Giancarlo Stanton has heard his share of boos at Yankee Stadium during his three-plus seasons with the Yankees, but he’s heard nothing but cheers over the past two weeks, while the boos on Tuesday night were saved for the hated Astros.
While Houston’s anticipated first visit since the infamous cheating scandal was the attraction in the Bronx on Tuesday, a key subplot was the continued hot streak of Stanton, who blasted a go-ahead home run in the bottom of the first to erase a 1-0 deficit and electrify an already spirited crowd. The slugger finished with three hits on the night, and is batting a league-best .477 over the last 10 games.
The Bombers are 7-3 over that span, and steadily climbing up the AL East ranks.
“I feel good,” Stanton said. “Just keep working off of it. I like where I’m at. I’m squaring what I need to square up, and yeah, just keep it rolling.”
Stanton’s home run off Zack Greinke on Tuesday was his fourth in the last 10 games, as he continues to erase what was a slow start after he came into the season with high hopes following his historic playoff performance last October. Now serving as the full-time DH, Stanton appears to be finding his groove at the plate, raising his batting average to .297 on the year after holding a .180 average just two weeks ago.
“You know what he’s capable of,” Aaron Boone said. “This is what we’ve seen brewing from him the past couple years. He obviously hasn’t been able to be out there enough, but I love his mindset, his preparation, his game plan, his process, and he’s going out there and carrying that out and finding results with it.”
Boone had bumped Stanton into the two hole in what was a struggling Yankee lineup, and the move has paid dividends for Stanton, who is not only healthy and regularly in the lineup, but thriving and helping pull the Yanks out of what was a historically bad offensive start for the Bombers.
“We weren’t going to play like the beginning of the season forever,” Stanton said. “So coming out of that, we’re building off of each other’s good at-bats, building off of good games and stacking them. This is a game where if you get behind, you can’t make up for it in one or two at-bats, you have to stack them, and feed off of the rest of the lineup.”
The Yankees as a whole have followed Stanton’s lead out of the AL East baseman, now above the .500 mark and in second place after their fourth straight win. But Stanton has unquestionably been swinging the hottest bat, and that continued on Tuesday behind the hours of boos hurled at the disgraced Astros.
“He hits the crap out of the ball every time,” DJ LeMahieu said. “I just try to get on base. Judgey is heating up right behind him too. I feel like if I get on base, good things are happening right now.”
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