Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have never been as hot at the same time as they are now
Giancarlo Stanton (27) of the Yankees is greeted by Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees after hitting a two-run home run against the Chicago White Sox during the first inning at Guaranteed Rate Field on May 13, 2022, in Chicago. Credit: TNS
CHICAGO — Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have been Yankees teammates since 2018, Aaron Boone’s first season as manager.
The two sluggers, however, never were simultaneously at their peak offensively, or close to it, for any extended stretches during that time.
Until this season.
Both homered in Friday night’s 10-4 victory over the White Sox, improving the Yankees’ record to 21-1 when that occurs, including the three times it’s happened in the postseason. They’re 5-0 when it has happened this season, including Thursday and Friday against the White Sox.
Going into Saturday night, Judge was hitting .305 with 12 homers (which led the majors), 27 RBIs and a 1.037 OPS in 31 games. Stanton entered the night at .284 with 10 homers, 30 RBIs and an .875 OPS in 30 games.
Judge came into Saturday hitting .338 (24-for-71) with 11 homers, 25 RBIs and 22 runs in his previous 18 games. Stanton came in hitting .368 (21-for-57) with eight homers, 22 RBIs and 11 runs in his previous 15 games (Stanton also came into Saturday with five homers in his last five games and six in his last eight).
Stanton went 3-for-4 with an RBI and Judge was 1-for-3 in the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the White Sox on Saturday night.
“When they’re playing like this and then you’re getting meaningful contributions from other people within the lineup, that’s obviously when we’re at our best,” Boone said. “So good to see them just having really consistent at-bats and doing damage when they get a pitch to handle. Try to keep it rolling as much as we can.”
Gerrit Cole, who improved to 3-0 with a 2.95 ERA after earning the victory Friday night, said from a pitcher’s perspective, facing the Yankees’ lineup with Judge and Stanton going the way they are is “brutal.”
“There’s a lot of power,” Cole said. “There’s different types of hitters, and Judge and Stanton are obviously kind of unicorns.”
Judge credited his success to “the guys around me,” mentioning Anthony Rizzo and Josh Donaldson.
“That’s where it starts for me is having great guys hitting in front of me always getting on base, guys behind me that are getting good pitches to hit,'' Judge said. "I [as a pitcher] don’t want to have Rizzo up there with guys on base, I don’t want to have Donaldson up there with guys on base, and Big G [Stanton] especially. For me, it’s just the team I’m surrounded with.”
Donaldson, who also homered Friday and entered Saturday having reached base at least once in each of his last 19 games, echoed Judge (and Stanton has said something similar) about the Yankees’ offense taking off because of more than two players.
“Look, those two guys are exceptional ballplayers, but I think what’s really making us go right now is one through nine, we’re really doing a good job of putting at-bats together,'' Donaldson said. "And when you can do that, it takes pressure off everybody else — Judge, Stanton, Rizzo, Gallo, myself. Everybody’s stringing those at-bats together. When you do that, it makes your offense very dangerous.”
More Judge
Judge’s homer Friday night gave him 166 since 2017, the second-most in the majors in that span, trailing the 169 hit by Nelson Cruz. Judge’s 12.66 at-bat/homer ratio during that time is second-best in MLB behind Mike Trout’s 11.64. In Judge’s career, the Yankees are 114-38 when he homers.
Extra bases
The Yankees (24-8) came into Saturday 15-0 this season when scoring at least five runs . . .The Yankees have scored double-digit runs six times this season, most in the big leagues.
