Giancarlo Stanton Has Been on a 104 Home Run Pace Lately

Giancarlo Stanton set the Marlins franchise record with his 43rd home run of the season last night. The slugger continues a blistering pace that’s getting to be a bit ridiculous. Stanton has homered in five consecutive games and nine of his last 11. He has 22 longballs over the last 34 games. If he were to somehow keep this pace up for an entire season, it’d yield a physically impossible 104 home runs, 31 more than Barry Bonds’ record.

Stanton has outhomered the Pittsburgh Pirates in August and has the same number of blasts as the Tampa Bay Rays. And yet, opposing teams keep pitching to him.

With 17 second-half home runs, he’s on pace to hit 60 on the season, meaning Roger Maris’ once-mythical mark of 61 is in play if the regression doesn’t hit. Stanton is so hot that even his “soft” contact is going out.

Last night’s dinger (95.1 mph exit velocity) was the slowest of the StatCast era.

[MLB]