All-Star Slugger Falls Short Of Clinching Feat To Tie Home Run Record

There was no question that all eyes were on Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees when they faced the Boston Red Sox.

Most were anticipating the record-setting 61st homer with most paying close attention each time the 30-year-old would take the bat.

Unfortunately, it never happened with Judge falling a few feet short of the franchise and American League records held by Roger Maris.

Judge hit a 404-foot drive, but this got caught in front of the center field wall.

This was after walking three times before that and had already struck out once before he came to the plate with the score tied at 4-4 in the ninth.

"I just got underneath it a little bit," Judge said in front of about 43,123 spectators in attendance. "A pretty windy night, so I was hoping maybe it was blowing out at the time I was hitting, but just missed it."

Hence, Judge's record was put to a stop at 60 home runs for the season.

Regardless, the Yankees had something to celebrate after prevailing in 10 innings over the Red Sox to advance to the playoffs.

It was a walk-off single by Josh Donaldson that handed New York the ticket to the MLB playoffs--their 58th trip so far.

"It's not over yet, but the chance that we get the opportunity to play some postseason baseball is going to be fun," Donaldson stated. "I thought Judge had it with a homer, but it was nice to be able to come through for the team."

Despite falling short of the record, Judge reminded everyone that there is work to be done.

"A great accomplishment. A lot of hard work over the course of the season to get to this point," Judge stressed. "But I think you could ask anybody in this room: The job's not finished. We have an ultimate goal of going out there and winning our division, and setting ourselves up for the postseason. And this is step No. 1, step No. 1 of many steps to come."