Can Baltimore Orioles Slugger Chris Davis Break the Home Run Record?

On Saturday the Baltimore Orioles dipped a half game behind the New York Yankees in the AL East after the Bronx Bombers beat the Birds 5-4. Andy Pettitte earned his sixth win with a good (but not great performance) and Mariano Rivera closed the game out for save No. 29.

But the statistic that many will be looking at beyond the win is not from one of the Yankees, but the hard-hitting slugger from Baltimore--Chris Davis.

Keith Allison/Flickr

Davis got the scoring started Saturday with home run No. 33 of the season, a two-run blast to deep center in the top of the first.  With the rate that he is hitting them out of the park you have to start wondering if he has a chance to break the record.

Can he hit another 41 home runs and take Barry Bonds off the top of the single season home run list?

As much as fans would love to see someone that didn't have to cheat on top of the list Davis would have to step up the pace quite a bit if he was going to reach 74 home runs this season. At his current pace of three every eight games he is on track to get right around 60 this season, a feat only accomplished eight times in the history of the game.

To best Bonds he need to do better than a home run every other game for the rest of the season.

Yeah, kind of a tall order, but as far as Davis is concerned the real record doesn't belong to Bonds, but to Roger Maris. Davis had this to say to ESPN's Mike and Mike:

“I do and the reason being, he was the last guy to do it clean. There’s a lot of things that have been said about the guys who have come after him and you know and have achieved the record, but I think as far as the fans are concerned they still view Maris as being the all-time home run record [holder] and I think you have to.”

Now Maris's mark of 61--that he can reach.