Stanton hits 59th HR, Maris and Ruth in range

Sixty is officially within sight.

After ripping home run No. 58 earlier in Thursday's contest, Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton stepped up again in the eighth inning and crushed his 59th homer of the season off Atlanta Braves pitcher Rex Brothers.

The homer traveled 467 feet and had an exit velocity of 118.7 mph - the third-hardest-hit home run in all of baseball this season, according to Mark Bowman of MLB.com.

Stanton, for the moment, joins Babe Ruth (1921) as the only players to have hit exactly 59 home runs in a single season - a mark that's good enough for ninth on the single-season list. The 27-year-old is the first to hit at least 59 since 2001, when Sammy Sosa hit 64 for the Cubs and Barry Bonds hit what remains the Major League Baseball's single-season record of 73 home runs for the Giants.

The 60-homer mark has only been reached eight times by five different players in baseball history.

Stanton's two homers on Thursday night gave him 10 multi-home run games this season, the most by a single player since Albert Pujols also had 10 such games for the Cardinals in 2009, according to MLB Stat of the Day. The record for multi-homer games in a season is 11, held by Sosa in 1998 and Hank Greenberg in 1938, notes ESPN Stats & Info.

Stanton now has three games left in the season - all against the Braves - to reach the 60-homer mark and pad his totals in his MVP-caliber season. Beginning Friday he'll face opposition in starters Luiz Gohara, Lucas Sims, and Max Fried; combined, the three Braves rookies he's scheduled to face have pitched a total of 100 2/3 innings in the major leagues.