Giancarlo Stanton Did it All as Yankees Win Game 3

Another night of basically zero on offense, but three runs were enough because Giancarlo Stanton had a huge night and the bullpen was clutch as the Yankees won Game 3 of the ALDS. Now it’s on Gerrit Cole to be an ace Thursday and get this series over with. Lets get to it.

Oct. 9: Yankees 3, Royals 2

I think I’ve made it pretty clear how I feel about Giancarlo Stanton, but in case you’re wondering, I generally can’t stand him because he’s usually nothing more than a one-trick pony. For the bulk of his career with the Yankees, he’s been a guy who hits home runs and does nothing else.

Watching Stanton run the bases, or swing wildly at pitches he couldn’t hit with a tennis racket, or fail to deliver with runners in scoring position time and time again is as unenjoyable as watching Joey Chestnut stuff hot dogs into his mouth at the annual Fourth of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.

But I also will acknowledge that for whatever reason, the big lug finds another gear in October and has been a pretty productive player in the postseason for the Yankees, and he did it again Wednesday night. He sure wasn’t a one-trick pony in Game 3 against the Royals, and without him, the Yankees would be staring at elimination Thursday.

“He’s a killer. It’s remarkable,” said Aaron Boone. “I just admire how well he’s able to focus in these big moments and just go to a different place mentally. I thought that at-bat off Bubic was just phenomenal. I think he went up there looking to do damage, looking to do just that.”

Stanton hit a rocket on the ground to short for an out in his first at bat in the second inning. In the fourth he hit another rocket only this one went for an RBI double that gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead. In the sixth he laced a single up the middle, and with two outs and the Royals’ John Schreiber not paying attention, he stole second base. I could not believe it, nor could anyone else. His last stolen base was Aug. 3, 2020 against the Phillies.

And then came the biggest at bat of all, the one Boone referenced, in the top of the eighth against a good lefty reliever, Kris Bubic. Stanton laid off a high fastball and then a changeup in the dirt, and that showed how locked in he was because usually he would be flailing at those pitches. He took a strike, then another ball low so he was ahead 3-1 in the count when Bubic threw an 85 mph slider that was also low and might have been ball four. Instead, Stanton went down and got it, barreled it up and sent it 417 feet to left-center to win the game.

“Laid off all the right pitches and just put a great swing on it on what was obviously a great night for him, including adding the stolen base for good measure,” Boone said. “He’s so good at locking in in these big games. He’s done it throughout his career with us. He’s just really able to focus from pitch to pitch.”

It was the Yankees’ first postseason go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later since Raul Ibanez in Game 3 of the 2012 ALDS.

“That’s just Big G. That’s what he does in general, every season he plays,” said Aaron Judge. “I don’t think postseason or (regular) season is any different. He just comes up with big hits when we need him.”

If only Judge knew the difference between the regular season and postseason, am I right? Stanton has played 30 postseason games for New York and he has 12 homers and his .633 postseason slugging percentage ranks fourth in franchise history with a minimum of 75 plate appearances.

“This is what I came here for,” Stanton said. “Not always going to be successful here, but just got to keep working and put yourself in the best opportunity. We need to wrap it up (Thursday). No wiggle room. We’ve got to get it done.”

Yes, that sure would be nice.

Here are my observations:

➤ Clarke Schmidt pitched so well until that stupid and unfortunate fifth inning, but wasn’t that quintessential Schmidt? He can look so damn good, dominating even, and then he just loses it in the blink of an eye and a 2-0 lead disappeared that fast. Still, he did a much better job than Gerrit Cole or Carlos Rodon in their starts.

➤ Two outs into the fifth, all he’d allowed was a double, a walk and a hit batsmen. But then Adam Frazier, who pretty much sucks at this point in his career, started all the trouble with an infield single, No. 9 hitter Kyle Isbel doubled to left, and then Michael Massey hit a liner to right that Juan Soto tried to make a diving catch on, which he was never going to make. By not staying upright and keeping the ball in front of him, it got past him and went to the wall for a two-run triple. Maybe both runners would have scored anyway had he kept it to a single, but maybe not. Regardless, the game was tied and Schmidt was done. “I thought Clarke was excellent,” Boone said. “I thought he was really in control of what he was doing. I thought his stuff was good. He just wasn’t able to finish off that inning.”

➤ However, the Yankees bullpen was once again nails and the Royals never scored again. Clay Holmes came in with Massey at third and he walked Bobby Witt Jr. which to me was fine; don’t let that guy beat you. Then he went after Vinnie Pasquantino and got him to fly out to end the inning, and he followed that with an easy 1-2-3 sixth. Incredibly, Holmes has pitched 12 postseason innings since joining the Yankees and he’s never allowed a run which, given all his volatility, is just crazy.

➤ Tommy Kahnle followed by recording four outs, and then here, I didn’t like what Boone did. Kahnle threw only 13 pitches to get his four outs, so I didn’t know why Boone took him out and asked Luke Weaver for a five-out save. Remember, no off day on Thursday. So what if Weaver struggled and his pitch count rose? Would he still be available for Game 4? As it turned out, he will be because he needed only 20 pitches against the seven batters he faced.

➤ The eighth inning was sticky as Witt singled, and it looked like Pasquantino singled but Anthony Volpe made a great catch behind second base to rob him for the second out. Salvador Perez kept things alive with a single that sent Witt to third with the tying run, but Weaver got still dangerous Yuli Gurriel to fly out so we all exhaled.

➤ And then in the ninth, I couldn’t believe how easy it was - seven pitches, 1-2-3, ballgame over. What a tremendous job by the new Yankees closer. It was the first Yankees’ five-out save in the postseason since Aroldis Chapman in Game 3 of the ALDS against the Twins in 2019.

➤ Thankfully the bullpen was great because to win a game when the offense managed only four hits was quite a thing. The key, as it was in the first game, was walks. The Royals’ pitchers walked eight in Game 1 and they walked nine in this game. Soto drew one off Royals starter Seth Lugo to start the fourth and he wound up scoring on Stanton’s double. And in the fifth, Volpe singled and took second on a walk to Oswaldo Cabrera. Alex Verdugo then did something useful; he avoided grounding into a killer double play because he got down a good sacrifice bunt to move the runners up. And after Torres walked to pass the baton, Soto hit a sac fly to make it 2-0. The Yankees have drawn 22 walks in the 26 innings in which they’ve batted.

➤ As for Judge, the MVP is completely lost as he went 0-for-4 with a walk. In the fifth, with men on first and third, he flied out to kill the rally. And in the seventh he struck out to end the inning with Soto on first. He’s 1-for-11 in the first three games and his career postseason average is down to .203 with a .748 OPS, but that’s only because he had moderate October success from 2017-19. Since 2020, his slash line in 13 playoff games is sickening - .137/.214/.255 for an OPS of .469 with two homers, three RBI and 20 strikeouts in 56 plate appearances.

➤ Speaking of lost, same goes for Austin Wells. He was 0-for-5 and he’s now 2-for-12 in the series. This after a September swoon in which his slash line was .111/.217/.194 for an OPS of .411. These are the 3-4 hitters in the lineup.

➤ Not that Judge and Wells are alone. The Yankees are now 3-for-25 with runners in scoring position and they’ve left 30 men on base. With those numbers, it’s rather remarkable that they’ve won two of the three games. As a team they’re now 20-for-95 which is .210 and they scored just five runs in the last two games.

➤ An irritating later start time for Game 4 Thursday: It’s 8:08 on TBS with Cole opposing Michael Wacha in a rematch of Game 1. The late time could delay the arrival of Friday morning’s newsletter, we’ll see.