Giancarlo Stanton is officially on fire, adding another home run and a double on Monday night to give the Yankees their 10th straight win.
For Stanton, his recent hot streak has aligned with his move into a regular outfield role, which began in late July. Earlier in the season, he wouldn’t have been in Monday’s lineup without the luxury of a DH in Atlanta, but now, his bat can’t be taken out, and luckily, it doesn’t have to.
Not only has Stanton stayed healthy in the outfield, he has thrived, both in the outfield and especially at the plate.
“I think it’s helped to not just focus on hitting,” Stanton said. “You always want to be your best in the box and be in the best mind frame, but that also means turning it off for a second and using that focus somewhere else. Being out there, you gotta worry about what position you’re at, the flight of each ball, the situations out there, so it helps in some way.”
Stanton made his outfield debut on July 30 in Miami against the Marlins, his first outfield experience since appearing in just 13 games in 2019. Since then, he has batted .329 with a 1.046 OPS and five home runs, four of them coming in the last 10 games.
Most importantly, Stanton has stayed healthy, and with his mind partially focused on areas outside of the batter’s box, he has returned to wowing fans and teammates with his vicious home runs, including the 103-mph laser he ripped to the opposite field on Monday, where he seemingly flicked the bat at a breaking ball out of the zone and still lifted it over the seats in right field.
“He’s a unicorn,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He does things every night that are a little bit different than anyone else. That was one of those that almost hit into the restaurant down the line in right field. That’s a pretty good poke on a slider down and away. That was a really good swing he put on that ball.
“Every time he hits a ball, like a ground ball you see an infielder maybe think he has a beat on, and his and Judge’s balls tend to get through because they’re hit a little bit harder than you think. But every time he hits one, I think everyone gets a kick out of going to the board and seeing how hard he hit it.”
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Stanton has been leaving his team in awe for nearly a full month, just as he did in last year’s postseason, but they’re sure to give him a hard time when he returns from a trip around the bases after a unicorn-esque home run like Monday’s, asking him ‘Is that all you got?’ after he blasts a 103-mph rocket on a pitch he was nearly fooled on. But Boone and company really can only marvel at Stanton’s physical ability, especially now with the tear that he’s on.
“That’s pretty cool,” Stanton said of Boone’s unicorn label. “He’s seen a lot of baseball, so it’s cool if I can do something that guys that have been out there every day for years can see something new.”
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