Alex Rodriguez hit his 50th homer of the season and the 514th of his career off Royals rookie Brian Bannister in the fourth inning on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium.
Rodriguez blasted a 3-1 Bannister pitch to straightaway center field for a two-run shot that gave New York a 4-0 lead. It appeared that Royals center fielder Joey Gathright might have a play on the ball, but it cleared the center field fence by a few feet. The homer, measured at 416 feet, was Rodriguez's fifth homer in his last four games and the seventh in his past 10.
The homer was Rodriguez's 48th as a third baseman. The blast broke his own American League record, set in 2005, for homers by an AL third baseman and tied the Major League record for homers by a third baseman in a single season. Mike Schmidt hit 48 in 1980 with the Phillies, and Adrian Beltre tied the mark in 2004 with the Dodgers.
A-Rod became the third Yankees player in team history to hit 50 homers in a single season. Roger Maris, 61 in 1961, and Mickey Mantle, 54 in 1961 and 52 in 1956, are the only other Yankees to hit 50 in a season.
The two RBIs extended Rodriguez's Major League lead to 137. He is the only player in the Majors with more than 42 homers this season. This marks the third time that A-Rod has hit 50 homers in one year. He hit 52 in 2001 and 57 in 2002 with the Texas Rangers.
