It's almost impossible to describe what Minnesota has done to the MLB season home run record.
The Twins hit six more homers Saturday in a loss to the Tigers, giving them 268 for the season, breaking the all-time record set just last year by the 2018 Yankees.
But the Twins didn't just break the record. With 27 games still to play entering Sunday, they will end up (choose a verb here) obliterating, annihilating, crushing, destroying, smashing, etc., the old mark.
In a year when home runs have become so common that some observers fear they are hurting the game, it's hard to put into perspective how far from the norm the home run explosion is by baseball's cherished historical standards. MLB teams are on pace to shatter the season record for home runs, 6,105, set in 2017. And the Yankees, Dodgers and Astros are all on pace to break the season record set by the Yankees in 2018.
But talking in generic numbers like that makes it difficult to comprehend the situation. So let's put some faces and names to the numbers for some perspective. Take the 2019 Minnesota Twins — how would they stack up against other well-known lineups in MLB history?
Consider these comparisons:
— The 1927 Yankees earned the nickname "Murderers' Row" for their fearsome lineup. Yet aside from Babe Ruth, who hit a record 60 homers that year, Lou Gehrig (47) and Tony Lazerri (18) no one else hit more than eight home runs. Twins outfielder Jake Cave, who ranks 12th on the team in home runs, has seven homers this year.
— How about the 1976 Cincinnati Reds, the "Big Red Machine" that won a second straight World Series that year, with sluggers including Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, George Foster and Joe Morgan. Only two Reds topped 20 home runs that year (Foster hit 29 and Morgan had 27). Entering Sunday the 2019 Twins already have eight players with 20 home runs this season: Max Kepler (36), Nelson Cruz (34), Eddie Rosario (27), Mitch Garver (26), Miguel Sano (26), C.J. Cron (24), Jonathan Schoop (21) and Jorge Polanco (20). They're the first team in MLB history with eight players to hit 20 or more home runs.
— Longtime Twins fans recall Minnesota's 1991 World Series championship team, boasting a slugging lineup that ranked 10th in baseball in home runs. Chili Davis led that team with 29 home runs, and power-hitting first baseman Kent Hrbek finished second with 20. Based on the power numbers, Hrbek would bat ninth for the 2019 Twins.
— The 2019 Twins are on pace to hit 54 more home runs this season. The 1965 World Series champion Dodgers hit 78 home runs the entire season. Granted, those Dodgers were a notoriously light-hitting team, and last in the majors in home runs that year. But still … they won a World Series.
Such comparisons involve some cherrypicking, sure. And this is not to downplay what the 2019 Twins have achieved, or demean what those other teams accomplished in the past. It's always difficult to compare statistics across different eras in any sport. But as many critics of MLB's home run explosion point out, the inflated stats from this era make comparisons across time meaningless.