MLB on record pace for home runs in a season
GABE LACQUES
It’s not yet July, but here’s a spoiler alert for the rest of the Major League Baseball season: There will be a record set for most 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 just now heating up, that trend will likely only 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 absurd statistics from the past week — courtesy Elias Sports Bureau, STATS Inc., Baseball-Reference and others —that show us home runs — 2,883 so far — once again rule the major league landscape:
Cody Bellinger could command his own category of gee-whiz accomplishments. Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger’s latest two-homer game was a record-setter — his sixth of the season, most by a rookie in franchise and National League history. He seems a shoo-in 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’s 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.
You already know Bellinger went deep twice Sunday. But what about T.J. Rivera? Yes, the light-hitting Mets utilityman 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 multi-home run game for 27 consecutive days, according to Elias. Yes, that’s a record. Memorial Day was the last time there was no multi-homer game, though that day did give us a record for a mound-charging helmet toss.
The Oakland Athletics’ latest re-tooling is getting ready to trend up again, and they announced this in resounding fashion Saturday when three A’s hit their first major league home runs in the same game.
Top prospect Franklin Barreto, Matt Olson and Jaycob Brugman all went deep against the Chicago White Sox. According to Elias, that’s the first time since 1914 three teammates hit first homers in the same game — when three members of the Federal League’s Kansas City Packers pulled off the feat.
Olson later added a second homer, inserting himself into the multi-homer streak as well.
The Dodgers have a 10-game winning streak. They have homered in 17 consecutive games, going 16-1 in that stretch. There may be a correlation here.
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.
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 round number over the weekend — 25 homers in 68 games. Only McGwire and Jose Abreu (and probably Bellinger) got there quicker as rookies.