It's been a good month for the long ball across the Major Leagues.
When the Twins' Max Kepler hit a solo shot in the top of the third inning in Cleveland on Wednesday night, it was the 1,034th home run of August. That set an MLB record for August and is the second most in any month in history, trailing only May 2000, when 1,069 homers were hit.
The previous record for August was set in 2004. Entering the final day of the month, big leaguers had 1,015 this year, leaving them 19 short of a new record. Kepler, a rookie, provided the decisive blow with his 16th homer of the season and fifth of August.
The biggest contributor to the August power display has been the Orioles, who had launched an MLB-high 54 homers this month entering Wednesday's game against Toronto. That's just one shy of the August record for a team, held by the 1997 Mariners, '99 Rangers and '99 A's.
On an individual level, the Twins' Brian Dozier entered the day leading the Majors with 12 dingers in August. The Rockies' Charlie Blackmon and Yankees rookie Gary Sánchez each had 11.