Before this season, there had only been 19 occasions in MLB history in which two teammates in their age 25-or-under season each had reached 30 homers.
Through the weekend, it already had happened twice this year, and there was a decent chance it was going to happen a few more times before this round-tripper-soaked seasons is concluded.
Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez already have become the 11th set of teammates 25 and under to each hit 30, with one topping at least 40. That had last been done by Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, who did so in both 2007 and ’09.
Baltimore’s Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop also have reached at least 30 homers this year. The others who were close to joining the 25-and-under duo set:
The Rangers’ Joey Gallo had 38 homers and Rougned Odor 29, the Indians’ Francisco Lindor had 30 and Jose Ramirez 27, the Cubs’ Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber each had 27, and the Twins’ Miguel Sano had 28 homers and Eddie Rosario had 26. Sano, though, has been on the DL since Aug. 20 with a shin injury, with no publicly established date when he might return.
Before this season, the last teammates 25 and under to reach 30 homers in the same season were Pedro Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen, with the 2012 Pirates.
Judge and Sanchez are the second set of Yankees teammates to ever do so, joining Joe Gordon and Joe DiMaggio with the 1940 club.
The homers just keep coming
There had been 5,610 homers hit in the majors through the weekend — just 53 shy of the record set last year. Thus, you can expect the record to fall by Wednesday at the latest.
At least one player had reached 20 homers on eight straight days through the weekend, and there were 107 who had amassed that many this season — four shy of the record.
But for those who are not slaves to totals that end in fives and zeroes, the record for players who have reached 19 homers in a season already has been set. There were 115 players who had reached 19 homers, eclipsing the record 112 from last season.
The only team without at least two players who had reached 19 homers this year was the Giants, who have none. They also had the majors’ worst record.
And, if you care about such things, the weekend concluded with 96 players with 21 homers. The record is 97 last year.