From Bryan Hoch:
It had been more than a year since Giancarlo Stanton last tracked a fly ball, spending the past several months rehabbing his ailing elbows to reclaim a spot in the Yankees’ batting order.
But with Aaron Judge temporarily shifted into the designated hitter role, Stanton has found himself back in the outfield. He’s loving every inning of it, a throwback to when his glove shared the stage with his bat.
“He’s a leader. This guy’s been one of the best in the game for quite a long time,” Judge said of Stanton, who homered in a four-hit, three-RBI performance on Tuesday night, helping the Yankees to a 9-1 victory over the Twins at Yankee Stadium. “It speaks volumes to his leadership and what he means to this team.”
Playing right field for the fourth time this season, Stanton crushed a Statcast-projected 447-foot homer, doubled and singled twice. Stanton has gone deep in the first two games against Minnesota, helping power the Yanks’ first series win since the Trade Deadline.
“It’s refreshing after missing so much time, because I contribute zero when I miss time,” Stanton said. “Anything I can do when I’m back is always nice.”
While the sight of Stanton saluting the Bleacher Creatures has been rare, the Yanks dusted off one of their most reliable recipes for victory in the modern era: Judge and Stanton homering in the same game.
I know it is just the Twins, but fuck, dude, this team should not suck that much! Look at all of the good players on this team! Look at that lineup:
Grisham – Having a very good season
Judge – Having an amazing season
Bellinger – Having a great season
Stanton – A possible future Hall of Famer having his best stretch of his ENTIRE YANKEE CAREER (how fucking awesome is it that he’s both A. hitting the ball like crazy and B. actually playing right field?)
Rice – Having a good season
Chisholm – Was an All-Star THIS SEASON
Goldschmidt – Okay, he sucks (against righties)
McMahon – Pretty good
Volpe – Also bad, but he’s at least playing good defense again the last few weeks. Like he got out of his weird defensive funk.
That’s a good team!
Then the rotation. Carlos Rodon was an All-Star THIS SEASON! He should not suck! He should be an actively GOOD pitcher!
This team should not suck so much. These wins are what the Yankees SHOULD be doing against bad teams.
As for scoreboard watching, the Rangers lost, putting the Yankees 3.5 games up on them. The Guardians, Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Mariners all won, leaving the Yankees 1 game up on the Guardians, 6 games back of the Blue Jays, 1.5 games back of the Red Sox, and three games games back of the Mariners. Interestingly, now that the Red Sox defeated the Josh Hader-less Astros (who were throwing their worst pitcher in this one, but it’s annoying that the Red Sox seemed to have already fixed Dustin May), the Astros are actually tied with the Mariners, so the Yankees could theoretically pass the Astros in the Wild Card if the Mariners pass the Astros in the AL West.
For a 9-1 win, it’s amazing how many runners the Yankees left on base in this one.
Featured image is Carlos Rodon, who had a shitty first inning, but was then dominant for six more innings. He was doing a weird neck stretch after his fifth strikeout, so I figured I’d go with that as the featured image.
The Yankees really needed this one, as Wednesday’s game against Joe Ryan is an automatic loss.
Interesting pronunciation factoid. The Yankees’ current #2 prospect according to MLB.com is a pitcher, which is notable, since their #3 prospect is Cam Schlittler, who is currently pitching reasonably well in the MAJOR LEAGUES (if you know prospect rankings, skills that translate well to the Majors is one of the biggest things they look for, as these lists are all about picking the guys with the best chances at succeeding in the Majors, so actually performing well IN the Majors while not yet playing in enough games to be taken off of the “prospect” lists is a key part of a player’s ranking, which is why Schlittler is the #3 Yankee prospect over lower-ranked pitchers who have performed better than Schlittler in the minors, but have more uncertainty about their Major League futures, so the idea that another pitcher who is still in the minors is still ranked ABOVE Schlittler is a significant result). That pitcher is Carlos LaGrange.
The “LaGrange” is pronounced la-GRAN-hey, and not la-gray-nge.
Not according to Billy Gibbons.
It DOES take away from his ability to use it as his walkin music if he becomes the closer in a couple of years.
You gotta believe that at least one of these top level pitchers is going to become the next closer
I saw something yesterday that had the Yankees as the unluckiest team in baseball. I only saw the graphic quickly and didn’t dive into it at all, but it matches up with what you wrote. How much of that bad luck is because Boone cost the team a 6-8 wins this season by inexplicable bullpen decisions – I don’t know.
I give the Stanton contract and, more importantly, the Yankees acquisition of it, a lot of shit – and rightfully so – but when he’s on a heater, there isn’t a scarier hitter or more impressive hitter in baseball. He annihilates baseballs.
In 42 games this season he has twice as many WAR as he did in his previous 325 – combined.
Yes when Stanton is on he might be the best hitter in the game. Sadly his “on” stretches have gotten shorter over the years. But if he can stay in this one for a couple more weeks, maybe the Yankees can make the playoffs.
They’re a good team but they keep losing.
It’s like Buddha suddenly came to RLYW.
This is the karmic balance for the Brewers – a decent-but-not-on-paper-unstoppable team that can’t do anything but win.
The Karma is we crushed them 3 straight to start the season by a combined score of 36-14 and that was an affront to Vishnu.
Wells catching, Rice at 1B, Stanton in right. Why not give Stanton the day since we’re not going to score against Ryan with or WO Stanton.
Stanton is the only guy on the team who I wouldn’t be surprised if he DID hit a good pitcher. ESPECIALLY now that he’s cut back on the chasing. How the fuck did it take until he was thirty fucking five years old to say, “Maybe I should stop chasing every fucking pitch?”
The Brewers winning again, 6-3 in the 6th. An amazing stretch for them.
Yankees catching depth loses another one … this time to the mound.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25225277-yankees-prospect-converts-catcher-pitcher-hits-100-mph-special-arm
Antonio Gomez being converted to a pitcher. Always had an 80-grade arm, the bat never came around.
Remember Frankie Montas – it seems his time here broke him.
Interestingly a review of clay Holmes last 2 years
Yankees 2024 ERA thru June 9 1.2
After that 4.8
Mets 2025 ERA thru June 13 2.9 (starter)
Since then 5.1
Good move by cash letting them both walk
I was repeating that mantra early on, “Just wait until the second half,” but I surely couldn’t say I was confident in being correct on that. So, well, phew. 🙂
Also, even when he was pitching really well early on, he was strictly a five inning pitcher. That has utility, but does it have THAT much utility?
I bet he still opts out after next season. Even this mediocre mixture heading into his Age 34 season would likely beat 1 year/ $13 million on the open market.
He should be able to throw more pitches/innings in 2026 if he stays as a starter.
Didn’t Cash want him for years?
He wanted him when he was cheap. And they got a lot of value out of him for cheap.
“He should be able to throw more pitches/innings in 2026 if he stays as a starter.”
Yeah, that obviously is the big question. If he CAN pitch more innings next year, then even somewhere between his really good start and his bad current stuff would be very valuable.
CAN he do it, though, is the question.
The Brewers now have 12 runs. They have an idea, they have an approach at the plate.
Please be advised we do not intend to start tonight’s game on time. Information will be provided as it is received.
It’s okay, you can skip this one, Yankees, and replay it when Joe Ryan needs to shut down for the rest of the season.
If the field is still wet do they sit Stanton?