CHICAGO — For weeks, teams have been reluctant to play Aaron Judge.
Opposing managers have been much happier to show four fingers when he enters the box, intentionally walking him to face anyone but the Yankees’ slugger who has been on a supernatural streak for the past few months.
Then the unthinkable happened on Wednesday night, and history was made.
The White Sox actually intentionally walked Juan Soto to bring up Judge, who responded by crushing a three-run home run — the 300th home run of his career — as the Yankees walked away with a 10-2 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Judge became the fastest player in MLB history to hit 300 career home runs, doing so in his 955th game and 3,431st at-bat.
The previous record holders were Ralph Kiner (1,087 games) and Babe Ruth (3,831 at-bats).
The go-ahead home run came in the eighth inning on a 3-0 pitch from right-handed reliever Chad Kuhl, who threw an inside sinker that Judge (2-for-4, walk) pounced on for a 361-foot ball and his 43rd home run of the season.
That gave the Yankees (72-50) a 9-2 lead and ensured they leave the South Side with a series victory over the historically bad White Sox (29-93).
The Yankees led 6-2 with one out in the eighth and a runner on second base when they elected to intentionally walk Soto with first base open.
It was the first time Soto, who hit four homers in five plate appearances between Tuesday and Wednesday, was intentionally walked this season, the reward of having Judge at bat behind him.
Judge’s path to 300 includes breaking Roger Maris’ single-season American League home run record with 62 in 2022 and setting the MLB rookie record with 52 home runs in 2017 (which has since been broken by Pete Alonso).
The 32-year-old, who is the favorite to win his second career MVP award this season, finished Wednesday night batting .333 with a 1.174 OPS and on pace for 57 home runs.
Before Judge made history, the Yankees trailed 2-1 heading into the seventh inning.
It took some smart, aggressive baserunning by Oswaldo Cabrera — starting his second straight game at third base for the injured Jazz Chisholm Jr. — to help the Yankees tie the game 2-2 in the seventh inning.
Cabrera was on second base with one out when Alex Verdugo hit a ball into the right-center field gap.
Right fielder Dominic Fletcher ran to catch the ball, but tripped over center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and stumbled on the warning track.
Cabrera was the scorer the entire way and never slowed his pace around third base, diving to score just in front of the marker.
Then, after a walk by Soto and a double by Judge, Austin Wells delivered the decisive hit the Yankees needed with a two-out, two-run single the other way for a 4-2 lead.
Cabrera added an RBI single in the eighth inning and scored on an RBI double by Verdugo that made it 6-2 and somehow convinced the White Sox to intentionally walk Soto to bring up Judge.
Just after Judge reached No. 300, Wells hit his ninth straight home run of the season to cap a 3-for-5 night.
Will Warren was solid in his third start in as many weeks, pitching five two-run innings.
