10:04 pm | May 31, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:
More home runs were hit this May than in any other month in Major League Baseball history.
Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went deep in the eighth inning at Colorado on Friday, the final day of the month, to set the record with the 1,120th homer in May. The previous mark was set in August 2017.
Hitters needed to slug 25 home runs Friday to break the record and ended up hitting 40, bringing the historic final tally for May to 1,135 homers.
This year, Pittsburgh’s Josh Bell, Houston’s Alex Bregman and Cincinnati’s Derek Dietrich led the way with 12 home runs each in May. Bell’s dozen this month are as many as he had all of last season. With 17 on the year, Dietrich has already surpassed his best season tally in his seventh year in the bigs.
The Minnesota Twins hit 56 homers in May to finish just two shy of matching the record of 58 shared by the 1987 Orioles and 1999 Mariners for the most by any team in a calendar month. Minnesota had nine players with at least four homers during the month to set a major league record.
With 2,279 homers on the year after Friday’s games, 2019’s total is on pace to easily surpass the single-season record of 6,105 set two years ago.
Hitters were averaging 2.68 homers per game this year coming into Friday, well above the 2.52 average in 2017.
Of all runs scored this season through Thursday’s games, 44.5 percent have come via homer, far more than the record of 42.3 percent in 2017, according to Elias Sports Bureau research.
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