This week in home runs was pretty tame. Oh, the total homers hit was on par for the season. But there weren’t many of the bells and whistles as the last few weeks. We had a legend tie another legend for fifth all time. There was a great game by a player who is climbing the season leaders list. With just two weeks left in the season and with Covid-19 still a factor just about the only thing that is normal is that the balls were still flying out of the park. This week there was a total of 233 home runs hit and for the season the total stands at 1,805. Let’s take a look at this week in home runs.
Say Hey Pujols
Albert Pujols is winding down a Hall of Fame career. In his 20th season at 40 years old, Pujols has just tied a legendary player for career home runs. This past Sunday Pujols hit his 660th career homer tying Hall of Famer Willie Mays for fifth overall in MLB history. Pujols will eventually pass “The Sey Hey” kid and it could happen this season. Next up on the all-time list is Alex Rodriguez with 696 career dingers. Pujols has one year remaining on his contract and it seems unlikely he can pass up Rodriguez.
Pujols was not the only player who had a milestone home run during the week. Nelson Cruz hit his 417th home run passing up Darrell Evans for 53rd all time. Cruz who is 40 years old, will be a free agent after this season and is still one of the top sluggers in the game. There are still some significant players that Cruz can still pass up. Cruz will be playing baseball in 2021.
Mike Trout is another story. Trout hit his 301st career home run tying “The Raja” Rogers Hornsby for 149th all time. At 29 years old, Trout could possibly double his career home run total by the time he hangs up the spikes. Trout has played 10 seasons and has a 162 game average of 39 home runs. Trout, who is widely considered as the best player in the game will continue his assault on the record books well into this decade.
One Man Show
We have certainly had several three-homer games this season. But in the case of Adam Duvall, he has now had two games with three long balls this season. Duvall’s three bombs led the Atlanta Braves to a 29-9 victory over the Miami Marlins. What was special about Duvall’s game was that he hit a two-run homer, three-run homer, and a grand slam. In all Duvall went 3-4 with the three homers and nine RBI. He also walked twice and scored five runs.
Multi Homer Games
As is the norm there were eight players who had multi-homer games. In the American League, we had Rafael Devers of the Boston Red Sox, Luke Voit of the New York Yankees, Nate Lowe of the Tampa Bay Rays, and Chicago White Sox teammates James McCann and Jose Abreu.
Over in the National League, we had Gavin Lux of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jedd Gyorko of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Freddie Freeman of the Braves.
Welcome to the Show
Another norm this season is the number of players hitting their first career home runs. Well, we can add five more names to the list. We had a pair of Minnesota Twins hitting their first career dinger. Ryan Jeffers hit his first homer against the Detroit Tigers. Brent Rooker went deep vs the St. Louis Cardinals for his first long ball. The Tigers were victimized again when Tyrone Taylor of the Brewers hit his first bomb. Jazz Chisholm of the Marlins hit his first home run against the Braves. Lastly, Jorge Ona of the San Diego Padres hit his first blast against the San Francisco Giants.
Game Winners
It was a light week for game-winning home runs but there were still three hit. Pete Alonso of the New York Mets hit a game-winning solo home run against the Baltimore Orioles. Charlie Blackmon of the Colorado Rockies hit a walk-off Grand Slam against the Los Angeles Angels. The last game-winning home run of the week was hit by Jason Heyward against the Brewers.
Weekly Leaders
Adam Duvall led the league with five home runs in the week. Adalberto Mondesi and Jared Walsh each had four homers. Eight players were tied with three homers. The Twins were the team with the most homers with 18. The Braves had 15 jacks. The Cardinals, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Yankees all had 11.
Season Leaders
By the end of the week, there was a three-way tie for the Major League lead in homers. Mike Trout, Nelson Cruz, and Luke Voit each have 16 homers. Jose Abreu, Mookie Betts, and Fernando Tatis all had 15 homers. With 14 home runs, we have Teoscar Hernandez, Marcell Ozuna, and Adam Duvall. Rounding out the league leaders we have Matt Olson, Manny Machado, Eugenio Suarez, and Eloy Jimenez tied with 13.
The Dodgers as a team lead the league with 90 homers. The Braves have 82 long balls, the Padres have 81, the White Sox have 78 and the Twins round out the top five with 74.
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