Homer record is broken in May, and again in June

A month after setting a record for most home runs in a month, bigleague batters did it again and are on pace to shatter the season mark.

The Elias Sports Bureau said Monday that batters hit 1,142 home runs in June, seven more than in May.

Five of the top six home run months have been in the past three years. August 2017 is third at 1,119, followed by June 2017 (1,101), May 2000 (1,069) and May 2017 (1,060).

A total of 3,421 home runs were hit in 1,255 games through Sunday, an average of 2.73 per game. That is up 19% from the 2.28 average through June last year, when 2,822 home runs were hit in 1,236 games. Batters are on pace to hit 6,624 home runs — well above the record 6,105 set in 2017 and up from 5,585 last year.

Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich leads the major leagues with 30 home runs, followed by Mets rookie Peter Alonso (28) and the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger (27).

A year after strikeouts surpassed hits for the first time, whiffs remain ahead: 21,871 to 21,554. Although there were more strikeouts than hits in March (949 to 848) and April (6,799 to 6,371), hitting has picked up in the warmer months. There were 7,170 hits to 7,137 strikeouts in May and 7,165 hits to 6,986 strikeouts in June.

The majorleague batting average was .251 through June. That is up 3 percentage points from last year’s average, the lowest since 1972 — the year before the American League started using the designated hitter.

Briefly: Shelby Miller has been designated for assignment by the Rangers to clear a spot for lefthander Jesse Biddle, who was claimed off waivers from Seattle last week. Miller was struggling in his return from Tommy John surgery, just like former Texas teammate Drew Smyly, who was designated for assignment June 20 . ... Cleveland traded welltraveled righthander Asher Wojciechowski to the Orioles for cash. The 30yearold went 82 with a 3.61 ERA in 15 starts this season for TripleA Columbus. He’ll probably start Tuesday night’s game for Baltimore against the Rays.