NEW YORK _ Giancarlo Stanton has been saying all along that he's not worried. That he's not having trouble adjusting to New York and is just doing his thing like he always does.
Maybe it's time to listen to him after Stanton's three-run home run powered the Yankees to a 6-2 victory over the Braves at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
Stanton can have at-bats that look completely non-competitive. Then he can swing and produce a mighty blast to the right-centerfield bleachers as he did in the third inning against Atlanta starter Julio Teheran.
After the games of July 4, 2017, Stanton was hitting .265 with 21 home runs, 50 RBIs and an .870 OPS for the Marlins. He went on to hit an MLB-leading 59 homers.
After the games of July 4, 2018, Stanton is hitting .267 with 21 home runs, 51 RBIs and an .853 OPS. And he bats in a much better lineup in a much easier home run-hitting home ballpark.
Is the best yet to come? If it is, the rest of baseball may not be able to keep the Yankees from breaking the all-time single-season home run record. The 1997 Mariners hit 264. The Yankees have hit 144 in 84 games, which puts them on pace to finish the season with 284.
They hit three more on Wednesday to back CC Sabathia, who allowed two runs in six innings for the victory. Aaron Judge hit his 24th _ no shock there _ and rookie catcher Kyle Higashioka homered for the second time in two days and for the third time in his brief career.
In fact, Higashioka has three career hits in 34 at-bats over the last two seasons and they are all home runs. He became the second Yankee to hit home runs for his first three hits (Alfonso Soriano, 1999-2000).
But the solo homers by Judge and Higashioka were just icing on the cake (whether it was for America's or John Sterling's birthday on Wednesday). The entree was served up by Stanton, who also homered in the Yankees' 8-5 win on Tuesday.
The Yankees were leading 1-0 on Greg Bird's second-inning RBI single when Stanton sent a 3-and-1 pitch deep into the humid afternoon sky. It was a no-doubter, unlike the wall-scraper Stanton hit to right on Tuesday.
Higashioka's homer to left in the fourth made it 5-0.
Sabathia (6-3) allowed a run in the fifth on an RBI groundout by Danny Santana and another in the sixth on Johan Camargo's ninth home run. Sabathia gave up five hits, walked three, hit two batters and struck out five in a season-high 103-pitch effort.
Judge's high solo shot to right off lefthander Luiz Gohara made it 6-2 in the sixth.
The only down note for the Yankees was rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres leaving after four innings because of a recurrence of the right hip stiffness that kept him out of the starting lineup on Tuesday. The Yankees announced that Torres would undergo an MRI.
