Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Baseball Essential and was written by Tom Dorsa.
If you’ve watched even one game of the 2019 Major League Baseball season, you probably know that home runs are happening at an insane rate, and that number doesn’t seem to be going down. MLB teams have combined to clobber 3,277 long balls this year, which is on pace to shatter the 2017 record by more than 500 home runs. Home runs per game is standing at a cool 1.36, an MLB single-season record by a considerable margin and an incredible mark compared to just five years ago when the rate was just 0.86.
The Minnesota Twins have hit a remarkable 149 home runs, a season pace of 309, which would absolutely destroy the team single-season record of 267, set just last year by the New York Yankees. About those Yankees, they recently set the record for most consecutive games with a home run, with 29. Earlier this season, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies set an MLB record with 13 homers in a single game.
Individually, the crazy stats continue; Christian Yelich is on pace to hit 60 home runs, which has been done only eight times in MLB history and only twice by players outside of the power-heavy steroid era of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Second only to Yelich (29) in home runs this season is New York Mets rookie Peter Alonso, whose 27 bombs give him considerable odds to beat Cody Bellinger‘s 2017 record of home runs by a National League rookie (39) and a fighting chance to eclipse Aaron Judge‘s 52 from the same season, which is the all-time MLB rookie home run record.
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About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book and created an online class about how to get started as a sports blogger. Check those out and more helpful tips on sports blogging at his website.
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