Call it the Giancarlo Stanton Game. At least this year’s model.
Stanton slammed a tie-breaking solo home run in the top of the eighth inning Wednesday night, lifting the Yankees to a 3-2 victory at the Kansas City Royals in Game 3 of their AL Division Series. It was the second run-scoring hit of the night for Stanton, who drove in the first run with a fourth-inning double. He finished 3-for-5 with two RBI.
The victory means that the Yankees are one win away from a trip to the AL Championship Series and will hand the ball to their ace, Gerrit Cole, Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium looking to advance. The Yankees, who had an MLB-best 50 road wins during the regular season, lead the Royals 2-1 in the best-of-five ALDS.
Here are the main takeaways:
– The Yankee bullpen was terrific once again with Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver combining for only two hits in 4.1 scoreless innings. Weaver got the final five outs. Overall in the series, the Yankee bullpen has allowed one unearned run in 13.2 innings.
– The Yankees’ best player, Aaron Judge, continued to struggle in the postseason, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout and a walk. Judge is 1-for-11 (.091) in the series with five strikeouts and three walks. In the first inning Wednesday, he scorched a line drive, but Bobby Witt Jr. leaped to grab it backhanded. The ball was clocked at 114.4 mph and had an expected batting average of .860, according to Statcast. In the top of the fourth, Judge hit a fly ball to left that seemed to be off the end of the bat and it ended up just shy of the warning track, a simple out. With two on and two out in the fifth, he flew to center. He later drew a walk. In the Yankees’ last trip to the playoffs, 2022, Judge was 5-for-36 (.139) over two series with two homers and 15 strikeouts. His postseason woes are a narrative that won’t go away until he smacks some big hits.
– The Yankees have really handled Witt, who probably will finish second in AL MVP voting to Judge. Witt entered Wednesday night 0-for-10 in the series and pushed it to 0-for-12 before he hit an eighth-inning single.
– The Yankees picked Clarke Schmidt over Luis Gil for the Game 3 start, and Schmidt lasted 4.2 innings while allowing two runs on four hits. In his first career playoff start, Schmidt struck out four and walked one while throwing 71 pitches.
– Schmidt was cruising with a two-run lead in the middle of the fifth inning, getting the first two outs, but then Adam Frazier reached on an infield single when he hit a ball to short. The ball was hit to where Anthony Volpe would be playing if the Yanks were playing Frazier straightaway, but Volpe was shifted near second base against the lefty and had a long run to field the ball and then airmailed it to first. Kyle Isbel, another lefty, followed by slicing an opposite-field double into the left-field corner on a 3-2 pitch from Schmidt. Since Frazier was running the pitch with a full count and two outs, he scored easily from first. Michael Massey then swatted a liner to right field that went past a diving Juan Soto, who probably should’ve just tried to keep it in front of him instead of going for a catch. The ball went for an RBI triple that tied the score at 2-2 and also knocked out Schmidt. Holmes replaced him and, after walking the first hitter he faced, Witt, got out of the inning by retiring Vinnie Pasquantino on a fly ball.
– The Yankees built an early lead by scoring once in the fourth and once in the fifth. Soto started the fourth with a walk and, two outs later, scored from first when Stanton smashed a long double into the left-center gap. Stanton scorched the ball at 114.1 miles per hour. In the fifth, Volpe hit a leadoff single, Oswaldo Cabrera walked and Alex Verdugo dropped down a sac bunt. With one out and runners on second and third, Soto hit a sac fly for a 2-0 Yankee lead. The Yanks were hoping for more, but Judge flew out to center.
-The Yanks had a mini-threat in the sixth when Stanton hit a one-out single. One out later, Stanton could tell the Royals were ignoring him on the bases, so he got a huge jump and stole second. It was his first attempted steal and his first stolen base since the 2020 season. Volpe walked to put two runners on, but reliever John Schreiber got Cabrera to fly out to center to end the inning.
– Jazz Chisholm was booed during pregame introductions and clearly was enjoying his status as a crowd, um, favorite in Kansas City. You could read his lips off the television feed saying, “I love it, I love it.” He was booed again when he came up for the first time and then fans cheered when he grounded out. Chisholm, of course, was quoted after the Royals won Game 2 saying that Kansas City had gotten “lucky” and that the Yankees were going to win the series.
– In the third inning, the Yankees were on the short end of what might be a controversial call. With two out and Cabrera on first, Gleyber Torres hit a flare to right field that fell near the foul line. It was initially ruled a foul ball, but the Yankees challenged the call and the play was reviewed. At least one replay seemed to indicate that the ball had hit part of the white foul line, but the call on the field was upheld. With a runner on first and two outs, Cabrera might have scored on the play. Torres flew out to right to end the inning.
– The Yankees drew more walks than any team in baseball during the regular season and the Royals have been obliging in this series so far. Kansas City pitchers have walked 22 batters in the span of 26 innings, which is 7.61 batters per nine innings. That’s well more than double the season rate for the Royals (3.0 walks per nine, which was slightly lower than the MLB average).
Game MVP
Stanton. With one out in the eighth inning and the score tied at 2, he smashed a 3-1 breaking ball from lefty Kris Bubic 417 feet to left field. The ball had an exit velocity of 112.9 miles per hour, according to MLB’s Statcast. It was the 12th home run in the postseason for Stanton, who has been one of the more reliable Yankee threats in recent Octobers. He also stole his first base since 2020. Yes, really.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees seek the series win in Thursday’s 8:08 p.m. Game 4 at Kansas City.
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