Giancarlo Stanton’s El Duque-esque October résumé is stuff of Yankees legend

CLEVELAND — Giancarlo Stanton has become a latter-day, hitting Orlando Hernandez.

He is good in the regular season, sometimes very good, yet always leaves a sense there should be more. And then October comes and, well, there is more. Stanton has shown at this time of year he is ready to Duque it out.

Hernandez was the best postseason starter of the Yankee dynasty. And Stanton is the best October hitter of this generally frustrating era of Yankee postseason ball. He is Judge and fury come the postseason.

He went into Saturday night’s ALCS Game 5 averaging nearly an RBI per game in the postseason, with 33 in 36 contests. His 15 homers tied Aaron Judge for third all-time in the playoffs among Yankees, trailing just Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter and Mickey Mantle. But that is 15 homers in 36 games. To put it in perspective, that would equate to 67 ¹/₂ over 162 games.

And Stanton is not hitting meaningless shots. For example, his eighth-inning Game 3 solo launch off Kansas City’s Kris Bubic was the biggest hit of the Division Series. The game was tied 2-2. The series was tied 1-1. The Yanks were teetering toward falling behind and one loss away from a first-round elimination against the Royals.

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Consider that going into Saturday, the Yankees had 66 plate appearances this postseason with runners in scoring position and just one homer — a three-run Stanton blast off Cade Smith that gave the Yankees a 6-2 lead in a Game 4 they would ultimately take 8-6 .

Dig into that at-bat and you will find the October Stanton.

He had hit a tiebreaking, eighth-inning homer against the majors’ best regular-season closer, Emmanuel Clase, on Thursday night after falling behind 0-2. He fouled off three pitches with two strikes before crushing a Clase slider.

Smith has been arguably the majors’ best setup man. Just a few quick facts. He had allowed one homer all season (regular and postseason) in his first 81 appearances over 84 ¹/₃ innings — a leadoff shot by Seattle’s Dylan Moore on June 18 that gave the Mariners a 7-1 lead. Since then, he had faced 196 hitters without allowing a long ball.

After hitters fell behind 0-2 against Smith in the regular season, they batted .113 with 47 strikeouts in 75 plate appearances. The first nine to fall behind him 0-2 in these playoffs all made outs, seven by strikeout. Stanton was the ninth.

Juan Soto had walked, Judge had singled and Jazz Chisholm sacrificed both into scoring position. First base was open. Anthony Rizzo was on deck. But Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt decided to have Smith attack. And that looked just fine when Smith got ahead 0-2. After all, Stanton had hit just .136 with two strikes this year and .119 after 0-2.

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But that is April-to-September Stanton.

He had struck out looking with a full count in his previous at-bat. But that ended a streak of 27 plate appearances without a whiff — the longest of his career. And before that strikeout, this is what Stanton had done his seven prior plate appearances that reached two strikes:

Single, double, single, walk, groundout, homer, walk.

He told himself here to not strike out, that getting a sacrifice fly was a must. He got more. At 1-2, Smith whipped a 94.2 mph fastball to the upper, outer corner of the strike zone and Stanton sent it 404 feet. It gave him three hits in the ALCS — all homers.

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“He did it again,” Aaron Boone said. “Just to get to two strikes there and get to one — looked like almost a letter — high heater maybe and just smooth as — just special. Just locked in, prepared. His preparation and his ability to just lock in and focus is impressive.”

Stanton throughout this postseason has come out early on the field to hit off a high-speed pitch machine and he was joined before Games 3 and 4 by Judge. After going to the ALCS Game 7 in 2017, the Yankees had built an offseason plan around importing Shohei Ohtani. When he spurned the Yankees, they immediately pivoted and traded Starlin Castro and two prospects to Derek Jeter’s Marlins for Stanton and a $30 million offset of the 10 years at $295 million left on the reigning NL MVP’s deal.

The idea was to create a Twin Towers offense around Judge and Stanton and win championships. But for Stanton, the regular seasons have been up-and-down and injury-filled and for the Yankees that seven-game ALCS loss to the Astros was as close as they have been to the World Series since winning it in 2009.

Until now.

And since the Yankees are defined by championships, their fan base does not dwell on the good Hernandez, who went 61-40 with a 3.96 ERA as a Yankee in the regular season. They recall what it meant to give El Duque the ball in October, when during the 1998-2000 three-peat he started 11 times in the postseason, the Yankees won 10 and he was 8-1 with a 2.20 ERA.

More and more, Stanton is making sure Yankee fans don’t remember the injuries, the slumps and the protective jogs on the bases. He is constructing a historic October résumé.

It is the postseason, and Stanton is on an El of a run again.

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