LOS ANGELES (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton has been coming to Dodger Stadium since he was a kid. Seems like every time he comes back, he sends a special souvenir into the outfield seats.
The opener of this Yankees-Dodgers World Series was no exception.
Stanton crushed a go-ahead, two-run drive in the sixth inning to put New York ahead, his latest smash for a New York team chasing its 28th title. It wasn’t enough in a 6-3, 10-inning thriller of a loss to Los Angeles on Friday night.
Maligned by Yankees fans for much of his time in the Bronx, Stanton homered for his fourth straight postseason game, a 116.6 mph shot off Jack Flaherty that was the hardest-hit ball in the World Series since MLB started tracking in 2015.
His six homers and 13 RBIs both top the Yankees in the postseason, and his 17 career postseason homers in 135 at-bats are among the top ratios in baseball history. He is the only player to twice homer in four straight postseason games.
Throughout October, his determination has been evident.
“This ain’t the trophy I want,” he said after Saturday night’s pennant-clinching win at Cleveland. “I want the next one.”
Born in Panorama City, California, and raised about 15 miles north of Dodger Stadium in the Tujanga neighborhood of Los Angeles, Stanton used to watch games from the left field pavilion.
He hit a tying 457-foot home run into the pavilion off the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin in the 2022 All-Star Game and has 10 homers in 25 regular-season games at Chavez Ravine — the most impressive a 475-foot drive for Miami in May 2015. Stanton is among just five players to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium, joined by Willie Stargell (twice), Mike Piazza, Mark McGwire and Fernando Tatis Jr.
Given a then-record $325 million, 13-year contract by the Marlins, Stanton had 59 homers and 132 RBIs in 2017, winning the NL MVP award. His first season in the Bronx was a success with 38 homers and 100 RBIs but he missed 266 of 708 games over the next five seasons because of a series of injuries that included strains of right biceps, right knee, left hamstring (twice) and left quadriceps along with right ankle inflammation and left Achilles tendinitis.
He arrived at spring training this year markedly slimmer and had 27 homers and 72 RBIs while playing 114 games — he was sidelined by a strained left hamstring between June 22 and July 29.
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