#HIGHFIVE | Top 5 Black & brown Players This Week

Aaron Judge is having one of the greatest regular seasons in Major League Baseball history and has a chance to cap it off by setting a new American League home run record and winning the illustrious Triple Crown.  Judge gets the top spot in Week 24 of our #HighFive list.

1.Aaron Judge

Aaron Judge will go down as the greatest single-season home run hitter in the history of the Bronx Bombers. Entering Thursday Judge was at 60 home runs, just two away from passing Roger Maris for the Yankees and American League record. Judge has five home runs in his last seven games, including a 9th inning shot against the Pirates that started one of the biggest comebacks in Yankees history that was completed by a grand slam off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton.

 

 

Judge’s homer and RBI lead is large, but there are a few people who are just decimal points behind Judge for the lead in average.  This means every at-bat and swing he has down the stretch will have major implications. Judge is leading the Majors in multiple offensive categories including runs, homers, RBI, OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, extra base hits, walks, total bases and WAR.  Oh yeah and he also has a career high 16 stolen bases.

The chase for 62 continues this weekend against the Boston Red Sox 

2. Triston McKenzie

Triston McKenzie put a dagger in the Chicago White Sox season Wednesday night after what is probably his best start of 2022. McKenzie went a career high eight innings allowing just two runs on six hits and fanning 13. That makes McKenzie the only Major League pitcher to have 12 strikeouts and no walks in three starts this season. 

 

His Guardians now have a six-game lead over the White Sox with a little over two weeks remaining. In four starts against their American League Central foes, McKenzie is 2-0 with 25 innings pitched, a 2.16 ERA, 35 strikeouts and only six walks. He will have a chance to reach 10 consecutive starts next Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

 

3. Hunter Greene

Hunter Greene came off the Injured List and got straight to business throwing a Major League record 47 pitches over 100 MPH in Saturday’s start against the National League Central leading Cardinals. Greene struck out a career-high 11 in only six innings as he got the no-decision in his first outing since August 1st.

 

4. Marcus Semien

In 2021 Marcus Semien hit 12 of his Major League record 45 home runs by a second baseman in September and he is heating up in the final month this year as well.

 

 

Semien had an eight-game hitting streak snapped Tuesday night but is still hitting .393 with a .433 on base percentage, four RBI and a home run in his last seven games. Semien got off to a historically slow start which has skewed his numbers at the plate, but since shaking back from that he has been one of the best players in baseball.

He is on pace to lead the American League in at-bats, plate appearances and will only trail Aaron Judge for the most runs scored.

5. Devin Williams

The best Black reliever in baseball and birthday boy gets the fifth spot on week 24 of our #HighFive list.

Williams turned 28 on Wednesday and although it took some time for him to get comfortable as the closer for Milwaukee, he has been solid over the last few weeks. In his last eight appearances Williams has only given up one earned run through 8.1 and has struck out 11 hitters.

This month Williams is giving batters hell when facing him in the box, only allowing a .100 batting average against in six appearances.