Aaron Judge seemingly had enough. The New York Yankees entered Wednesday's game with the Washington Nationals mired in their worst stretch of the last three decades. In order to stop bleeding and put an end to the Yankees' nine-game losing streak, Aaron Judge carried New York to a 9-1 victory by slugging three home runs.

No one was more grateful to Judge than Aaron Boone. The Yankees' manager is facing questions about his job security, and every loss makes it more likely that Boone will be among the changes that New York makes after the 2023 season.

“What a night by 99,” Boone, via MLB.com. “I mean, he's special. Obviously what we saw him do last year, he's basically doing the same thing; he just missed a big chunk. He's just a special player. It's pretty remarkable what he does under any circumstance.

“Anyone can be a spark, but you're starting at the top there.”

Judge hit home runs No. 25, 26 and 27 for the 2023 season. Only 15 players in baseball have more homers than Judge, even though he's been limited to 72 games because of multiple stints on the injured list. Every player ahead of the Yankees' right fielder has played more than 100 games.

One year after setting the American League home run record with 62 dingers, Judge is on a 61-homer pace over 162 games.

If the Yankees are going to even pretend that they have a shot of making the playoff race interesting, they'll need many more big nights from Judge. Ranking 10th in the AL in both runs scored and OPS, New York is 9.5 games out of the wild-card race.