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.