Yankees set homer record in win
NEW YORK TO HOST OAKLAND IN WILD CARD GAME
Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton connected as the New York Yankees broke the major league record for home runs in a season and reached 100 wins with an 8-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
Torres’ two-run drive in the fourth was the Yankees’ 265th of the year and moved them past the 1997 Seattle Mariners for the mark.
Stanton pushed the record to 266 in the seventh with his 38th homer, a solo homer to left field. A fan sitting in the seats above the Green Monster threw the souvenir back, and the ball bounced into Stanton as he rounded second base.
The Yankees, who will host Oakland in the AL wild-card game on Wednesday, improved to 10061 — that still left them far behind the AL East champion Red Sox, who have set a franchise record for victories in going 107-54 with one day left in the regular season.
This is the 10th time in big league history that a team has won at least 100 games and not finished first. Since the start of division play in 1969, the only clubs that didn’t wind up on top despite triple-digits wins were Oakland in 2001 — which won 102 games to Seattle’s 116 — San Francisco in 1993 and Baltimore in 1980.
The Yankees joined Boston and Houston as teams to win 100 or more this season, making the AL the first league to have a trio of 100-win teams in the same year.
New York reached 100 wins for the 20th time in franchise history and first since going 103-59 in 2009, when the Yankees went on to win their most recent World Series title.
Brock Holt hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Red Sox, who could be hosting the Yankees again in the AL Division Series starting week. The wild-card winner opens its best-of-five matchup Friday at Fenway Park.
New York homered four times Friday night in an 11-6 win over the Red Sox, which evened the Yankees with the 1997 Mariners ‘ total set by a lineup that included Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Jay Buhner and Edgar Martinez.