The combination of three days off between series and sinking temperatures did nothing to cool off Giancarlo Stanton’s hot bat.
Stanton picked up where he left off against the Royals by crushing a 439-foot insurance home run in the bottom of the seventh inning Monday night as the Yankees defeated the Guardians, 5-2, in Game 1 of the ALCS.
“Just some kind of [big] presence in the middle of our lineup,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Locked in, focused, and that’s of course what he’s capable of. That ball is absolutely nailed on a cold night, hitting it off the back of the bullpen out there.”
Stanton also walked and scored on a wild pitch during the Yankees’ three-run, third-inning rally.
He finished 1-for-3, but both of his outs sounded good off the bat and resulted in deep fly balls as he continued “stacking quality” at-bats, in Boone’s words.
“I understand how important each pitch, each moment is,” Stanton said. “I understand that you’re not always going to be successful in those moments, but anything I can do — any bit of information or video or swings — to be in my best spot during this moment.”
Stanton had a 1.132 OPS during the four-game ALDS, including the tie-breaking seventh-inning home run in Game 3 that shifted the series in the Yankees’ favor. He had four of the Yankees’ 14 RBIs.
A prodigious regular-season power hitter, Stanton takes it to another level in the postseason.
He has 13 home runs in 115 career postseason at-bats — all with the Yankees — and only Babe Ruth has homered at a better career rate this time of year.
“Putting the ball in the seats … that can be big,” Boone said. “But I think by and large, the strength of our group is making you have to work to go through us.”
The hot bats of Stanton and Juan Soto — who also homered — have combined to take some pressure off Aaron Judge, who still has just one extra-base hit in five playoff games.
It has continued his career-long narrative of struggling in the playoffs.
But Stanton sounded just as satisfied by the walks he and Judge took in the third inning when starter Alex Cobb left injured and reliever Joey Cantillo could not find the plate.
“[Walks] are huge,” Stanton said. “We can’t emphasize that enough. Not forcing things. So in the biggest moments, you want to maybe try to do too much, expand a little too much, and we’ve done a great job so far of taking what they give us. And we’ll continue to do that.”