Yankees Notes: Clubhouse Reaction to Giancarlo Stanton’s Huge Home Run

KANSAS CITY, MO. — Ask around the New York Yankees clubhouse and there are plenty who will tell you that Giancarlo Stanton’s numbers do not reflect exactly what he means to the team and the damage he can do in a situation, especially in October.

Stanton gave the Yankees the lead twice on Wednesday night during a 3-for-5 performance, including his 417-foot, go-ahead home run in the eighth inning that handed the visitors a 3-2 lead over the Kansas City Royals. The blast also pushed the Yankees to a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-five American League Division Series.

Over his last 325 regular-season games, Stanton is slashing just .213/.291/.454 with 404 strikeouts in 1,186 at-bats. However, when it’s the postseason, the 34-year-old slugger seems to shine. He’s now driven in 26 runs in his last 24 postseason games (since Game 2 of the 2019 ALDS), tying him for eighth among all MLB players.

“He comes in every day with a smile on his face,” New York’s Juan Soto said of Stanton. “It doesn’t matter how things are going. I feel like I have learned a lot from him and (Aaron) Judge. He’s a veteran. He knows how everything goes and if you’re ever having any doubts about what you’re doing here or there, you can always come to him and he’s going to have an answer.

“He’s really our second captain.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone echoed the presence that Stanton can have at the plate, part of a confidence New York has had inside the clubhouse all season.

“He’s so good at locking in in these big games,” Boone said. “He’s done it throughout his career with us; he’s just really able to focus pitch to pitch. I thought that at-bat off (Kansas City pitcher Kris) Bubic was just phenomenal; I think he went up there looking to do damage, looking to do just that. I thought laid off all the right pitches and just put a great swing on it on what was obviously a great night for him.”

Gerrit Cole talks Kansas City lineup challenges

Cole will once again get the ball for Game 4 on Thursday night in Kansas City. He got the start in Game 1, throwing 5.0 innings and allowing seven hits and four runs (three earned). While the numbers weren’t overly impressive, he still did enough to keep the Yankees in the game, which they eventually won 6-5.

The 34-year-old right-hander admitted that Kansas City’s offensive style provided a different challenge than many other MLB teams.

“They don’t walk much and they don’t strike out much, so the ball is in play a lot,” Cole explained. “It’s the way they’re formulated. It probably bodes well for them in a large park here (in Kansas City). They have a lot of team speed and a lot of contact. I don’t know if it’s a conscious thing or if they just ended up with these players and they’re making the best out of the talent that the players have.

“Each lineup poses different threats. I’m not sure I can rank which threat is better or worse because the bottom line is you’re trying to score runs, which they do very well. They’re here for a reason. They’re really good.”

Comparing 2024 Yankees to 2019 Washington Nationals

As he approaches his 26th birthday, Soto has already accomplished plenty in his MLB career, including being the key piece in a pair of blockbuster trades. The most recent swap occurred this past offseason as he was sent from the San Diego Padres to the Yankees in a deal that immediately bolstered the lineup in the Bronx and helped them capture the American League East this season.

However, recency bias can also cause fans to briefly forget that Soto was one of the reasons why the Washington Nationals won the World Series in 2019. Then in his age-20 season, Soto joined other big names such as Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to help bring a title to the nation’s capital.

On Wednesday, Soto was asked about any similarities he saw between that star-laden 2019 Washington squad and his current Yankees teammates.

“First of all, I would say in 2019 as a team, we always came through, definitely our big stars had big moments, as we all expected,” Soto said. “But at the end of the day, it’s all about the whole team. We can’t lean on one player that he’s going to do everything for us to take us all the way. We’ve got to do it as a team.

“At the end of the day, when you look at that run, that race, every single guy in that lineup and in their starting rotation, bullpen and everything, they had their moment. They had their moment where they had to show up for the team, and they did. That’s how we make it all the way.

“I feel like, yeah, you’re going to have star players that you want them to perform, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the team. And every single guy in that clubhouse, they have to have their moment to help the team to go all the way.”