Jays’ Tepera gives up MLB record homer

Kansas City’s Alex Gordon hit Major League Baseball’s record 5,694th home run of 2017, breaking the season mark.

Gordon’s home run off Toronto’s Ryan Tepera on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre raised the total to one more than the 5,693 home runs hit in 2000 at the height of the Steroids Era. The record was broken with just less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.

There were 5,610 homers last year, an average of 2.31 per game, and this year’s average of 2.53 entering Tuesday’s action projects to 6,139. That would be up 47 per cent from the 4,186 homers hit in 2014.

Power subsided after the start of drug testing with penalties in 2004. The home run average dropped in 2014 to its lowest level since 1992, then started rising during the second half of the 2015 season.

Meanwhile, Giancarlo Stanton has 55 homers after Tuesday, and needs six in the final 12 games to match Roger Maris’ hallowed 1961 total of 61.

The most prodigious, prolific home-run hitter in the major leagues might also be the streakiest. His latest homer Monday snapped a 9-for-62 slump (.145). Before that, he hit 18 homers in a 25-game span with a batting average of .387 and an OPS of 1.489.

Some consider Stanton the front-runner in the National League race for most valuable player. But Marlins manager Don Mattingly doesn’t even consider him the team MVP, giving the edge to all-star left fielder Marcell Ozuna because he has been more consistent.

Ozuna has hit at least .295 with at least 18 RBI in every full month this season.

Stanton’s monthly average has ranged from .242 in June to .349 in August. He entered Tuesday’s game against the Mets hitting .190 in September.

Stanton’s homer total is the highest since Ryan Howard hit 58 in 2006.