Giancarlo Stantons El Duque-esque October rsum is stuff of Yankees legend
CLEVELAND — Giancarlo Stanton has become a latter-day, hitting Orlando Hernandez. He is good in the regular season, sometimes very good, yet always leaves a sense there should be more.And then October comes and, well, there is more.
Stanton has shown at this time of year he is ready to Duque it out. Hernandez was the best postseason starter of the Yankee dynasty.And Stanton is the best October hitter of this generally frustrating era of Yankee postseason ball.
He is Judge and fury come the postseason. He went into Saturday night’s ALCS Game 5 averaging nearly an RBI per game in the postseason, with 33 in 36 contests.His 15 homers tied Aaron Judge for third all-time in the playoffs among Yankees, trailing just Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter and Mickey Mantle.
But that is 15 homers in 36 games.To put it in perspective, that would equate to 67 ¹/₂ over 162 games. And Stanton is not hitting meaningless shots.
For example, his eighth-inning Game 3 solo launch off Kansas City’s Kris Bubic was the biggest hit of the Division Series.The game was tied 2-2.
The series was tied 1-1.The Yanks were teetering toward falling behind and one loss away from a first-round elimination against the Royals. Consider that going into Saturday, the Yankees had 66 plate appearances this postseason with runners in scoring position and just one homer — a three-run Stanton blast off Cade Smith that gave the Yankees a 6-2 lead in a Game 4 they would ultimately take 8-6. Dig into that at-bat and you will find the October Stanton. He had hit a tiebreaking, eighth-inning homer against the majors’ best regular-season closer, Emmanuel Clase, on Thursday night after falling behind 0-2.
He fouled off three pitches with two strikes before crushing a Clase slider. Smith has been arguably the majors’ best setup man.Just a few quick facts.
He had allowed one homer all season (regular and postseason) in his first 81 appearances over 84 ¹/₃ innings — a leadoff shot by Seattle�...