This is the Giancarlo Stanton whom New York Yankees fans have been waiting to see for the past three seasons.
Stanton hit two home runs in Tuesday's Game 2 of the Yankees' division series against the Tampa Bay Rays -- which New York ultimately lost 7-5 -- and the second one was a legendary three-run blast off Tampa Bay starter Tyler Glasnow, a 118.3 mph rocket in the fourth inning, an estimated 458 feet onto the walkway behind the seats in left-center. Stanton also homered in the second inning, a low liner down the right-field line that just cleared the fence.
STANTON RIPPED THIS ONE 💥
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 7, 2020
(via @MLB) pic.twitter.com/MM9bqZ0x6C
Stanton's second home run off Glasnow's 97 mph fastball was just the 16th home run of the Statcast era (since 2015) clocked at 118 mph or higher -- and he has eight of them. He also has homered in each of the Yankees' four playoff games and joins Juan Gonzalez of the 1996 Rangers as the only players with five home runs in the first four games of a postseason. His 11 RBIs in four games is one short of the 12 that Reggie Sanders had in the first four games for the Cardinals in 2005.
Hawk-Eye uses 12 cameras to track these things for Statcast, so I'm not questioning the veracity of what it says. But that Stanton home run looked closer to 558 feet than 458.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 7, 2020
Stanton, who won MVP honors for the Marlins in 2017 when he slugged 59 home runs, has played only 41 games the past two seasons because of injuries. In his first two postseasons with the Yankees in 2018 and 2019, he hit .235/.325/.412 with two home runs and three RBIs in 10 games.