New York Post

STAN’ THE MAN!

Giancarlo gets his Stadium moment with walk-off blast

- By DAN MARTIN dan.martin@nypost.com

Giancarlo Stanton celebrates after blasting a two-out, two-run, 453-foot homer to beat the Mariners 7-5 on Wednesday night, three nights after he was booed by the Yankees faithful. The Yanks trailed 5-0 in the fifth, but tied it in the eighth on Gary Sanchez’s two-run shot before Stanton’s heroics.

The Yankees have the best record in baseball, so at least some of the heat has been taken off Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez, both of whom have not lived up to expectatio­ns this season.

On Wednesday, the two sluggers took matters into their own hands in a 7-5 win over the Mariners at Yankee Stadium.

After Sanchez tied the game with a blast in the eighth, Stanton won it with a two-out homer off Ryan Cook in the ninth on an 0-2 slider.

With one swing of the bat, Stanton finally changed the narrative about him in The Bronx, crushing a 453-foot shot for the Yankees’ third walk-off homer of the season.

Stanton’s blast was the final blow of a comeback that began when the Yankees trailed 5-0 in the fifth. They scored two runs in the bottom of the inning, a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth on Sanchez’s 439-foot homer off Alex Colome.

“It kind of looked like a ho-hum, just gonna be one of those [games],” manager Aaron Boone said. “But we hang around enough, then Gary gets a huge one and Giancarlo to finish it off. … I’m excited for two of our big boys to really deliver in a big way tonight.”

Both were due — and they had some help.

“We just wear the pitchers down, man,’’ Stanton said. “It doesn’t matter the score until the game’s over. We’ve always got a chance if we’ve got some outs left. It showed tonight.”

The comeback negated a shaky night from Jonathan Loaisiga, who gave up three runs in 3 2/3 innings in his second start. He left the game trailing just 1-0, but Chasen Shreve’s struggles continued, as he immediatel­y gave up a two-run single to Dee Gordon and then allowed two more runs in the top of the fifth.

But Jonathan Holder, who helped save the game Monday in Washington when he got out of a jam created by Sonny Gray, delivered 2 ¹ /3 scoreless innings, allowing the offense some time to get going.

Aaron Judge started the rally with a run-scoring single in the fifth against Felix Hernandez. Two runs came in on the play when Denard Span misplayed the ball in left.

Juan Nicasio drilled Stanton and Sanchez in the sixth, but the Yankees stranded both runners before inching closer an inning later.

A Didi Gregorius sacrifice fly in the seventh got the Yankees to within 5-3 before Stanton struck out for the second time of the game.

But all that was forgotten in the eighth after Gleyber Torres drew a leadoff walk from Colome and Sanchez followed with his 14th homer of the year. He had been 7for-70 with just three extra-base hits in his previous 19 games.

“It’s been tough,’’ said Sanchez, who also took a foul ball off his mask and was drilled in the arm earlier in the game. “I never put my head down, but I’m always working.’’

“I know he’s been pressing a lot, wanting to do well,’’ Boone said.

Then in the ninth, Cook retired Aaron Hicks and Judge before Gregorius singled to bring Stanton to the plate.

A slider that didn’t bite was all Stanton needed.

And everyone knew it was over as soon as he hit it.

“I didn’t watch it land,’’ Judge said. “Right when I heard it and saw it off the bat, I tried to hop the little fence [in front of the dugout] and get out there. What a swing by him.” Stanton barely moved. “It had better have gone out because I stood there a little bit,” Stanton said. “Even if [it wasn’t], it was enough to get Didi around the bases.”

For a Yankees team that has barely stumbled, it was another sign they could get even better.

“I’m not worried about me, personally,’’ said Stanton, who has been mostly unproducti­ve against righties and at home this season. “The way our team battled back, it was huge to step up in that moment. Me, I’ll be fine.”

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