NEW YORK _ Giancarlo Stanton impressed his teammates and manager with how he handled things the previous night.
Booed during Tuesday's five-strikeout performance, Stanton answered postgame questions directly and even with a dash of humor.
They were even more impressed with his response Wednesday afternoon.
In his first at-bat of the day, Stanton crushed a two-run homer into the second deck in left, sparking the Yankees to a 7-2 victory over the Rays in front of an announced crowd of 40,028 at Yankee Stadium.
Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez would also homer for the Yankees (4-2), marking the first time this season in which the club's three intimidating righty hitters all homered in a game.
Given the general state of pitching in the sport, it likely was the first of many times that will happen.
Luis Severino, making his second start of the season, benefited from the outburst, though against the Rays (1-5) he didn't need a lot of it. The 24-year-old, who allowed one hit over 52/3 shutout innings in last Thursday's season opener in Toronto, allowed two runs and five hits over 71/3 innings. Severino walked one and struck out seven.
Yankees starters came into the day 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA in five games, the first time since earned runs became an official stat in the AL in 1913 that Yankees starters had allowed one or no earned runs in their first five games of a season.
It was all positive Wednesday and it started with Stanton, who did strike out in his final three at-bats.
The 28-year-old, hitting third and starting in left, came up with Brett Gardner on first and one out against left-hander Blake Snell.
Stanton, who homered twice in the season opener, fell behind 1-and-2 but destroyed a hanging slider for a two-run blast that left his bat at 117.9 mph, the hardest-hit ball in the big leagues this season.
The previous best?
The first-inning shot Stanton hit off J.A. Happ in Toronto that was clocked at 117.3 mph.
Judge walked to lead off the third and, after Stanton struck out, Sanchez, 0-for-his-last 17 and in a 1-for-20 skid to start the season, golfed a 3-and-1 changeup from Snell over the wall in left for his first homer, which made it 4-1.
Judge notched his first homer of 2018 an inning later off righty Matt Andriese, fouling off consecutive full-count pitches before connecting on a changeup, the two-run shot making it 7-1.
Ronald Torreyes, seeing his first action of the season, preceded the blast with an RBI single. Torreyes, who got a start at second, saved a run with a terrific diving catch in short right in the first inning and saved a hit in the second, making a backhanded stop and throw on Joey Wendle's grounder up the middle.
