Last night in Baltimore the MLB single-season home run record was broken with 18 days left in the 2019 season.
The Baltimore Orioles were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers last night when the Major League record for home runs in a season was set by Jonathan Villar. The home run was Villar’s 21st of the season.
Villar hit the three-run, record-setting blast off Dodgers pitcher Caleb Ferguson in the 7th inning to give the Orioles the 5-2 lead in an eventual 7-2 Baltimore win. With that blast, it was the 6,106th home run of the season.
The previous record of 6,105 was set in 2017. This season and 2017 are the only seasons with more than 6,000 home runs in major league history. There is no doubt that home runs continue to be hit at an astronomical rate in the last couple of years.
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I mean we still haven’t seen a clear-cut winner in the home run race. There are five players within four home runs of the leader, Pete Alonso. Those players are Mike Trout (45), Christian Yelich (44), Cody Bellinger (44), Eugenio Suarez (44) and Jorge Soler (43).
This has led many people to believe that MLB is juicing the balls or in other words deliberately altering the balls to increase the number of home runs hit. For a lot of people, they love the home runs and like to see the long ball, more so than any other part of the game.
The higher scores create the excitement some feel baseball today lacks. I love the game of baseball and have no problem with how it is being played these days.
I’m in no way shape or form some kind of baseball purist, but I happen to love all aspects of the game. By all aspects, I truly mean all aspects. I love seeing someone hit for the cycle, scores getting higher and higher. What I love even more is seeing baseball’s almost impossible feats being accomplished.
I love seeing a pitcher’s duel. You can just feel the tension in the air that one mistake will cost your team the game and the great defense surrounding that pitcher. I love seeing no-hitters and perfect games. I love it all!
This game is exciting no matter what happens. We are coming up on the stretch most exciting of all, the playoff push and the postseason. Sit back and relax because the fun has only just begun.