The 2018 Yankees and their home run chases

The Yankees have hit a lot of home runs this season. Consider Thursday night when they hit five long balls, with Neil Walker swatting two. That led to a bunch of people throwing stats around on Twitter about where they stand in relation to various records. As a result, I did some basic math and some Baseball Reference Play Index searching to see just how close the Yankees truly are to making history.

Single-season team home run record

Thanks to Thursday’s outburst, the Yankees are now right on pace to tie the 1997 Mariners for the single-season team home run record. In order to pass that mark, they would need to average 1.654 home runs per game over the rest of the season.

The fact that it took a five-home run night to get back on pace to tie the record is a point against them breaking it. That’s still a decent amount of home runs to hit in not a lot of time. A couple zero spots in a game will put them behind in a hurry.

On the other hand, it’s been frequently noted that the August schedule contains a lot of sub-.500 teams. Plus, one hot streak from Giancarlo Stanton alone could put a giant dent into the chase.

Team with most players with 20-plus home runs

One of the Yankees to homer on Thursday night was Aaron Hicks, which gave him 20 dingers for the season. He joined Stanton, Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius to make four Yankees with at least 20 long balls. It also keeps them right on track to tie the record for the team with the most players with 20 or more home runs in a season.

There is currently a six-way tie among teams that have had at least seven players hit the 20 home run threshold. The most recent addition to the list was last year’s Orioles, while the 2009 Yankees also make the list.

Barring injuries of course, Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar should get there as they’re at 18 and 16, respectively. It becomes a little tricky after that as Gary Sanchez has the next most with 14. If the Yankees get him back relatively quickly, he can get there. Six in a month or so is perfectly possible, and power was never the issue with his 2018 season.

Getting an eighth player to break the record is probably unlikely. The best candidate is Greg Bird, who is on nine. He’s struggled of late, but as a rookie he did hit 11 home runs in 46 games. He would have to replicate that performance this year, but he has the power

Most games with a two-home run performance

The 1961 Yankees and the 1966 Braves currently hold the record. In those respective seasons, they had a player hit two home runs in a game 24 times. This year, the Yankees have had 20 two-home runs games so far.

Basic math says a Yankee has done that once every 5.7 games. If they maintain that pace, they can get about eight more multi-home run performances in 2018.

This is another one that may be close, but all it could take is one hot streak from Stanton to get there.

Hardest hit balls of the season

The Yankees’ big beefy boys should have this one on lock.