Stanton hits slam in Game1 rout
SAN DIEGO — Giancarlo Stanton hit a grand slam in the ninth inning for New York’s fourth homer of the game, and the Yankees beat the TampaBay Rays 9-3 Monday night in Game 1 of their AL division series at Petco Park.
Stanton homered to straightaway center field on a 2-2 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 ball park.
“That SoCal air, man. That SoCal weather. That’s what it is,” said Stanton, who is from Southern California.
Kyle Higashioka and Aaron Judge hit the tying and go-ahead home runs off Blake Snell in the fifth inning to back Gerrit Cole. Clint Frazier hit an impressive shot into the second deck in left in the third.
The Bronx Bombers became the first team in American League history to hit a grand slam in backto-back playoff games. Gio Urshela did it in Game 2 of the firstround sweep of Cleveland. Two NL teams have done it, the 1977 Dodgers and 2011 Diamondbacks.
“This is what I signed up for,” Stanton said. “This is the time where you’ve got to step up and do your job.”
Game 2 is Tuesday night, with 21-year-old rookie Deivi Garcia set to become the youngest Yankees pitcher to make a postseason start. Tyler Glasnow goes for the Rays.
The Yankees set a franchise record by hitting at least three home runs in three straight postseason games. They are the second team to do in baseball history after the Rays did it in four straight in2008.
New York has hit 11 homers in those three games. They are the most for any team in the first three games of a postseason.
The ball was flying for the Rays as well off Cole in downtown San Diego. Randy Arozarena homered with two outs in the first and Ji-Man Choi muscled an oppositefield, 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.
The fences were moved in prior to the 2013 season.
Cole got the win by going six innings, allowing 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. Cole beat Tampa Bay twice in last year’s ALDS with Houston.
Snell went five innings and allowed four runs on six hits while striking out four and walking two.
New York’s Aaron Hicks, who’s from San Pedro in the Los Angeles area, hit a sacrifice fly in the first and an RBI single in the ninth.
Arozarena tied it in the bottom of the frame before Frazier gave the Yankees the lead in the second. Choi’s shot with no outs in the fourth gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead.