Giancarlo Stanton has established himself as one of the New York Yankees' best postseason hitters in modern history. With a game-winning home run against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night, Stanton helped lift the Yankees to a 2-1 series lead in American League Division Series.
Stanton also lifted himself into an exclusive postseason hitting category with the franchise's most iconic player. Stanton's solo home run in the eighth inning that gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead marked his 12th career postseason homer, in just 108 at-bats. That gave Stanton a career postseason at-bat per home run ratio of 9.4. It is the second-best in MLB history, just below Yankees legend Babe Ruth who has the best ratio at 8.6. Stanton and Ruth are the only two players with a ratio lower than 10.
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"It's the biggest moments, you got to be ready for it, you got to want it," Stanton said after the game about how he has hit so well in the playoffs. "You're not always going to be successful, but you can't be shocked in the big moments."
However, all of Ruth's postseason homers occurred in the World Series, as it was the only postseason series when he played in the 1920s and 30s. All of Stanton's postseason home runs have come in earlier rounds, as the Yankees haven't reached the World Series yet with him on the team.
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Stanton finished the game with three hits, two RBI a run scored and even a rare stolen base. When Stanton stole second base in the sixth inning, it marked his first stolen base of the season and his first since August of 2020.
"He wasn't holding me on, and he was slow to the plate," Stanton said of how he stole the base off of Royals pitcher John Schreiber.
Meanwhile, fellow Yankees star slugger and captain Aaron Judge finished the game 0-for-4 with a strikeout to bring his 2024 postseason batting average down to .091. Judge now owns the worst strikeout rate in MLB postseason history with 34.3%.
Now, with a 2-1 series lead, the Yankees are just one win away from eliminating Kansas City and advancing to the American League Championship Series.
New York's ace pitcher Gerrit Cole is set to take the mound in Game 4 on Thursday as the Yankees will look to close out the series without having to return home to play Game 5.
If the Yankees do end up winning on Thursday, they will have home-field advantage in the championship series for the first time since 2012.
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