Giancarlo Stanton proves hes playoff healthy but not much more in final test
Is it possible that the postseason fate of Giancarlo Stanton — at least for the first round — came down to a bunch of at-bats against Ryan Weathers, Elmer Rodríguez and prospect Kyle Carr at an empty Yankee Stadium? It certainly sounded as if the day’s live batting practice, on the eve of Game 1 against the Red Sox, would matter, with the slugger attempting to show team brass both that he is healthy enough to play and that his bat is ready enough to perform. Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.If manager Aaron Boone & Co.
were judging purely on what they saw Monday, Stanton could more easily argue the former than the latter. He stepped to the plate five times and was able to take his vicious hacks without betraying discomfort.Afterward, he made his way to the outfield and ran curves.
Finally, as other Yankees hitters stepped into the box, Stanton took a lead off first base and several times ran to second.He was not going 100 percent, but this version of Stanton is never going all out because he is purposeful with each step to try to avoid injury.
If he needed to demonstrate that he could make it through a game without a setback, perhaps he accomplished as much. But in the tiny sampling of five plate appearances against Weathers (the first two), Rodríguez (the next two) and Carr (the final one), Stanton walked; fought a nine-pitch at-bat that included four foul balls before swinging through a breaking ball for a strikeout; hit a hot-shot ground ball to the shortstop area; chopped another, more softly, to the left side; and swung through an offspeed pitch for his second strikeout of the late afternoon session. Boone, who watched the entire live BP, had earlier branded the workout day “important” and said the club had not made the final decisions, such as determining whether Stanton would be on or off the roster. “I want to see another da...