This is why the Yankees were on Giancarlo Stanton’s short list last winter. After years of losing and going home in October, Stanton now gets to play in the postseason.
And he is loving it.
“It’s been a long road so far, and we’ve got work to do,” Stanton said. “But it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be an exciting day tomorrow, and we’ve got to show out.”
Tomorrow may be Stanton’s Yankee moment, because it doesn’t matter what you do during the regular season in the Bronx, you are judged on your October work. Stanton has a chance to etch his name next to some Yankee greats.
Or he could be another Mr. May.
Either way, this year has been an adjustment for one of the Yankees’ towers of power.
“I mean, all in all, a lot of things were different for me, and that’s life,” he said. “That’s coming to a new team. The Yankees are more magnified than most, but you know, you’re aware of that going in, and you adjust for things you maybe didn’t think about or process before.”
It’s not going to be easy for Stanton and his Yankees. He called the A’s a “huntry” tram, since they finished 2017 in last and now they are playing for the Wild Card.
And their manager Bob Melvin will be playing a bullpen game with no starting pitchers, but nine relievers taking an inning, if everything goes to Hoyle.
“It’s a game of adjustments, and that’s how it seems, whether it’s adjusting to team lineups or just how their starters and relievers match up with teams,” he said. “In a case like Tampa, they didn’t have enough starters, so that’s kind of what started them to do that with the relievers, and then it was successful, so a couple other teams started picking it up. You don’t know where it’s going to go from here, but that’s kind of the new age we’re in right now.”
It’s going to make things interesting for sure and there’s no time to reflect on what has happened for Stanton or the Yankees.
“It’s a quick turnaround from ‘how did your season’ go to now,” he said. “That season is over. That’s already in the past, even though it’s a couple days ago, but now it’s postseason. Now it’s a brand new start, and we’ve just got to show up. We’ve got to be there and not try to do too much, not try to come out of what we’ve done all year, and just stay in line.”
We will see what happens with this one game season.
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