USA TODAY International Edition
Going, going, gone: Homers surge in MLB
It’s not July yet, but here’s a spoiler alert for the rest of the Major League Baseball season: There will be a record set for home runs in a season.
At 1.27 home runs per game, the ball is leaving the yard at a record pace, and with the weather heating up, that trend should go upward. So it’s just a matter of if and by how much, not when.
With that in mind, here’s a look at five of the most absurd statistics from the last week — courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau, STATS, Baseball- Reference and others — that show us home runs ( 2,883 so far) again rule the major league landscape ( note: statistics reflected through Sunday’s games).
Bellinger blasts: Cody Bellinger could command his own category of gee- whiz accomplishments. Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger’s latest twohomer game was a record- setter — his sixth of the season, most by a rookie in franchise and National League history. He seems a shooin to equal and perhaps surpass Mark McGwire’s record of seven multihomer games, set as McGwire slammed a record 49 homers as a rookie in 1987.
Does Bellinger have a shot at Big Mac’s record? Darn right, he does. Bellinger has slugged an NL- best 24 homers, putting him on pace for 50.
Periodic reminder: Bellinger did not make his major league debut until April 25. Multihomer magic: You already know Bellinger went deep twice Sunday. But what about Rene Rivera? Yes, the light- hitting New York Mets utility man homered twice against the San Francisco Giants, meaning we didn’t even need Bellinger to continue this streak: At least one major leaguer has had a multihomer game for 27 consecutive days, ac-
cording to Elias. Yes, that’s a record. Memorial Day was the last time there was no multihomer game, though that day did give us a record for a mound- charging helmet toss.
Athletic trio: The Oakland Athletics’ latest retooling is getting ready to trend up again, and they announced this in resounding fashion Saturday when three of the players hit their first major league home runs in the same game.
Top prospect Franklin Barreto, Matt Olson and Jaycob Brugman went deep against the Chicago White Sox. According to Elias, that’s the first time three team-
mates hit first homers in the same game since 1914, when three members of the Federal League’s Kansas City Packers pulled off the feat.
Olson added a second homer, inserting himself into the multihomer streak as well.
Dodgers dingers: The Dodgers have a 10- game winning streak. They have homered in 17 consecutive games, going 16- 1 in that stretch. There might be a correlation.
In a four- game sweep of the Mets, the Dodgers hit 15 home runs. That’s the most in four games for the Dodgers to hit — and the Mets to give up.
“That’s a stunning number,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.
Judge- ment Day: We couldn’t cap this off without a nod to New York Yankees rookie Aaron Judge, whose early- season exploits look almost quaint at this point. But Judge hit a nice number over the weekend — 25 homers in 68 games. Only McGwire and Jose Abreu got there quicker as rookies, and Bellinger is poised to do so, too.
Judge joined select Yankees company in hitting 25 homers in 68 or fewer games. Per Elias, only Babe Ruth ( five times), Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris ( twice) and Alex Rodriguez pulled that off.