Stanton’s grand slam finishes off Yankees’ 9- 3 bash of Rays
Giancarlo Stanton hit a grand slam in the ninth inning for New York’s fourth home run of the game, and the Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 9- 3 Monday night in the opener of their American League Division Series at San Diego’s Petco Park.
Stanton homered to straightaway center field on a 2- and- 2 pitch from John Curtiss with one out. The slugger took several steps with his bat still in his hands as he watched the ball sail through the warm San Diego night before beginning his trot.
A few fans chanted “Let’s Go Yankees!” from a balcony on an office building just beyond right field of the mostly empty ballpark.
“That SoCal air, man. That SoCal weather,” said Stanton, a Sherman Oaks Notre Dame alum. “That’s what it is.”
Kyle Higashioka and Aaron Judge hit the tying and go- ahead home runs off Blake Snell in the fifth inning. Clint Frazier hit an impressive shot into the second deck in left in the third.
The Yankees became the f irst team in AL history to hit a grand slam in back- to- back playoff games. Gio Urshela did it in Game 2 of the first- round sweep of Cleveland.
“This is what I signed up for,” Stanton said. “This is the time where you’ve got to step up and do your job.”
The Yankees also set a franchise record by hitting at least three home runs in three straight postseason games. New York has hit 11 homers in those three games — the most for any team in the first three games of a postseason.
“They can hit, there’s no secret in that,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “There’s nothing that was unexpected with them.”
The ball was f lying for the Rays as well, off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. Randy Arozarena homered with two outs in the f irst and Ji- Man Choi muscled an opposite- f ield, two- run shot with no outs in the fourth into the Rays bullpen beyond the fence in left- center to give Tampa Bay a 3- 2 lead.
Cole got the win by going six innings, yielding three runs and six hits while striking out eight and walking two. The Yankees’ ace was pitching about 100 miles south of where he grew up in Newport Beach before playing at UCLA.
Rays reliever Shane McClanahan became the f irst pitcher in baseball history to make his big league debut in a postseason game.
For Game 2, prized rookie Deivi Garcia, 21, is set to become the youngest Yankees pitcher to make a postseason start. He would surpass Hall of Famer Whitey Ford, who was nearly 22 when he started Game 4 of the 1950 World Series.
Astros 10, Athletics 5: A home run derby broke out during a hot, dry day at Dodger Stadium, and suddenly Houston has its swing and swagger back.
Carlos Correa homered twice and drove in four runs, Jose Altuve hit a go- ahead, two- run single during a four- run sixth inning and the Astros rallied to win the opener.
George Springer had four hits for Houston, which trailed 3- 0 and 5- 3.
“To get down early and not quit and fight hard and come out with a win in the f irst game is obviously huge,” Springer said.
The Astros rallied with two outs in the sixth against Oakland’s vaunted bullpen to take control of Major League Baseball’s first neutral- site postseason game resulting from the COVID- 19 pandemic. Houston pounded out 16 hits in all as the Athletics ran through eight pitchers.
“As the game got deeper,” Springer said, “the at- bats got better.”
The teams combined for six home runs in daytime conditions that were ripe for the ball to carry at the stadium where the Dodgers hit a major league- leading 118 homers.
“I’ve never seen the ball carry like that here,” said Astros manager Dusty Baker, an All- Star player for the Dodgers in the 1980s.