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BOSTON – That's what Giancarlo Stanton always wanted: a chance. Before even slipping his bulky arms into his New York Yankees' fine-striped 27 jersey for the first time at an inaugural press conference in December, the slugger was simply looking to play for a team chasing a World Series ring .
The southpaw showed part of its summer form to give Boston a 1-0 lead over New York. Can Price match that with his first playoff win?
Attracting the hopes of being the best baseball team and facing their archival rivals, the Red Sox are about to feel the heat in October.
From the Wild Cards round to the World Series, we'll be covering the 2018 playoffs.
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Even for this opportunity, he had to go to the playoffs first. He can strike that off the to-do list. It's now about helping his team stay alive.
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The southpaw showed part of its summer form to give Boston a 1-0 lead over New York. Can Price match that with his first playoff win?
-
Attracting the hopes of being the best baseball team and facing their archival rivals, the Red Sox are about to feel the heat in October.
-
From the Wild Cards round to the World Series, we'll be covering the 2018 playoffs.
2 related
Successful moments in the playoffs under pressure can really give that life. After spending eight years in the playoffs with a Marlins franchise that was struggling to get regular at .500, Stanton – a vital cog in the Bronx Bomber machine – can finally assert that he's really looking for & A title.
But for a title to be won, while the Yankees were already leading 0-1 over the Boston Red Sox in the American League series after Friday's loss against 5-4, and that Stanton found himself in Short of two places in the game, he had work to do to make his post-season impact felt.
"I did not manage to do it," said Stanton, just after hitting in two late-game situations in which he represented the tied race. "I should have put the ball in play."
These moments of failure are concrete examples of something Stanton suggested earlier this week before his playoff debut. He knew then that this eliminatory series, whatever its duration, will not be easy.
"You know, the road has been long right now and we have work to do," Stanton said. "But it's going to be fun."
Take a look at his body language as of October and you will see clearly how crazy he had been.
Perhaps he did not better illustrate his excitement to finally play in the playoffs than when he tagged a slider suspended in the eighth round of Wednesday's 7-2 win against the Oakland Athletics in the playoff game. wild card of the American League. An extra assurance, the crushed 443-foot Stanton home run was rejected by Blake Treinen. Stanton sent him, apparently, into space.
"What a telescope I was looking for that thing to get out of the stadium, it has touched it so far," said Yankees championship player Aaron Judge.
That's the way Stanton reacted to the homer that helped the Yankees know how comfortable he was in his first playoff series.
As soon as the ball left his stick to make an impressive fly, Stanton paused, admiring his bow before slowly coming up on the first goal line.
"It's kind of what happens in the playoffs when you feel hot and you feel good about what's going on in this game," said New York center field player Aaron Hicks about the fall of Stanton.
Stanton was so hot when entering the first game of ALDS on Friday night that he launched a run of eight consecutive defeats. He has also dominated four times in his last four regular season and playoff games, providing some power at the right time.
He ended up going 1-for-5 against the Red Sox, with a mere double that left his stick at 109.2 mph. He also scored one point in the sixth round of the Yankees. But Stanton's goals, scored at bat, a round later on a low curve blocked another. And batting as the race tied in the ninth, his withdrawal from the attack on three shots against Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel could make his toughest critics believe that we can not count on him in the most demanding playoff spots.
"You know, it's sometimes with Giancarlo," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. "If you make shots against him, his outs are often mistakes."
But Stanton had some success against the starter of the second game of Boston, David Price. Throughout his career, Stanton scored 9 points on 16 (.316) with three RBIs.
In addition to the fact that Stanton had been playing for some time, his four punches were still reminiscent of other times of the season during which he had struggled. Do you remember his April? At the end of his first month in the stripes, Stanton hit a tame .230 and had 43 strikeouts. At the beginning of this sequence, he had a pair of five outings in the Bronx with a restless fan base ready to attack him even before he was comfortable.
Inspired by all the battles, the tabloids from his hometown did not cause him any problems, nicknamed the superstar "GianKarlo" and "Stan & the Fan".
"I mean, a lot of things were different for me," said Stanton. "It's life." "It happens to a new team." The Yankees are more magnified than most others, but you are aware of it, and you adjust to things you may not have not thought of or have not been treated before. "
His teammates thought it would not be long before Stanton got out of the funk.
"We will come back," said the judge in early spring, "and laugh about it."
Even the opponents were preparing for Stanton to take over.
"We will not be having this conversation when he hits 7 goals for 10 with six homers," the Red Sox right field player Mookie Betts said at the time.
After the end of April, Stanton had his share of equally effective stretching after the end of April, finishing with a season of 38 homers with 100 RBIs and a .852 OPS. And these 38 circuits represented the second highest total of his career. But now that he's playing for a team in October, none of this is more important than what he's delivering from now on.
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