ROUGH 9-1 LOSS FOR YANKEES:
Stanton booed again, may be moved in order
THE only thing not being stopped right now involving Giancarlo Stanton is the angry reception he continues to generate from the fans in the Bronx. The boos were back out in force on Tuesday night, when Stanton completed a hitless series (0for-7) against his former team, with two more strikeouts in the Yankees’ ugly 9-1 loss to the Marlins at the Stadium. “Pretty simple. Worry about the positive things, even if it’s not very many things. That’s all you can do. You worry about that, you’re gonna keep twirling down,” the still-slumping Stanton said when asked how he’s blocked out the boos aimed at him through the Yanks’ laggard 8-8 start. “Keep working. It’s early. Not too many (positives), but you’ve got to own up to it and understand and find a way to get better to get out of it.”
The reigning NL MVP – obtained from Miami during new owner and former Yanks captain Derek Jeter’s winter fire sale –clubbed two home runs on Opening Day in Toronto, and he’s hit .323 in 31 at-bats away from the Stadium. But Stanton now is batting just .086 (3-for-35) with one homer, three RBI and 20 strikeouts so far in the Bronx, stranding four more runners on Tuesday.
And the fans regularly have let him know about their displeasure.
“That’s a matter of time and just getting settled in,” Aaron Boone said of the home/road disparity. “We’re 16 games in and in baseball that’s a very small sample.
“If it was flipped I don’t think it would necessarily be that he’s hitting at home and not on the road. I think that’s just baseball and he’ll get it rolling here and eventually the league will pay for some of his early struggles.”
Boone has to try something here to get Stanton going and the first-year manager admitted he “might flirt with” moving him down from the No.3 spot
in the lineup later this week against Toronto, “but not too far.”
Perhaps one consideration would be to split Aaron Judge and Stanton by flipping the latter slugger with lefty-swinging Didi Gregorius and moving Stanton into the cleanup hole, with Gary Sanchez behind him.
“He’s one at-bat away from getting it locked back in and then the last thing you want is him down in the order getting pitched around. He’s too premier of a player and an at-bat away in my eyes from locking it in,” Boone said. “So I might juggle with the top five or six, but as far as moving down significantly? No.
“I see a guy who’s really focused. Obviously he’s frustrated. You want to go out there and perform, especially when you’re MVP, and obviously he expects a lot from himself. I think his focus is tremendous and I’m really confident that the work he’s putting in … I’m really confident that once he gets rolling, it’ll be a juggernaut. I don’t worry; I want him just for peace of mind to get going a little bit and just settle in and get into the rhythm of the season. But longterm, he’s too good for it not to start happening.”
Stanton insists his confidence hasn’t waned, and his track record is such that he usually clubs homers in bunches once he finds his power groove, even currently. if that’s not of much consolation
“Shoot, track record don’t matter in the moment,” Stanton countered. “You understand what you’ve done, but if you’re in there with a lack of confidence you might as well go and sit down anyways.”
Of course, the $325 million slugger is far from the Yanks’ only problem. They lead the league in errors with 17, including two more on Tuesday. Their staff ERA is 4.68, including 6.62 for starters Masahiro Tanaka and Sonny Gray. And others, namely Sanchez and Neil Walker, also are off to slow starts offensively.
Still, Stanton has received the brunt of the fans’ negative reaction. Asked if he’s at peace with that, he sighed and replied: “At peace? Yeah, I understand.”
He also has to understand there’s only one way to change it.