After tying the all-time record for single-season home runs with their 264th homer on Friday night, the Yankees returned to break that record on Saturday. While most of their heavy hitters — Home Run Derby champions Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge included — were held out of the lineup for Saturday’s game, they found plenty of power in rookie slugger Gleyber Torres, who mashed his 24th homer of the year on a 385-footer off of the Red Sox’ Eduardo Rodriguez.
The record-breaking blast arrived in the top of the fourth inning. With two outs and Greg Bird on third, Torres worked a 1-1 count against Rodriguez, then unleashed a long drive over the right field fence to give the Yankees a 4-1 advantage:
Torres was also instrumental in helping the Yankees tie the previous single-season home run record, though it was Gary Sanchez, Aaron Hicks, Luke Voit, and Aaron Judge who drove in the remaining four home runs on Friday night to bring the club to an even 264 on the year. According to ESPN’s Coley Harvey, the team has now registered at least 20 homers from each spot in the batting order — and, more importantly, they’ve outpaced the 1997 Mariners, who had gone undefeated for 21 years after putting up 264 home runs prior to their run at the ALDS.
Of course, there are still 13 innings left to play this year, so if the rest of the series goes the way of Friday’s game, the Yankees may set the bar even higher by the time the regular season concludes on Sunday.