STANTON EXPLODES, YANKS STAY HOT:
This could be start of Stanton’s big-time breakout
The Yankees keep saying it, and one day it really, truly and totally is going to come to fruition. Promise. One of these potential breakout games that Giancarlo Stanton has sprinkled intermittently into the Yankees’ roaring first-quarter start to 2018 is going to trigger a personal binge of power and production during which last year’s National League MVP will carry their locked-and-loaded lineup for weeks at a time, just as Didi Gregorius did in April, just as Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge have done for extended periods over the past two seasons. We might ultimately look back on Sunday’s long-delayed 6-2 Mother’s Day decision over Oakland as the one, after Stanton ripped his 10th homer of the season and a tworun single amid his second four-hit game as a Yankee. “Much later than I wanted it to, but I’ve been working hard, and working hard on trying to feel comfortable every day,” Stanton said. “Not just put a good game together and then have a couple of bad. But just every day.” These sort of cleanup-worthy star turns have been few and far between for Stanton, of course, but his batting average suddenly has crept up to .252 following a ridiculously boo-filled initial month of adjustment in the Bronx. “Just happy with the work he’s put in, the hard work behind the scenes, the grind you see day in and day out from him, when it gets rewarded, I love that,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s a great player…and the production is going to be there over time. “Whether it’s now, he’s going to get hot this week, whatever, I don’t worry about it. I know he’s prepared. I know he’s grinding through things, I think his game plan has been really strong. I just want him to continue to feel settled in here with his new team and I think he absolutely is. Without predicting anything, I know one thing I’ll predict in the end, it will be massive production.” Consider this: On May 13 of last season, the $325 million slugger’s production numbers (.259 with 11 homers and 26 RBI) were virtually identical to those he’s posted so far as a Yankee, only with one fewer long ball this year.
Oh, by the way, Stanton clubbed 45 homers from June 1 forward in 2017 with Miami to finish one shy of a Ruthian 60 and two behind Roger Maris’ fabled franchise mark (*) for the Bombers.
I’m still not ready to predict the four-time All-Star is going to approach 59 dingers again in his first season in New York. His second-half tear a year ago was that insane and remains unlikely to be duplicated.
Still, it doesn’t appear as if this lineup is even going to need Stanton to rip quite that many over the 162game slate, as the Yanks continue to positively pound opposing pitchers just about every day, to the tune of an ML-best 5.8 runs per game through their 28-12 start.
Now, imagine the summertime possibilities if he does.
Stanton reaching double digits in homers on Sunday gives the Bombers four players already — Judge (11), Gregorius (10), Stanton and Sanchez (10) — with at least 10 apiece just 40 games into 2018. Even my fading math skills can extrapolate that out to a 40-plus homer pace for all four of the lineup’s 2-34-5 hitters.
In this franchise’s illustrious history, it must be noted, no THREE players ever had done that in the first 40 games of any season.
Boone’s first-place club now has won seven consecutive series and 19 of its last 22 games, zooming the overall winning percentage to a .700 clip. The surge suddenly places the Yanks on pace (more math!) for 113.4 wins this season, barely a smidge shy of the franchise measuring stick from two decades ago, the franchise regular-season record 114 victories registered by the 1998 World Champs.
And All-Star righty Luis Severino continues to raise the bar even higher than last year’s breakout campaign and third-place Cy Young finish suggested, improving to 6-1 with a 2.14 ERA after recording all seven of his strikeouts over six innings with a lively fastball that clocked consistently around 98 mph.
Still, even without using a pink bat for Mother’s Day, Stanton was the unquestioned centerpiece of another damp Bronx afternoon, just as he’d been when he belted two homers in support of Sevy in a series-opening win last Tuesday night over Boston.
“I told him today, I have to pitch every two days. Every time I pitch, he hits a homer,” Severino joked about Stanton. “Everybody’s saying stuff about him, but at the end of the year he’s gonna have 50-something homers.”
That especially could be true if Stanton gets to face left-handed pitching more often. After strafing A’s southpaw Brett Anderson for a two-run single in the first, another single in the third and an oppo solo shot to right in the fifth, Stanton improved to .457 this season against lefties with seven of his 10 homers, compared to .185 against righties.
Beginning with Tuesday’s multihomer game, Stanton also has totaled nine hits in his last 23 at-bats overall (.391) following his second 4-for-4 day of the season, maybe even cancelling out those two booinducing, five-K showings from earlier in the year.
“Hitting’s funny like that. I know eventually it’ll happen to where he really gets rolling, but in the meantime I’m just excited that he continues to have a presence, continues to impact us winning ballgames,” Boone said. “When that comes where he gets really hot, it will happen and hopefully sooner rather than later.
“But it’s not something I worry about, because I know he’s helping I us win games.” magine how many games these Yankees will win when Stanton’s inevitable binge arrives. One more time, perhaps this finally is it.