Giancarlo Stanton’s Impressive HR Lead

I was struck recently not only by the number of homeruns, 54, that Giancarlo Stanton has hit so far this season, but by the lead he has over the guys with the second most: Aaron Judge and Khris Davis had 39 each, until today when Judge hit two more for a total of 41. So as of now, Stanton has a lead of 13.

I know the record for biggest HR lead in a season, across all of MLB not just in one league, is held by Babe Ruth — because he changed the game in terms of homeruns. But what I wondered today was… has anyone since Ruth led by as many as 13? It has been a while, since 1965 in fact: that year Willie Mays hit 52 and his teammate Willie McCovey hit 39.

Here are the seasons where the MLB leader in HR led the second best by more than 10:
12 – 2010: Jose Bautista 54, Albert Pujols 42
11 – 1990: Cecil Fielder 51, Ryne Sandberg 40
11 – 1989: Kevin Mitchell 47, Howard Johnson and Fred McGriff had 36 each
11 – 1977: George Foster 52, Jeff Burroughs 41
13 – 1965: Willie Mays 52, teammate Willie McCovey 39
11 – 1949: Ralph Kiner 54, Ted Williams 43
14 – 1933: Jimmie Foxx 48, Babe Ruth 34
17 – 1932: Jimmie Foxx 58, Babe Ruth 41
23 – 1928: Babe Ruth 54, Jim Bottomley and Hack Wilson 31 each
13 – 1927: Babe Ruth 60, teammate Lou Gehrig 47
26 – 1926: Babe Ruth 47, Hack Wilson 21
19 – 1924: Babe Ruth 46, Joe Hauser and Jack Fournier 27 each
35 – 1921: Babe Ruth 59, Ken Williams and Bob Meusel 24 each
35 – 1920: Babe Ruth 54, George Sisler 19
17 – 1919: Babe Ruth 29, Gavvy Cravath 12
13 – 1899: Buck Freeman 25, Bobby Wallace 12

So… it will be interesting to see if Giancarlo can maintain his current lead of 13, as that would be the most since 1965. If he can stretch the lead to 14 then that would be the most since 1933.