Stanton doing ‘everything I can’ to get

Giancarlo Stanton is optimistic he will be back for October, the Yankees are hopeful at this point. The Yankees slugger, who has played nine games this season and hasn’t played since June 25, said Thursday that he is almost done with his work on the Alter-G, anti-gravity, treadmill and hopes to be running on the field soon.

“That’s our hope. We’ve done a lot of great things despite missing some very talented players and he’s included in that just as much as I can point to (Luis

Severino). That’s an impact bat. He’s not just the DH, he’s much more than that. He’s an athletic outfielder, too, despite his size,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “Hopefully we’ll be in a position to utilize him. We do expect him at some point, but he’s also coming back from a pretty serious injury that takes time to heal. We’ll just keep waiting on it and hope that at some point he becomes a legitimate option for us.

Stanton, who was talking about needing a “few weeks of at-bats before October,” sounded a little more confident. “Yeah. I’m doing everything I can to get there,” Stanton said before Thursday night’s game. . “That’s what this process is.”

COMIC RELIEF

The 53 mile an hour “whatever,” pitch had Severino covering his face with his sweatshirts and trying to fight off the giggles. Thursday night was just brutal on the Yankees pitchers. Cleveland bludgeoned the Bombers, tagging them for seven home runs.

But Mike Ford at least got them out of it — with a smile.

Ford threw mop-up duty in the eighth and the ninth. A former Ivy League Pitcher and Player of the Year in 2013, Ford allowed five runs on six hits, including two home runs. After a rough eighth inning, he threw a perfect ninth. That included using that 53 mph pitch to strike out Roberto Perez to end the inning.