GIAN' ON THE SPOT
First taste of playoffs huge success for Stanton
Giancarlo Stanton’s goggles were tightly secured, a bottle of champagne tightly clutched in each of his hands. His hair was soaked, his shirt sopping up the rest of what fell from the seemingly never-ending fountain falling upon his head.
After 1,144 regular-season games, and eight largely hopeless seasons in Miami, baseball had never been better. Now, the reigning NL MVP will truly discover what it’s like to play in the postseason.
After taking longer to make his playoff debut than all but one active player in the majors, Stanton broke out in the game he had waited his entire career to play, blasting a mammoth home run in the Yankees’ 7-2 wild-card victory over the Athletics on Wednesday night in The Bronx.
Stanton finished 1-for-3 with a walk, two runs and a stolen base.
“This place was crazy. It was everything I would’ve expected and more,” Stanton said. “It’s amazing. It’s everything I could ask for. Truly.”
For so much of Stanton’s first season in pinstripes, the moment seemed far away. For much of his first season in New York, home games included boos directed at the slugger acquired in the offseason.
Eventually, Stanton demonstrated he could handle the spotlight, and he won over the crowd, carrying the offense while Aaron Judge was injured, and finishing with a team-high 38 home runs.
Stanton struck out in his first playoff at-bat, then flew out to right. In the sixth, the designated hitter contributed to team’s four-run inning, drawing a walk, and scoring on Luke Voit’s tworun triple.
The Yankees led by six. The outcome was clear. It also seemed clear Stanton’s debut would be unmemorable, but also unimportant, with far more vital swings upcoming against the Red Sox.
Then, Stanton hit a ball that could have hit a plane on its way to Boston.
Leading off the bottom of the eighth, Stanton launched a 1-2 pitch from A’s closer Blake Treinen 136 feet in the air. The ball landed 443 feet from contact, after traveling 117.4 mph, and giving the Yankees a 7-2 lead. Stanton has now hit four home runs in his past five games.
“That was a moonshot,” Aaron Judge said. “I thought that was going to leave the stadium.”
Stanton left with the biggest win of his career, and validation for why he wanted to join the Yankees. Next comes Boston. “It’s the best of the best,” Stanton said. “Who’s gonna step up, who’s gonna show up? We’re gonna bring it to them.”