That Was the Full Giancarlo Stanton Experience

And we’re off. That was a pretty good start for the Yankees because hey, winning series is what it’s all about. You do enough of that and you’re playoff bound. The Giants aren’t very good, so that Saturday loss was a little frustrating - this probably should have been a sweep. But we’ll take it, right? Welcome to all the new subscribers who are receiving their first in-season edition of the newsletter. Hope you like it. I’ll have a special announcement on Thursday.

Three games into the season and Giancarlo Stanton already has my head spinning.

Most of you know how much this guy drives me nuts, and nothing has changed three games into the 2023 season. The emotional swings Stanton creates in my brain give me a headache. Maybe yours, too.

After a nondescript 1-for-4 opener on Thursday, the game Saturday was a Stantonian special as he went a maddening 1-for-5 and left six men on base. First inning, he should have hit into an inning-ending double play but Giants pitcher Alex Cobb threw the ball into center field which got him off the hook and allowed a run to score. Third inning, he hit a line drive home run to right, just barely into the short porch, the lone highlight of his day.

Fifth inning, men on second and third with no outs, he dribbled one to third base and didn’t get the run home, something Josh Donaldson and Gleyber Torres also failed to do, a colossal waste of a scoring chance which proved pivotal by game’s end.

In the eighth inning he grounded out, and then in the ninth inning, bases loaded with one out, Yankees within 7-5, and he grounded into a game-ending double play. Argh!@!!

He picked up where he left off Saturday when he left two men on base in the first inning Sunday, but in his next at bat he hit a home run that simply defied description. My God, that ball was crushed, measured at 485 feet as it flew over the batters’ eye and crash-landed just underneath the scoreboard.

“That was by far the furthest ball I’ve ever seen hit in my life,” Anthony Volpe said. “I don’t know how they said it didn’t go over 500 feet but … just fun to watch all around. Excitement, and then I think shock with where it landed. I don’t think anyone thought you could hit a ball where it landed.”

So, as the Yankees won the series, we saw the full breadth of Stanton’s range, from bass and baritone to alto and then soprano.

Look, Stanton’s home run power is incredible, I’m not arguing that. When he hits one of those moon shots it’s fun to watch. Even his line drive missiles to right are a sight to behold. My issue with him has always revolved around the inconsistency, most of his at bats in between his highlight reel homers. I greatly appreciate his legendary hot streaks, but then I’m cursing him the other 4-5 months of the year when he’s either hurt, striking out, or failing in big spots.

This season, the Yankees are going to need a lot more from Stanton than he gave them in 2022 with he set career lows for average (.211) and on-base percentage (.297), and OPS (.759) and hit a lousy .229 with runners in scoring position.

➤ The 5-0 win on Thursday was the Yankees first Opening Day shutout since 1988 when Rick Rhoden threw a complete game three-hitter and blanked the Twins 8-0 at Yankee Stadium. And then with the 6-0 victory Sunday, this became the first time in franchise history that the Yankees pitched two shutouts within the first three games of a season. That’s quite a thing.

➤ I thought it was pretty classy of Volpe to call Brett Gardner and ask if he was OK with Volpe choosing his old uniform number 11. Not that Gardner has any say in the matter, but it was another indication that Volpe - just like young Derek Jeter - seems to get it and he was showing respect for a longtime former Yankee. “It was probably the most fun day of my entire life,” Volpe said of his debut. “I probably had goosebumps the whole day.”

➤ Volpe’s first big league hit was a single on Saturday, and then in the ninth inning - after the useless Aaron Hicks struck out as a pinch hitter - Volpe got the Yankees rally started with a single. He reached base four times in the series and stole three bases. It’s early, but the kid looks like he belongs.

➤ This was pretty wild. Jhony Brito became the first Yankee to make his MLB debut as a starter in one of the team's first three games of a season since both Johnny Johnson and Monk Dubiel started games 2 and 3 of the 1944 season in a doubleheader on April 19 at Boston. Of course, that was a World War II season when rosters were filled with players who ordinarily would not have been in the major leagues.

➤ All three of the outfielders who were vying for backup roles on the roster are now gone. The big news is that the Yankees finally had to give up on Estevan Florial who had been a highly-regarded prospect when he signed with the club as a 17-year-old, but eight years later, he just never blossomed into a big-league player. He was a terrific defender and baserunner, but he can’t hit. He was out of minor league options so the Yankees kept him out of spring training, but when they acquired pitcher Colten Brewer Thursday, Florial was DFA’d Saturday.

Rafael Ortega, who started well in the spring and then petered out, opted out of his contract after he didn’t make the club and signed a minor league with the Rangers. The other guy who looked pretty good, Willie Calhoun, went down to Triple-A Scranton.

Here are my observations on the three games against the Giants:

March 30: Yankees 5, Giants 0

➤ I’m not sure Opening Day could have gone much better. I guess Volpe getting his first hit, especially when he came up with men on first and second but struck out in the seventh inning, would have capped the day. Otherwise, a lovely, stress-free breeze, all wrapped up in a tidy two hours, 33 minutes.

➤ Gerrit Cole was flat out great. His 11 strikeouts set a new Yankees Opening Day record previously held by Tim Leary who had nine in 1991. Cole started the game with a four-pitch walk and thereafter, was untouchable. He gave up only three hits in six innings and 95 pitches. With 22 games of at least 10 strikeouts, Cole is just one shy of tying Ron Guidry’s Yankee record.

➤ Aaron Judge hitting the second pitch he saw from Giants starter Logan Webb over the center-field wall was quite a moment. In his first game as the official captain, Judge also got lucky when his flare to short center dropped for an RBI single for the final run of the game. And he played center field because Boone started Stanton in right, something that has to happen more this season, at least until Harrison Bader gets back.

➤ I’ve been on the trade Torres train since last October, but hey, credit where credit is due. The game was hanging in the balance at 1-0 when he parked a two-run homer into the short porch in the fourth. He also drew a walk and scored another run while serving as the DH.

➤ Tough day for Oswaldo Cabrera who got the start in left ahead of Hicks in all three games. The golden sombrero, four strikeouts. If he wants to keep Hicks on the bench, which is what we all want, he needs to be better than he was in this game because that was ugly. He did end up 3-for-12 for the series, so not terrible.

➤ Props to Ron Marinaccio for his two innings to close it out with no hits, one walk and three strikeouts. You can see that Marinaccio might be very similar to Michael King in that not only can Boone use him at several points in a game, he won’t be afraid to give him multiple innings. He threw 39 pitches and 27 were for strikes.

BOX SCORE

April 1: Giants 7, Yankees 5

➤ It was the same old story for Clarke Schmidt, the thing that always gets him: He just can’t put hitters away, and that’s why I don’t see him as anything more than a middle reliever when the Yankees hopefully get their full rotation healthy. The trouble started in the second inning when David Villar worked a 10-pitch at bat before singling. Schmidt threw 32 pitches that inning, after he’d thrown 21 in the first.

Then, after a seven-pitch third, Schmidt retired only one of four batters he faced in the fourth. Joc Pederson’s at bat was another perfect example of Schmidt being unable to finish a guy. He got ahead 0-2 and then Pederson fouled off four pitches, took three balls, and on the 10th pitch he took him deep. It went downhill from there as Mike Yastrzemski roped a double to right and Brandon Crawford hit a bomb to right-center to put the Giants up 3-2 and Schmidt was off to the showers, leaving the bullpen with 17 outs to get.

➤ Two relievers the Yankees are heavily relying on this season were disasters. King came on in the fifth and walked Pederson, and then in the sixth, what a mess. Single, double, hit by pitch loaded the bases with no outs. He struck out Roberto Perez, then got burned on a swinging bunt single by LaMonte Wade which pushed in the go-ahead run. He struck out Michael Conforto, but then ex-Yankee Thairo Estrada lined an RBI single that made it 5-3.

Then Clay Holmes did his impression of second half of 2022 Clay Holmes in the ninth. After Donaldson got the Yankees within 5-4 with an eighth-inning homer, Holmes got knocked around for two runs on three hits which proved decisive when the Yankees scored in the bottom of the ninth on Judge’s third hit of the day. Of course, had Stanton done something, Holmes might have been taken off the hook.

BOX SCORE

April 2: Yankees 6, Giants 0

 ➤ How about Jhony Brito? What a terrific MLB debut - five scoreless innings, two hits and one walk with six strikeouts. With all the problems in this rotation, it sure would be nice if Brito can keep pitching the way he has all spring. He looked confident, never seemed flustered, and he had a lot of success with his changeup which plays nicely off his 97 mph heat.

➤ I didn’t like Boone’s decision to lift Brito after five. He was at 76 pitches and was cruising and I would have sent him back out for the sixth and gone batter to batter. I understand they’re probably trying to protect him, but the Yankees bullpen - as we saw Saturday - may be a little questionable. Taking Brito out meant the bullpen needed to get 12 outs. Turned out they did without any problem because the Giants stink, but Boone’s reliance on his relievers bugs me sometimes.

Click the picture to see the tweet:

➤ Three more homers in this one. Judge launched a shot to left in the third to open the scoring, and after Rizzo singled, Stanton hit his rocket to left-center that landed in the bar area up there, a place where very few balls have ever gone. And then Kyle Higashioka, making his first start of the season, hit one to left in the fourth. All three came against Giants starter Ross Stripling who the Yankees saw last season when he was with the Blue Jays.

➤ Isiah Kiner-Falefa made his debut as an outfielder and he handled two fly balls without incident but went 0-for-4 at the plate.

➤ Biggest moment of the game came in the sixth with the Yankees up 4-0. Jimmy Cordero relieved Brito and two men reached base and then Cordero wild-pitched them to second and third. Here, he struck out J.D. Davis for the second out, and then Boone called on Marinaccio and he got the dangerous Pederson to fly out to end the threat.

➤ Brewer came from the pitching rich Rays for cash considerations and he’ll fit right in because he’s already 30 years old. He was actually in the Yankees farm system in 2017 after they plucked him from the Pirates in the Rule 5 draft. He moved on to the Padres in 2018, then spent 2019-21 with the Red Sox.

He spent last year in Triple-A for the Royals, signed with the Rays in December, but they certainly didn’t need him so they sold him to the Yankees. For his MLB career he has a 5.04 ERA and a horrendous 1.835 WHIP so I’m not sure what this acquisition was all about. Seems like pitching coach Matt Blake has his work cut out, though his debut Sunday was pretty damn good. He pitched the last two innings and gave up just a walk. Maybe he’ll work out as an innings eater in lopsided games.

BOX SCORE

➤ April 3, 2005: While it did not come close to avenging the calamity that occurred the previous fall when the Yankees lost the 2004 ALCS to the hated Red Sox, their 9-2 victory at Yankee Stadium over the Red Sox on opening night sure felt good in the moment.

“It’s the first game we won since Game 3,” Joe Torre said, a painful reminder of how the Yankees became the first team in baseball history to blow a 3-0 series lead which allowed Boston to win the AL pennant, and ultimately its first World Series in 86 years. “It was a long winter waiting to get on the field again.”

The Yankees made two major free agent signings to their pitching staff for the 2005 season. One of them (future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson) worked out pretty well while the other (Carl Pavano) was a disaster. Johnson was given the ball instead of Mike Mussina for the season opener and the Big Unit pitched six innings to get the victory, the first of 34 he would earn in his two seasons with New York. He gave up one run on six hits and two walks while striking out six.

“Being thrown out there on opening day, at Yankee Stadium, against the Red Sox,” Johnson said. “I guess I got a lot out of the way. I didn’t build this up. I just had a job to do.”

His job was made easier by Hideki Matsui who not only went 3-for-5, scored three runs and drove in three, two coming on an eighth-inning home run, but he also robbed Boston’s Kevin Millar of a home run in the second inning.

“I asked his Japanese interpreter how you say ‘awesome’ in Japanese and he said ‘Psycho,”’ Johnson said. “I hope he wasn’t kidding with me because I called him ‘Psycho’ after the game.”

➤ Tampa Bay 2-1: Folks, the Rays are going to be a problem. It blows me away how so many baseball experts underrate them all the time, but this team is damn good, mainly because their pitching is absurd. Granted, they swept the Tigers who are going to be one of the worst teams in MLB. But to hold a team to three runs on 14 hits across three games? So, at the end of the first weekend, they lead the division. Their start against Triple-A level competition continues as they head to Washington for three against the putrid Nationals. They have a legit chance to start 6-0.

➤ Boston 2-1: There was never any doubt in my mind that the Red Sox are going to score runs, and they scored nine in all three games against the Orioles, winning two. Rafael Devers, Adam Duvall, Justin Turner and Alex Verdugo mashed all weekend, and Japanese import Masataka Yoshida lived up to his billing as a hit machine. Boston’s pitching? Yeah, not so good. They host the Pirates for three.

➤ Toronto 1-2: Speaking of hitting, the Jays have plenty of it as well, but after they came from behind three times to win 10-9 on Opening Day, they dropped the last two in St. Louis. Their bats fell silent Saturday in a 4-1 loss as starter Kevin Gausman got burned for three unearned runs thanks to a throwing error by Matt Chapman. And then Sunday, free agent signee Chris Bassitt was horrendous in his Jays debut. The ex-Met gave up nine earned runs in a 9-4 loss. Their 10-game road trip continues with four in Kansas City.

➤ Baltimore 1-2: That was quite a fireworks display at Fenway. The two teams combined for 50 runs, 74 hits, 24 walks, and 53 strikeouts. The Orioles won the opener, pissed away the middle game on a walkoff homer by Duvall off dominant Orioles closer Felix Bautista, and then Sunday starter Cole Irvin was terrible in a 9-5 loss. Catcher Adley Rutschman went 5-for-5 on Opening Day, then struggled to a 1-for-10 in the last two, but he’s already a star. The O’s head to Texas for three against the Rangers.

The season couldn’t have started much worse for the defending NL champion Phillies who lost all three games to the Rangers down in Texas. They got pummeled twice, 11-7 and 16-3, then dropped a tight 2-1 decision in the Sunday night game, after which they had to hop on a flight and travel to New York. This is gonna be a pissed off bunch Monday night that Nestor Cortes will be facing.

The Phillies, who are without injured Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins, shredded Jacob deGrom in his Texas debut on opening night and knocked him out in the fourth inning as they opened a 5-0 lead. But then Texas did the same to Phillies ace Aaron Nola and sent him to the showers during a nine-run bottom of the fourth.

Saturday was ridiculous as the Rangers lit up seven Philly pitchers for 16 runs on 17 hits and six walks. And then Sunday night they went 1-for-8 with RISP and their only run came when Josh Harrison grounded into a killer double play in the fourth.

The Phillies are throwing Taijuan Walker against Cortes Monday night, then it’s Domingo German against Matt Strahm Tuesday night and then a battle of aces Wednesday afternoon, Gerrit Cole vs Nola. All three games are on YES.