Kansas City's Alex Gordon has broken Major League Baseball's season home-run record with 12 days to spare, hitting the 5694th long ball of 2017.
Gordon's home run on Tuesday night off Toronto reliever Ryan Tepera broke a mark set in 2000 at the height of the steroids era. The drive, for the last run in the Royals' 5-2 loss, was his eighth this season and the 159th of his 11-year big league career.
"A pretty cool thing to be a part of," Gordon said. "I didn't hit many this year, but I guess I made one count."
It was the 17th home run of the night in the major leagues and came just after Detroit's Alex Presley tied the record when he connected at home against Oakland's Daniel Gossett.
Gordon said he heard talk of the record on a clubhouse television after Toronto's Darwin Barney homered in the sixth.
"I was kind of aware that we were getting close to it," he said. "After I walked back to the dugout, I kind of forgot about it."
Holding the ball he hit over the right-field wall, Gordon said he didn't plan to keep the historic memento or anything else from the game.
There were 5610 homers last year, an average of 2.31 per game, and 2017's average of 2.53 entering Tuesday's action projects to 6139. That would be up 47 per cent from 4186 in 2014.
"I don't know what to make of it," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Guys are bigger and guys are stronger but so are the pitchers. There sure are a lot of home runs being hit."
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