It’s been a fairly ugly final month of the regular season for Giancarlo Stanton, who entered Thursday in a 9-for-56 funk with just one homer over his previous 16 games.
With October approaching, though, there was reason to believe he might get going soon, since, if nothing else, Stanton has been productive in the postseason.
And in Thursday night’s 10-1 win over the Orioles that clinched the AL East title for the Yankees, it was Stanton who led the way.
He homered in the second inning to give the Yankees and Gerrit Cole an early lead and then helped seal the game with a three-run double to right-center in a six-run sixth.
“He’s the X-factor for us,’’ Aaron Judge said. “We’ve seen it postseason after postseason. He comes up big-time with big hits for us. But I could see a different look in his eye [Thursday] when I walked into the field. He was locked in, he had a different focus, like that playoff-Stanton we’ve seen so many times.”
Unlike in some past years, there will be no debate about Stanton’s postseason role, since he is strictly a DH these days.
And he arguably has the best postseason résumé of any Yankee position player, with 11 homers and a .963 OPS in 110 plate appearances.
No one in the lineup has a higher playoff OPS and only Judge has more homers (13) but they’ve come in 88 more plate appearances.
“It’s the most important time of year,” Stanton said. “There’s no other option.”
Asked what gives Stanton an edge at this time of year, Aaron Boone said, “Talent and [he’s] very mentally tough. He’s very meticulous in how he prepares and is not affected by a bad at-bat, or the noise around this, that can leak in for some guys.
“He’s been through it and knows how to handle it.”
Overall, it’s been a solid bounce-back season for Stanton, who had a career-worst year in 2023, when the Yankees missed the postseason and he hit .191 with an OPS of .695.
A somewhat slimmed down version of Stanton has been much better this season as he looks to build momentum heading into the playoffs.
With the double and homer on Thursday, 14 of Stanton’s last 21 hits have gone for extra-bases.
So while he’ll continue to be a sloth on the basepaths and strike out a ton, Stanton will try to live up to his sizable contract with another solid October.
That success wasn’t as apparent the last time Stanton and the Yankees made the postseason two years ago, when Stanton went just 6-for-32 with four extra-base hits.
But that came after a regular season in which he limped to the finish line.
He appears healthy now and the Yankees could use some protection for Judge and Juan Soto.
“When you have [Stanton] in the middle of the lineup, driving guys in, hitting big homers, it just gives this lineup so much depth and really takes the pressure off a lot of guys,” Judge said.
