HRs even outpace Steroids Era with new MLB record

TORONTO — The Royals’ Alex Gordon hit the blast that broke Major League Baseball’s season home run record with 12 days to spare, hitting the 5,694th long ball of 2017 on Tuesday night.

Gordon’s home run, off the Blue Jays’ Ryan Tepera, broke a mark set in 2000 at the height of the Steroids Era. The drive, which drove in the last run in the Royals’ 5-2 loss, was the 17th of the night in the major leagues and came just after the Tigers’ Alex Presley tied the record when he connected at home against the Athletics’ Daniel Gossett.

“A pretty cool thing to be a part of,” Gordon said. “I didn’t hit many this year, but I guess I made one count.”

Gordon said he heard talk of the record on a clubhouse television after Toronto’s Darwin Barney homered in the sixth.

“I was kind of aware that we were getting close to it,” he said. “After I walked back to the dugout. I kind of forgot about it.”

Holding the ball he hit over the right-field wall, Gordon said he didn’t plan to keep the historic memento or anything else from the game.

“I’m going to give it to Cooperstown,” Gordon said. “I figured they’d probably have much more reason to have it than I do. I don’t really want to remember too much about this season, so I’ll probably just give it away and let them take care of it.”

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 percent from 4,186 in 2014.

When the previous record of 5,693 was set in 2000, Sammy Sosa led the major leagues with 50 home runs and Barry Bonds hit 49. This year, the Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton leads the major leagues with 55 home runs, followed by Yankees rookie Aaron Judge with 44.