Record 62 homers hit around baseball Tuesday

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Associated Press

A record 62 home runs were hit in the major leagues Tuesday night, breaking the mark of 57 set April 7, 2000.

Jay Gibbons' second homer of the night for Baltimore off Anaheim's Scott Schoeneweis broke the record.

"That's kind of a weird stat to have," Gibbons said. "I didn't even know they kept that. The ball must have been traveling well tonight."

The hitters didn't stop after that.

Los Angeles' Eric Karros connected against Arizona's Greg Swindell, Oakland's Olmedo Saenz hit a game-winning two-run shot against Minnesota's Eddie Guardado, and Kansas City's Mike Sweeney and Raul Ibanez homered off Seattle's Kazuhiro Sasaki.

Ibanez's homer was his second of the day, making him the record ninth player to hit at least two in a game Tuesday. The previous mark was eight, on May 19, 1999.

"It's cool you know," Ibanez said. "I guess it's a bigger deal to the fans and stuff. We're caught up playing the game and trying to win."

There were 30 homers hit in the American League, topped by a record-tying 12 in Chicago's 17-9 victory over Detroit.

San Francisco and Colorado combined for 10 of the 32 homers in the NL in the Giants' 18-5 win at Coors Field.

San Francisco's Damon Minor, Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Reggie Sanders each homered twice as the Giants became the 16th team to have three players with multiple homers in a game. Barry Bonds, who set the major league record with 73 last season, didn't hit any.

Magglio Ordonez and Sandy Alomar of the Chicago White Sox, Detroit's Dmitri Young, Houston's Lance Berkman also homered twice.

Sammy Sosa hit his major league-leading 28th homer for the Chicago Cubs, one more than Berkman.

There were four grand slams hit Tuesday, by Shinjo, Ordonez, the Yankees' Jorge Posada and Montreal's Fernando Tatis.

Placido Polanco, Jim Edmonds and Albert Pujols homered in consecutive at-bats for the St. Louis Cardinals in their 11-5 win over San Diego.

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