated he is likely to take a day off this weekend during the final series of the regular season — which would be his first since June 19.

He may not make it all the way back to the AL-record 62 homers he hit in 2022 by Sunday’s regular-season finale, with a 16-game drought earlier this month likely costing him, but he has suddenly put himself in striking distance with a late surge.

And his season may still end up being better than his first MVP campaign in 2022.

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“We’re watching a historically great player now, really, [with] what we’re seeing,” Boone said. “Obviously his power speaks for itself, but he takes a lot of pride in being a well-rounded hitter. Like a lot of great players in whatever sport it may be, he is intent and obsessed with trying to get a little bit better at baseball year in and year out. “I don’t want to get hyperbolic and say he’s gone to another level from [when he] hit 62 homers and won the MVP. I don’t know if it’s another level, but is he incrementally a better hitter today than he was then? I think the answer’s yes.”

Judge finished Thursday batting .325 with a 1.169 OPS and 144 RBIs (compared to hitting .311 with a 1.111 OPS and 131 RBIs in 2022).

Unless Bobby Witt Jr. (hitting .332) strings together a few 0-fers to finish out the season, Judge will likely miss out on the Triple Crown, but he still appears headed for his second AL MVP.

The home run Thursday gave Judge 144 RBIs on the season, the most by any player since Ryan Howard’s 146 in 2008.

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Boone said the Yankees would “love” to secure the AL’s best record — their magic number to do so is two, with a one-game lead over the Guardians — but indicated he will likely be getting some of his workhorses a day off this weekend against the Pirates.

The Yankees placed Mark Leiter Jr. on the paternity list Thursday and called up reliever Scott Effross from Triple-A.

After a rocky start to his Yankees tenure following a trade from the Cubs at the deadline, Leiter had thrown three straight scoreless appearances – albeit in lower-leverage spots – while striking out six in 3 ⅔ innings.

Pirates stud right-hander Paul Skenes, the potential NL Rookie of the Year, is scheduled to make his final start of the season on Saturday at Yankee Stadium, squaring off against AL Rookie of the Year candidate Luis Gil.

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