Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Record-breaker for Stanton
Giancarlo Stanton watches his 43rd home run of the season leave the park Monday night during Miami’s 8-3 win against the San Francisco Giants. The right fielder now owns the franchise single-season home run record.
MIAMI — Giancarlo Stanton turned inevitability into reality — and history — Monday night.
He hit his 43rd home run of the season, breaking the Marlins’ single-season record with a two-run shot to left field in the first inning against the Giants at Marlins Park. Miami beat San Francisco, 8-3, but in another season lost to mediocrity, the on-field product overshadowed by offfield drama, Stanton’s atbats and his recent hot streak have turned into the main event.
Giants left-hander Ty Blach started Stanton off with a pair of fastballs inside for balls. His third pitch, another fastball, was in nearly the same spot as the second. Stanton hammered it a modest 382 feet into the visitors’ bullpen for an early Marlins lead and another piece of the Marlins’ record book.
Stanton’s latest milestone is another bullet point on his growing resume as the best Marlin ever. He is the all-time franchise leader in home runs, RBI, slugging percentage, extra-base hits, at-bats per home run and Wins Above Replacement (in both the FanGraphs and Baseball Reference versions).
Now, along with the single-season homer mark, Stanton is threatening for the RBI record (at 93; record is 121) and the slugging percentage record (at .635 entering Monday; record is .624).
Monday, meanwhile, was Stanton’s fifth consecutive game with a homer, also best in franchise history, plus his 10th long ball in 11 games and 22nd in 34 games.
He is, in short, hitting better than he has at any other point in eight seasons as a major leaguer.
“And it looks like he’s having some fun,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Monday afternoon. “When he’s doing that, it puts us in a lot better position.”
The Marlins’ single-season homer record was previously held by Gary Sheffield, who hit 42 in 1996. The major league record for consecutive games with a long ball is eight, set by Mattingly in 1987 and tied by Ken Griffey Jr. in 1993.
Stanton’s torrid stretch earned him National League Player of the Week honors Monday, capping a week in which he homered six times in seven games.
And Stanton’s teammates have just gone along for a ride. Over the weekend, that meant a sweep of the Colorado Rockies. On Monday, it meant a 2-0 lead in the first inning — before the Marlins had even made an out. Dee Gordon singled before Stanton went deep.
The rest of the game went about as well.
Left-hander Adam Conley pitched 6 1⁄3 innings and allowed three runs, all in the third inning and two coming in on Denard Span’s ground-rule double. He struck out nobody for the first time in 48 career starts. The only game in which he had zero punchouts was his major league debut on June 10, 2015, a one-inning relief appearances.
Marcell Ozuna highlighted the Marlins’ other scoring with a solo blast, 456 feet into the camera well in straightaway center. Gordon went 3 for 5, Christian Yelich 2 for 5.
Even Stanton’s non-homer plate appearances were theater. In the third, he flew out to the wall in left-center. An inning he later he grounded a single through the left side for an RBI. And by the sixth, the Giants wised up, intentionally walking Stanton.
Boos ensued.