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First things first: Thanks to my good friend Peter King for being the right person in the right place at the right time.

He was on hand at the Tropfor the Yankees' Sunday afternoon win over the Rays.  Frankie Montas (above) whom I'd never photographed during his time with the A's, picked a good time for his most effective start as a Yankee -- five shutout innings with seven strikeouts.  With the pitching staff thinned by injuries and trades, Montas needed to prove he wasn't 2022's version of Sonny Gray, For at least one day, he showed that and more.  And of course, helping him earn the victory was...

Aaron Judge, of course.  #99 continues to chase Roger Maris, whose #9 is retired by the Yanks.  And if you really like numeric connections, he's doing it 61 years after Maris hit 61 home runs -- still the American League single season record, and to many, the legitimate untainted mark for all of baseball.   

With the Yankees struggling for offense, Aaron Boone has occasionally batted Judge in the leadoff spot.  That paid off on Sunday in a career-first: homering  as the very first batter in the game.  That was number 53 of the season; he tacked on number 54 (tying Mickey Mantle's 1961 total), leaving him seven behind Maris with 27 games to go.

One of the teams chasing the Yankees in the AL East made some history of their own on Monday:

Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Junior authored an MLB famous first.  They became the first pair of teammates and sons of former big league players with three home run games in the same season! Bichette cleared the fences three times as the Blue Jays capped a holiday doubleheader sweep in Oakland.

(If that wasn't enough, Bichette and Guerrero are the fourth pair of teammates under the age of 25 with a three-homer game in the same season, joining Larry Parrish and Gary Carter with the 1977 Expos, Tommy Brown and Duke Snider with the 1950 Brooklyn Dodgers and Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri with the 1927 Yankees. H/t mlb.com.)




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