Stanton hits homer No. 56

MIAMI — Home runs before small crowds in the eighth inning of lopsided games between also-rans count, too, which is fortunate for Giancarlo Stanton. Now he needs only five more for 61. Stanton hit his major league-leading 56th homer in the eighth Wednesday to punctuate the Miami Marlins’ 9-2 win over the New York Mets, which completed a threegame sweep.

Announced attendance was 16,033, but the actual turnout was perhaps one-third that total. The Marlins are destined to miss the playoffs for the 14th year in a row despite Stanton’s homer show.

“It’s fun to watch, no doubt about it,” manager Don Mattingly said. “You’d like it to be happening when you were chasing somebody or leading somebody and it was a pennant-race situation, and the place was starting to fill up with some people where every game matters.

“That’s what you’d like. It would be more fun to watch. But that’s a lot of homers.”

Only 10 players have hit more homers in a season. Stanton’s total matches the career high of Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

“That’s some good company,” Stanton said. “I’m getting up there with some great company. That’s a good one. He was one of my favorite players.”

Stanton drove in three runs, increasing his RBI total to a career-best 120 while trying not to focus on such eye-popping stats.

“I’ve get 10 games left,” he said. “The season’s not over. Once you get to the end of the season, you look back. But I don’t go each day, ‘Hey, I’ve got this or that.”’

However, Stanton has acknowledged his goal to match Roger Maris’ 1961 total of 61 homers, the most in the pre-steroids era.