BALTIMORE — Anthony Rizzo’s slump was deeper. DJ LeMahieu’s struggles have lasted longer.
In a sea of Yankees underperformance, however, Giancarlo Stanton’s unproductive bat has been particularly glaring.
Throughout Aaron Judge’s nearly eight-week long stint on the injured list, his bash brother was not able to take a step forward. Perhaps with Judge’s bat back in the lineup, Stanton’s hitting will return, too.
Stanton smacked a first-inning homer to jump-start an 8-3 Yankees win over the Orioles on Saturday, showing a much-needed sign of breaking through.
Judge was injured on June 3, one day after Stanton returned from a left hamstring strain.
Stanton played 38 games without Judge and hit .170 with eight home runs and a .644 OPS. As Judge made his return Friday, Stanton went 0-for-4, sinking his average to .196.
The numbers have been poor, but hope has been found in the cracks — and the cracks of the bat. In recent weeks, Stanton had shown indications he was on the verge of breaking out, but a lot of hard contact had not yet turned into production.
Maybe that changed with a 427-foot homer to left field against Tyler Wells that gave the Yankees their first run, part of a 2-for-5 night for Stanton.
“I feel like the last three or four weeks, he’s hitting the ball well. He’s having good at-bats,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “He’s critical to what we do, right?”
Right. During spring training, Boone stated a “massive season” could be in store for Stanton, who began the year with promise. He hit well in 13 games, with four home runs and an .854 OPS, before he strained his hamstring trying to reach second base. He returned about seven weeks later, but the results still had not followed.
Any hint of momentum — such as a 4-for-8 stretch with a home run in a pair of contests against the Royals last weekend — has been followed by an application of the brakes. Stanton entered Saturday in an 0-for-10 skid, which he quickly snapped.
Stanton, an exit-velocity god, has been consistently stinging the ball, but he entered the game with a .191 batting average on balls in play, which would have been the second-worst in baseball if he had logged enough at-bats to qualify.
The 33-year-old always will have a low BABIP because of his lack of speed, but his luck had plunged. His career BABIP is .309, providing hope that his stat line will even out eventually.
Maybe Stanton’s luck has turned. In the sixth inning Saturday, he smoked a 111.8-mph ground ball up the middle that might have been a double play, but bounced off the glove of second baseman Adam Frazier and generously was ruled a single. Stanton came around to score on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s three-run double.
“We’ve got to keep getting him trending in that way,” Boone said of Stanton. “Hopefully we’ll get to a point where we’re really banging like we feel like we’re capable of.”
