Right fielder Giancarlo Stanton hit a pair of homers in the Miami Marlins 8-6 victory over the San Diego Padres and is only 12 away from reaching his personal goal of 61 for the season.
The Marlins’ slugger, who leads the majors with 49 home runs, carried his team to victory driving in five RBIs, all of them against Padres starter Travis Wood.
The Puerto Rican slugger, who accomplished the feat for the first time in his career, is confirming with his actions that he’s having one of the best seasons ever for a batter.
Wood stroke four batters but lasted just 5.1 innings as Stanton went three-for-three against him adding a two-run double in the fourth inning.
It was Stanton’s ninth game of the season with more than one homer, something that was last accomplished by Toronto’s Jose Bautista in 2010.
Dominican Left fielder Marcell Ozuna blasted a three-run homer off reliever Kirby Yates to reach 30 for the season and help the Marlins win the fifth of their last six games.
In the National League, no one had finished with more than 50 home runs in a season since Prince Fielder (Milwaukee Brewers) did in 2007 and the Marlins still have 35 games remaining.
The Marlins (64-63) are above .500 for the first time since April and look ready to contend for the National League’s second wild card spot, which right now belongs to the Colorado Rockies.
Although the Marlins trail the Rockies by 5.5 games and have two other teams in front of them (Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals) they should feel confident if Stanton continues blasting homers at the current pace, because in case you have forgotten they’ve won their two World Series after making the playoffs as wild card.
