WATCH: Gary Sanchez's 20th home run helps set an MLB record

With their postseason hopes hanging by a thread, the Yankees welcomed the Red Sox to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday for the first game of a three-game series (GameTracker). New York's tragic number is two, meaning any combination of Yankees losses and Orioles wins equaling two will eliminate them.

The Yankees jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead Tuesday thanks to Gary Sanchez's first-inning two-run home run off David Price. Here's the video:

Sanchez has hit 20 home runs in his first 51 career games, tying Wally Berger of the 1930 Boston Braves for the fastest to 20 homers in MLB history. He's doing it as a full-time catcher too. Impressive.

Sanchez's home run also set an MLB record. There are now 104 players with 20-plus homer runs this season, the most ever.

Six other players came into Tuesday with exactly 19 home runs on the season: Matt Carpenter, Didi Gregorius, Matt Holliday, Brian McCann, Ryan Schimpf and Jean Segura. Segura hit his 20th home run moments after Sanchez, so there are now 105 players with 20 homers this season. We could end up with 110 or more.

As Matt Snyder explained recently, 2016 is the year of the home run. There have been 1.163 home runs per game this season, second most in history behind 2000 (1.171). Last season there were an average of 1.010 home runs per game.

Lots of folks -- myself included -- think the ball is being juiced to help spark offense around the league. The jump in home run rate from 2015 to 2016 is staggering.