NEW YORK (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton's half season has been better than most players' full years.
Sidelined until mid-June by injured elbows, Stanton has 23 homers and 64 RBIs in 75 games after hitting a pair of two-run drives that led the Yankees over the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 Friday night and kept New York tied with Toronto for the AL East lead.
“It’s been effective, efficient and not over,” he said. “Still got to do more.”
Toronto and New York are 92-68 and the Blue Jays hold he tiebreaker over New York, which has won six straight and nine of 10.
Stanton put the Yankees in front against Trevor Rogers with a 397-foot drive to right-center on an 0-2 pitch. New York set a major league record with its 48th home run in the first inning, one more than Atlanta hit in 2023.
After Jordan Westburg’s three-run homer in the third against Will Warren, Aaron Judge hit his 52nd homer, a two-run shot in the bottom half. The 423-footer landed in the netting above Monument Park behind center field.
Stanton followed two batters later with a 451-foot homer that wound up in the bleachers to the left of Monument Park for his 39th multi-homer game, including one in the postseason. He added an RBI groundout in the seventh.
With his 452nd homer, the active major league leader tied Carl Yastrzemski for 40th on the career list.
“Don’t get me wrong. He hit it great, but that’s not all of it either,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That's like a good healthy fly ball to center for us regular people.”
Stanton is hitting .267 and his RBI total ranked 102nd in the majors after Friday night's game. He is playing with tendon inflammation in both elbows, pain he is able to manage.
Nearing his first batting title, Judge has a .330 average and 111 RBIs. He also tops the major leagues in on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.687) and OPS (1.145).
Judge is hitting .420 (21 for 50) with eight homers and 20 walks in his last 15 games.
“I feel like he’s been on base seven times a day the last week,” Boone said. “He's playing like an all-time great.”
Judge and Stanton have homered in the same game 58 times, with the Yankees winning 51. They joke with each other about who hits the longest home runs.
“It’s all in good fun,” Stanton said. “Today was like: ‘That’s how you hit it out to center!’”
Stanton batted .339 with a 1.253 OPS in August before cooling to a .200 average with a .746 OPS and 34 strikeouts in 70 at-bats this month.
“He’s grinding a little bit at it.” Boone said. “He was just kind of carrying us through that that month where it was just — seemed like a homer every day or a big hit every day.”
Stanton's three-run double put the Yankees ahead in Thursday’s 5-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Eight of his last 20 homers gave New York the lead and another tied the score.
“Getting back to more comfortable, for sure. Getting my balance right the last little bit,” he said. “Squaring up pitches I should square up in the zone. It’s their job to keep us off balance, so the more times I could be balanced and on time, the better.”
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