The home run race has turned into a real traffic jam.
Junior Caminero and Matt Olson each went deep for the 35th time this season on Tuesday night, pulling even for the MLB lead. Yordan Alvarez already had 35 homers when he got there on July 28, and Kyle Schwarber joined him on Sunday by launching two more to reach the same number. That leaves Wednesday with a four-man tie at the top.
That kind of late-season pileup is rare. In fact, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time four or more players were tied atop the MLB home run leaderboard this late in a season - through games of Aug. 11 or later, and excluding 2020 - was 1982.
That year, the leaderboard was stuck at 34 homers at the end of both Sept. 8 and Sept. 9, with Gorman Thomas, Dale Murphy, Reggie Jackson and Dave Kingman all sharing the lead.
Thomas was the first one to 34, doing it with two homers on Aug. 26.
By the end of that day, he was sitting three ahead of Jackson and Murphy, while Kingman was back at 30. Then Thomas cooled off, and the rest of the field closed in.
Jackson caught him on Sept. 5, and when Murphy and Kingman each hit No. 34 on Sept. 8, the race became a four-way tie.
That tie didn’t last long. On Sept. 10, Murphy and Kingman both moved to 35, and the logjam finally broke.
The finish was still tight. Jackson and Thomas each ended with 39 home runs, sharing the Major League and American League lead. Kingman finished with 37 to lead the National League, tied with Dave Winfield for third in the Majors, while Murphy wound up fifth in MLB with 36.
There’s a lot of season left, so this one can still change in a hurry. But the last time the home run chase got this crowded this late, it stayed close all the way down the stretch. And with Alvarez also in the hunt for a Triple Crown - not just in the American League - the stakes stretch beyond the home run column alone.
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