The New York Yankees fell to the Toronto Blue Jays 5-6 on Wednesday evening, giving their opponents a sign of life in the Wild Card. With the Boston Red Sox overcoming the Baltimore Orioles, the Yankees sit just one game ahead of Boston for the first place spot in the Wild Card. The Seattle Mariners are 0.5 games from Boston in second place, so winning on Thursday evening is a necessity for a Yankees team they couldn’t find a way with ace Gerrit Cole on the mound.
However, during this exciting streak of wins, sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have been on fire. In fact, they are playing as well as two players from the past that might ring a bell, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
According to Stats by STATS: “the production that Stanton and Judge have collectively posted in August and September is matched by only one other pair in MLB history: Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.â€
Stats pieced together by Mike Rosenstein of NJ.com:
Stanton in August 2021: 9 HR, 25 RBI
Stanton in September 2021: 10 HR, 25 RBI
Judge in August 2021: 8 HR, 26 RBI
Judge in September 2021: 8 HR, 21 RBI
Stanton and Judge total in August and September 2021: 35 HR, 97 RBI
Ruth in August 1931: 9 HR, 31 RBI
Ruth in September 1931: 9 HR, 22 RBI
Gehrig in August 1931: 8 HR, 39 RBI
Gehrig in September 1931: 8 HR, 30 RBI
Ruth and Gehrig total in August and September 1931: 34 HR, 122 RBI
This is quite an incredible statistic, as the pairing of Stanton and Judge have more homers but far fewer RBIs during a similar time span. Nonetheless, it shows their absolute dominance lately, as Judge hosts a .285 average with 37 homers and 95 RBIs the season. He hasn’t enjoyed a season this lucrative since 2017, but has cut back on his strike-out rate by 5%.
Stanton, on the other hand, features a .276 average with 35 homers and 96 RBIs. Both players have very similar numbers, as Stanton currently has the third-most home runs he’s recorded in a season. Is high is 59 back in 2017, the same year that Judge had his best campaign.
With those two players hitting their stride late in the year, the Yankees need to continue extracting wins, with one more game against Toronto before taking on the Tampa Bay Rays at home to finish off the regular season.
However, the team needs Cole to play better after having a few consecutive poor outings. Over his last three games, Cole has allowed 15 earned runs, five homers, and walked four batters. He’s pitched 17.2 innings during that time span, watching his ERA balloon to 3.23 from 2.75 back on September 14. It is also fair to mention that Cole has pitched upward of 181 innings this year, so fatigue could be setting in late in the season. Hopefully, the Yankees get the postseason version of Cole if they can finish off the season strong.