Unless the New York Yankees fall apart this week, they seem destined for postseason play. One of the prime reasons for that is undeniably outfielder and DH Giancarlo Stanton. Both he and Aaron Judge have carried the team on their backs this season. But in the crucial most recent Red Sox three-game series at Fenway Park, Stanton’s offense exploded and led the Yankees to sweep the Red Sox on their own field.
As the days go by with only six games left to the regular season, and if the Yankees make it to postseason play, they can look back at this series as the reason why after such an inconsistent season, they made it big so late in the season. Some reporters and Yankee watchers say it may have been the best series the Yankees ever played at Fenway Park in recent history.
This past weekend Giancarlo Stanton may have caused the Yankees to have their best three games series ever against the Red Sox in their own home park. In three games and 12 at-bats, he had 7 hits, a double, and three home runs while walking once. His hits resulted in 10 RBIs for the Yankees while the Red Sox only scored 9 runs in the three games combined. All of that combines for an unbelievable OPS of 2.032. You could say the series sweep belonged to Stanton.
Giancarlo Stanton’s 10 RBIs in the New York Yankee traditional Red Sox rivalry history books stack up pretty high. He is only the second Yankee to do that. In 1954 Micky Mantle accomplished the feat, but that was at Yankee Stadium; Stanton is the only one to do it at Fenway Park. It may be a surprise to many Yankees fans, but Stanton has been one of the most successful Yankee hitters against the Red Sox since he joined the team after 2017, when he was the NL MVP.
According to New York Yankees Stats on Twitter, this is Giancarlo Stanton’s record at Fenway Park: Giancarlo Stanton with Yankees at Fenway Park .395/.451/.691 (1.142) in 91 PA with 7 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR, and 21 RBI. That’s the best OPS by any Yankee all-time at Fenway Park with a minimum of 50 plate appearances. Add that to Red Sox games at Yankee Stadium, and he has 10 home runs with the Yankees against the Red Sox with 48 plate appearances.
In the first game of the series, Stanton went an impressive 3 for 5Â in the Yankee 8-3 win. But in the last two games, he upped his game. In the second game, he had a late-inning Grand Slam to turn the game from a Yankee deficit into a Yankee lead. That Slam was a signature for Stanton as no one in baseball hits a ball harder off the bat than he. It traveled 452′ into the Boston night. To finish up his impactful weekend on the field that once housed Babe Ruth, he on Sunday also hit another home run for two more RBIs leading to a 6-3 victory for the Yankees and the weekend sweep giving them back the home-field advantage in the wild card.
Stanton played very well for the Yankees in his first year, with the team being an All-Star and MPV nominee. But following that season, it all went south for Stanton through no fault of his own. During 2019 and 2020, he only played a total of 41 games combined due to a myriad of injuries. It was so bad the Yankees fans lost faith in him, calling him the “glass man.” This is the first season he has been healthy, yet the injury concerns lingered with manager Boone only using him as a DH in the first half of the season. Finally, in the weeks that followed the All-Star game, Boone decided to use him in the outfield again, where he has performed as well as any Yankee outfielder. That move coincided with Stanton’s offensive power. Since August 12th, he has hit .289 with 17 home runs in 38 games, the one home run in every 2.2 games.
If Giancarlo Stanton continues to play this way in the last six games of the season starting tonight, there is no telling what the New York Yankees can do. The postseason may very well be in the future for the Yankees and quite possibly a World Series appearance and win for their 28th World Championship. Only time will tell if that happens, but his performance against the Red Sox, this sweep will go down in Yankee history.