Giancarlo Stanton returns to lineup after missing 13 games with quadriceps strain
Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees after a doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, May 27, 2021. Credit: Jim McIsaac
DETROIT — Giancarlo Stanton returned to the Yankees on Friday after missing 13 games with a left quadriceps strain, a potential boost for a lineup that in the past week has had more taken away from it than added.
"Definitely good to have him back with what he means to our lineup," Aaron Boone said before Stanton went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts in the opener of a three-game series against the Tigers. "How well he [was] swinging the bat . . . just adds a little bit more length to our lineup."
It’s a lineup that lost Aaron Hicks for the season late last week when he opted to have surgery to repair a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist and likely will be without Luke Voit for at least the next six to eight weeks (Voit was diagnosed with a Grade 2 right oblique strain on Wednesday).
Stanton came into Friday hitting .282 with nine homers and an .882 OPS. He had four hits in his last 26 at-bats when he got hurt, but immediately before that he was red-hot: 24-for-48 with five homers in 11 games.
"Obviously, his power is prodigious," Boone said. "What’s been really impressive about him this year, to me, is the quality of the at-bat we’ve been getting, really going back to, I felt, spring training. He was having really good at-bats, a really good process, and [he] carried it right into the regular season. Even on days he’s not getting hits, I feel like routinely we’re looking at two or three balls that are smoked each and every day. I just think he’s in a really good frame of mind."
Opportunity knocks
Top pitching prospect Deivi Garcia, who has been inconsistent with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season (1-0 with a 5.17 ERA in four starts), will start Saturday night. But while many see that as an opportunity for the 22-year-old to stake his claim to the rotation opening created by Corey Kluber’s shoulder injury, Boone indicated others will be considered, too.
"We’ll see," Boone said of Garcia getting regular starts in Kluber’s absence. "We have options . . . Michael King is not totally lengthened out as a full starter, but he’s a guy that could figure into that mix as well."
Chapman OK
Aroldis Chapman, unavailable Thursday because of an illness, pitched a scoreless ninth inning in the Yankees’ 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Tigers on Friday night.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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