ATLANTA, GA – AUGUST 5: Giancarlo Stanton #27 of the Miami Marlins hits a sixth inning solo home run against the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park on August 5, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Giancarlo Stanton homered again Tuesday night, marking the sixth straight game the Marlins outfielder had gone yard. Stanton is up to 44 homers on the season, eight more than any other Major Leaguer and 10 more than any other National Leaguer. After years of teasing us with his eye-popping power while failing to put it all together in a fully healthy season, Giancarlo has arrived as the best power hitter in baseball and one of the best of all-time.

With six weeks of season remaining, Stanton has a shot at joining some remarkable company. So far this year, Stanton has homered once every 2.64 games. If he maintains that rate over the Marlins’ final 44 games, he will hit 17 more by the end of 2017 and wind up with 61, tying Roger Maris’ still-hallowed total from the 1961 season.

While it may sound optimistic to assume Stanton will continue his Ruthian rate of homers, the way Stanton is going right now makes anything seem possible. He has six homers in his last six games, 11 homers in his last 12 games and 23 homers in his last 35 games. As usual, these aren’t cheapies. They’re mostly laser line drives with some soaring blasts mixed in. On one hand, Stanton will almost certainly cool down. On the other hand, we’ve been assuming that for more than a month, and it hasn’t happened yet.

Any way you look at it, Stanton could legitimately become the first player since Barry Bonds to hit 60 home runs in a season. To get there, the guy who has hit almost a homer a game for more than a month has to hit “only” 16 in his final 44. If you need a refresher, here is the full list of 60-home-run seasons in baseball history:

Barry Bonds, 2001 — 73
Mark McGwire, 1998 — 70
Sammy Sosa, 1998 — 66
Mark McGwire, 1999 — 65
Sammy Sosa, 2001 — 64
Sammy Sosa, 1999 — 63
Roger Maris, 1961 — 61
Babe Ruth, 1927 — 60

If Stanton reaches Maris’ total, some people will attempt to argue that he has claimed the “real” single-season home run record. This will be false. Barry Bonds owns that record and will continue to own that record until someone else hits 74 home runs in a season. But no matter how you feel about late-1990s/early-2000s home run totals, we can all agree that 60 long balls is an incredible accomplishment. That number has been a barely attainable golden standard for home-run hitters for 90 years and will continue to carry some magic for decades into the future. And in order to get there, Giancarlo Stanton just has to keep hitting like Giancarlo Stanton.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.