The Upper Deck

Welcome to The Upper Deck, Baseball America’s daily look at the biggest stories around the game and some lighter fare. If you have videos, GIFs, photos or stories you want us to know about and feature in this space, hit me up on Twitter at @vincelara or email me here.

The Jury’s Out: Judge Ties Yanks’ Record

It took 81 years for someone to tie the Yankees’ rookie home run record. Joe DiMaggio set it back in 1936 with 29 dingers. It was just the start of a storied Hall of Fame career, in which DiMaggio hit 361 home runs and recorded his famous 56-game hitting streak.

It took Aaron Judge just 81 games to tie DiMaggio’s 29 home runs.

We will not predict a Hall of Fame career for Judge, but 29 home runs prior to the All-Star break is about as a good a start as you can ask for.

20 Innings Later . . .

Any baseball game that lasts more than six hours is entitled to ending in ridiculous fashion, and the Boise Hawks got that memo. It took an inside-the-park home run in the top of the 20th inning from J.B. Moss to give the Hawks a 7-5 advantage over the Eugene Emeralds. The game in total lasted 5 hours, and 59 minutes to be precise, and saw 44 batters get struck out.

Head Over Heels

It wasn’t quite as graceful as Derek Jeter’s famous dive (actually, it wasn’t really graceful at all) but Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria put his body on the line Wednesday against the Cubs.

BE ALERT

For third basemen! pic.twitter.com/zD6P9rflYT

— Vote #GoLoMo (@RaysBaseball) July 5, 2017

Dog Days of Summer

I’ll admit it: I’m a huge fan of Corgis. Come on, look at them—they’re adorable. They’re even more adorable when they’re brought into a ballpark for a race. The West Michigan Whitecaps (low Class A affiliates of the Tigers) did just that. Some of those dogs have speed that would fit in well at the top of the lineup, although their inability to lift up a baseball bat could make things a little ruff for them.

The cutest @MiLB promotion of all time….Corgi Races! #MilBisFun #wcaps pic.twitter.com/zPQJpmSsg3

— Whitecaps (@wmwhitecaps) July 5, 2017

Pat On The Back

Some people are a little slow their first day back to work following the Fourth of July—not here at Baseball America. Kyle Glaser broke down who’s hot and who’s not around baseball . . . and the New Orleans Baby Cakes are your 2017 Logomania Contest champs.