Most of the first afternoons last October, Giancarlo Stanton would be on the ground for an early stick practice. Later in the evening, he would put his cape.
During all this time, without knowing all those outside the Yankees clubhouse, he was dealing with a high level of pain with tendonitis in both elbows.
And yet, he was still able to put the Yankees on his back to help them transport them to the World Series.
The time of the steel veteran to shine has arrived again – persistent elbow problems and everything – from Tuesday evening against the Red Sox in the Al Wild -Card series at the Yankee Stadium.
“I think what makes him so tall and one of our leaders is that everyone knew what he was going through and puts himself through [last October]But you never hear him from him, “said Anthony Volpe.” I think many guys have learned a lot from that. There is no excuse.
“He is supremely concentrated and I think it detects everyone.”
In 14 playoffs last fall last fall, Stanton attracted half of them while beating. 273 with an OPS of 1,048 and 16 products produced and winning the MVP Alcs. Without him, the Yankees may not have reached the World Series.
“It’s just impressive,” said Aaron. “It says a lot about the type of character he has, pain tolerance, how much he wants to win. He will put his body to test the limits and see what is going on. He really gave his whole body last year in October and I think he will probably do the same this year too. ”
The Yankees will need this, and more – in particular, judge the best striker of the game he was during the regular season – while they start their quest to write a better end to the eliminatory race of last year.
To do this, however, they will have to exceed a team of Red Sox who posed many problems for them, including taking the series of season 9-4, and sends two difficult entries to the mound at Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello to start the series.
Historical rivalry is not what it was in the early 2000s, but there will still be a lot of noise around it.
This is where Stanton’s concentrated and unadorned approach comes into play, with its ability to cut all potential distractions and to focus on what really matters, as in victories or losses, producing or not.
“I think he learned that so well played in New York,” said manager Aaron Boone. “To see it evolve, it is so good in the mental game. He is mentally very hard. He is not affected by external praise, criticism, success, failure in a game. He is very, very disciplined. I think it was something he learned and has evolved during his career, but especially in New York. ”
The same elbow problems as Stanton crushed at the end of last year forced him to miss the first two and a half months of this season before returning to 0.273 with 24 circuits and a .944 OPS in 77 games.
He set up a section downright dominant in August, even risking injuries by returning to the external field on occasion so that the judge could DH when he returned from his tension tension of the right elbow.
Stanton cooled in September, although he came back alive late – in the matches, the Yankees needed to win to keep their hopes of division alive – almost as if his body knew that the calendar was about to turn to October and simply clicked naturally in another equipment.
This coincided with a flourishing judge when he was putting the final touch to what could be a third MVP season, offering another taase of what could look like a October if the two clicks at the same time.
“These guys, they are the heart rate of this team,” said Ryan McMahon. “These are the big sluggers, they do it. Coming when the team needs them most, you expect it because it’s just who they are at their hearts. They are the big guys from the team.”
They also order the clubhouse. The role of the judge is clearer in his role as captain, but as Boone has often said, when Stanton speaks, “people listen”.
“He just has the perfect pulse of the team, and what we need to hear, whether good or bad,” said Volpe. “He says what to be said.”
“Everything happens or something happens, it has experienced a lot, so just [knows] How to navigate everything.
