The Yankees could rely on the strong bats of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, but it was Giancarlo Stanton who made the game unreachable on Thursday.
Stepping up to the plate with a two-run lead and two men on base in the bottom of the fifth inning, Stanton hit a three-run home run to deep center field in Monument Park to lift his team to a 6-0 victory over the Guardians on Thursday afternoon in the Bronx. Soto had forced out a ground ball and Judge had been given an intentional walk for the 16th time this season.
“Great to win this series,” Stanton said. “Every series is going to be great until the end.”
His 21st home run of the season came on an 82-mile-per-hour slider by Cleveland pitcher Nick Sandlin with two outs and a full count, forcing Stanton to reach out a little farther and make contact with the tip of his bat.
The impact had a launch angle of 26 degrees, an exit velocity of 169.4 km/h and a distance of 127 m.
“I think there’s one guy, and you saw that today,” Judge said when asked how many players can hit the slider Stanton did on Thursday. “He basically did the same thing against the Rangers, hit a slider way out in the zone and knocked it out for a three-run home run. It’s impressive what he can do for such a big guy. He uses his legs so well. Those sliders off the plate or sliders downfield, they’re always in his damage zone.”
Judge hit a home run himself – his 48th of the season, which is the MLB lead – but the Yankees captain said he has been watching Stanton do what he is doing for years.
The two heavyweights hit home runs in the same game for the Yankees for the 10th time this season and the 41st time in a regular season game. This makes them the fifth most home runs of this kind by two teammates in franchise history. Only Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth (73), Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle (55), Bob Meusel and Babe Ruth (47) and Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris (42) have hit more home runs.
“He’s huge in the middle,” manager Aaron Boone said of Stanton, who has a .241 batting average this season. “Him and Austin (Wells) now. Obviously they let Judge through once today, Austin had a really good at-bat for the sacrifice fly, almost broke it open, almost found the gap there. And then G, he does G stuff where not a lot of guys can hit the ball like that and sit it out. I think a lot of good at-bats got us in that position.
“Whether it was (Anthony) Volpe drawing a walk, Ben Rice drawing a big walk, or Gleyber (Torres) having good at-bats up top, it put us in a position to capitalize a little bit on a big inning at some point. Today it was Big G. He’s huge for the length of our lineup. Big swing.”
