In the current series, slugger Stanton has provided nearly all of the Yankee offense. Used to be that the Atlanta Braves could handle him.
Monday night: a homer and double for Giancarlo Stanton against our Atlanta Braves, accounting for 3 of the 5 Yankee runs.
What stopped him? Maybe only the fact that he was taken down for defensive purposes late in the game.
So maybe that was simply the veteran hitter taking advantage of rookie Huascar Ynoa? Mmmmm… not really, as he just roped another homer against Charlie Morton.
At least nobody was on base, so the Braves are leading 2-1 at this point.
Since he spent a lot of years with the Miami Marlins, Stanton and the Braves are familiar foes. As of tonight, in fact, he will have his second-most plate appearances against Atlanta:
- vs. Mets: 487
- vs. Braves: 477 and counting
- vs. Nationals: 477
- vs. Phillies: 465
But the Atlanta Braves have traditionally kept Stanton’s bat at bay: a .226 average against is the best among all teams in which he has at least 170 plate appearances.
Among all MLB teams, the Braves have also held Stanton to a OPS value 75% of his average career OPS… this ranks 7th overall and 2nd among teams seeing him at the plate at least 170 times.
The Rays have enjoyed similar success: a .227 average against and 69% relative OPS… in 286 PAs.
Oh… and his OPS this month is 1.020. Ouch.
Unfortunately, we’re now seeing up close what Stanton can do when he’s (a) fully healthy; and (b) hot. That history isn’t helping very much.
In the month of August (not counting tonight), he’s hitting .324 with 5 homers and 18 RBI. That latter figure is a monthly high for the year… and the month still has another week to go.
Hopefully, Charlie Morton can figure out how to translate his early success — 6 strikeouts in the first three innings — to change his approach when Stanton comes up again in the fourth inning.
But as know from watching players like Freddie Freeman and (this month) Dansby Swanson… sometimes it just doesn’t matter what you throw when a hitter is this hot.