Giancarlo Stanton turns boos into cheers with four RBIs
Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees follows through on a seventh-inning, two-run single against the Astros at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Let’s put it simply: A significant portion of the Yankees’ fan base has not warmed up to Giancarlo Stanton.
You can always hear the murmuring at Yankee Stadium when Stanton strikes out. When he doesn’t come through in the clutch. It doesn’t take much for a trickle of boos to turn into a flood when Stanton flails at a slider away from a righthander for what seems like the umpteenth time.
What is it about him? Is it the $325-million contract? Is it the guarded personality, even in Year 2 in New York? Is it that he’s not homegrown?
That doesn’t seem to be a problem for Luke Voit, who hears “Luuuuuuuuke” the second he walks onto the field.
Whatever it is, Aaron Boone seems to have noticed it. That’s why the manager seemed to call out the paying customers after Stanton’s four-RBI night lifted the Yankees to their eighth win in a row, a 7-5 victory over the Astros on Saturday night.
Stanton twice drove in a pair of runs with two heat-seeking missiles that became singles off the glove of Houston third baseman Yuli Gurriel. The second, in the seventh inning, broke a 5-5 tie in an entertaining, back-and-forth game between two of the American League’s heavyweights.
“Big at-bats by him,” Boone said. “I hope everyone takes notice of that.”
We asked Boone a follow-up: What did he mean? Was he speaking of the rough treatment Stanton gets in his home ballpark?
Boone smiled and said: “Nah. Just sometimes we forget what a good player he is. I hope they saw those at-bats.”
Voit was willing to be more direct. “You’ve got to give the guy a break,” he said. “He’s played like, what, five games? Three games?”
Saturday’s game was the Yankees’ 76th and Stanton’s seventh. He appeared in the first three games before going on the injured list with a biceps injury that became a shoulder injury that turned into a calf injury during his first rehab attempt.
Stanton returned from the IL on Tuesday and had three hits in 13 at-bats going into Saturday. One thing he didn’t have in any of his first six games was an RBI. Then he picked up four in two innings.
The Yankees had been held hitless by lefthander Wade Miley until Gio Urshela homered with two outs in the fifth for a 2-0 lead. Josh Reddick tied the score in the sixth with a two-run homer off Masahiro Tanaka.
In the sixth, Stanton hit a two-run single off Gurriel’s glove to give the Yankees a 4-2 lead. The Astros went ahead 5-4 in the seventh on Yordan Alvarez’s three-run homer off Jonathan Holder, but Austin Romine tied it at 5 with a home run in the bottom half.
With two outs in the inning, Stanton hit a two-run single, again off the glove of Gurriel, to give the Yankees a 7-5 lead.
Stanton said his approach was “to try to put it in the air. But, whatever, get it on the barrel . . . It’s just good to be able to contribute to a win. Finally. First RBIs, first contribution, so it’s good.”
Stanton was the National League MVP with the Marlins in 2017, when he hit 59 home runs and drove in 132 runs. After getting traded to the Yankees, he had 38 homers and 100 RBIs in 2018.
He struck out five times and got booed in his first home game as a Yankee last season. It didn’t matter that the Yankees beat the Rays, 11-4. Apparently, you never get a second chance to make a first impression in the Bronx.
Stanton is still looking for his first home run of 2019. When he gets hot, they usually come in bunches. But when he is cold, he can look clueless at the plate.
“He won MVP for a reason,” Voit said. “It’s nice to have an MVP hitting behind you.”
And it’s nice to have an MVP on your team. Maybe Stanton will make Yankees fans feel that way someday.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
