Aaron Judge started the weekend hitting a home run every nine and a few decimals of plate appearances, and now he’s hitting exactly one home run every nine plate appearances.

Of course, that’s based on Judge’s full season of 51 and 459 plate appearances, a figure that includes his early-season struggles when he hit .178 in his first 101 at-bats with four homers. Since then, Judge has hit 47 homers in his last 102 games across 358 plate appearances, meaning his rate based on those games works out to a homer every 7.6 plate appearances.

At that point, it might explain how Judge reached 50 homers by Labor Day for the second time in his career. He reached 50 through the Yankees’ 129th game, when he homered 62 times to break Roger Maris’ 2022 AL record.

The current pace puts him at 63, but the clip from the 102-game span puts that at 74, one shy of Barry Bonds’ lone 50-homer season in 2001. It might also explain a theme of awe among former Yankees and a sense of wondering how much Judge would end up with.

The word unicorn has come into use on and off over the past decade, most notably when Kevin Durant called Kristaps Porzingis a “basketball unicorn” prior to a Thunder-Knicks game in January 2016. It’s become so popular that articles have even appeared touting who the next “unicorn” will be.

It’s also the language Alex Rodriguez used when describing Judge on Saturday, after the former third baseman made his debut during the Old-Timer’s Day ceremony, which was themed to honor the 2009 championship team.

“Aaron is such a unicorn,” Rodriguez said Saturday. “I love baseball so much, and I’ve never seen a player who looks like him, who looks like an NFL tight end: 6’7″, 282 pounds, less than 10 percent body fat. The guy is just a specimen.”

Rodriguez has never had the role of teammate to Judge as their paths in the transaction column are interconnected.

A few weeks after Rodriguez turned 41, a turbulent tenure with the Yankees came to an end on August 12, 2016, to say the least. Sometime before or during Rodriguez’s final game, Judge learned he would be joining the Yankees the next day.

When the Yankees opted for Judge’s contract, Rodriguez was released for a fee of approximately $27 million for the life of the contract. The contract was signed after Rodriguez famously turned away from the 2007 World Series and opted out of the original 10-year, $252 million deal he signed with the Texas Rangers after the 2000 season.

Shortly after Rodriguez was released at a financial loss, Judge batted eighth and hit his first career home run, making Matt Andriese the first of 234 pitchers to allow Judge’s 308 home runs.

When Rodriguez left and Judge arrived, it was hard to predict what would happen over the next nine years, given someone who was the Yankees’ fourth-best prospect at the time, according to MLB Pipeline.

Only injuries slowed Judge down, but nothing seems to slow him down now. He hit another home run on Sunday, and in his last six games he has hit seven, 10 in his last 13, 16 in his last 27 and 19 in his last 36 games.

“I’m not going to put a limit on what Aaron Judge can do,” said manager Aaron Boone, who was on the field for Bonds’ ninth, 10th, 48th and 49th home runs while playing third base with the Cincinnati Reds.

And while 74 may be unrealistic, it would surprise anyone if Judge actually makes it, especially if he keeps getting pitched. It’s his 49th on a pitch that Kyle Freeland said he tried to surprise the slugger with, but saw the ball land in left field.

“If there’s one player in the league who can do that, it’s him,” said Juan Soto.

The 50th came on a changeup, a pitch Judge is hitting .195 this season and .205 against two years ago.

No wonder teammate Marcus Stroman sounded like someone all too familiar with the experience of giving up a home run to Judge.

“I don’t even know how to attack him,” Stroman said. “At some point, you’re going to have to throw to him. And if he’s on point and on time, it doesn’t really matter where you throw the ball or what pitch you throw, he’s going to do damage.”

Actually, he is. Stroman, along with Kevin Gausman, Tyler Wells, Jose Berrios and Taijuan Walker, are in the group that Judge hits at least four home runs.

And as long as Judge sees the pitches, the number of pitches he can hit will play a role. And as he approaches 60, more eyes will be on his plate appearances.

“I try not to do that,” Judge said when asked how many home runs he can hit. “I don’t think that really helps anybody. I’ve gotten to this point just by being a good hitter and a good teammate, so that’s what I’m going to try to do. And I think if I do that, we can look at the end of the year and I think the numbers are going to be where they need to be.”

Right now, Judge is at a level that has only been reached 48 times before by 29 other batters, which is why it is so important to ask what the final total will be heading into the final five weeks.

“It’s crazy to see someone hit a home run day in and day out,” Soto said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone hit that many home runs so consistently.”