Cool fact: Victorino ties Lum

This story started from The Associated Press, but was finished by sports editor Brad Sherman, who may know as much statistical information about Maui’s major league athletes as anyone on the planet. And therefore, you get pertinent local-kine stuff like the start of this story:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Shane Victorino hit his 16th home run of the year on Wednesday, matching the single-season high for a Hawaii-born major leaguer, and helped the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1.

The St. Anthony High School graduate led off the second inning by sending a 2-0 pitch from Clayton Kershaw into the left-field bullpen.

Mike Lum of Honolulu hit 16 home runs for the Atlanta Braves in 1973, which had stood alone as the best single-season total among Baseball-Reference.com's list of Hawaii-born players. Prior to Wednesday, Victorino had been tied for second with Baldwin graduate Kurt Suzuki of the Oakland Athletics, who hit 15 last year, and Honolulu's Benny Agbayani, who hit 15 for the New York Mets in 2000.

Lum hit 90 career homers from 1967 to 1981 with the Braves, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs, best among Hawaii players. Victorino, who is in his sixth season with the Phillies and played for the San Diego Padres in 2003, ranks second with 60. Suzuki (41) is third and Agbayani (39) fourth.

Victorino homered 14 times last year, when he was the National League's starting center fielder in the All-Star game and received votes for league MVP.

Victorino finished Wednesday's game 2-for-4. He was 1-for-3 against Kershaw, and is batting .326 this year against left-handers.

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