Aaron Judge reacted with a sense of awe about the company of Yankees legends the young slugger joined with his 40-homer Major League Baseball season.
"Pretty surreal. Never as a kid did I think that I would be in the same sentence with those guys," Judge said. "It's quite an honour. It's pretty humbling."
The 25-year-old Judge homered twice on Sunday in New York's series-clinching 16-7 win at Texas, becoming only the second major league rookie with a 40-homer season.
He also joined Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle as the only Yankees to hit 40 homers at age 25 or younger.
Gary Sanchez also hit two homers for the AL wild card-leading Yankees, giving him 30 this season and 50 in 161 games since his 2015 debut.
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"It's incredible what they've both done," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
Mark McGwire hit a league-high 49 homers as a rookie for Oakland in 1987, and Judge - who leads the AL with 41 - remembers following Big Mac.
"Especially when he was in that home run hunt, with Sammy Sosa, it was fun to watch," Judge said. "It was pretty cool to see as a kid. To be in the same category with him, it's pretty special."
