BALTIMORE -- The season’s first two months passed without Giancarlo Stanton logging so much as a single plate appearance, elbow pain leaving the slugger unable to swing a bat without issue. The Yankees kept the lights on for him, never losing hope that he would return as a mighty offensive presence.
A year removed from a postseason surge that helped power his club all the way to a World Series appearance, Stanton is once again providing what they need.
Stanton launched his 450th career home run early as the Yankees gained ground in the American League East race, posting a 6-1 victory over the Orioles on Saturday evening at Camden Yards.
“It’s a cool round number,” Stanton said. “It’s cool to see the names I’m catching and tying and going above. Most importantly, it helped us win. A great day all around.”
The Blue Jays’ loss to Kansas City earlier in the night means the Yankees (87-68) trail Toronto (89-66) by just two games in the American League East, with seven left. Toronto owns the tiebreaker.
“We can’t really pay attention to them,” Stanton said. “We’ve just got to do our thing every single night. Without us winning, it really doesn’t matter what they’re doing. We’ve just got to win each day, win each at-bat, win each pitch.”
That’s a sentiment shared widely within the Yanks’ clubhouse, where the team remains unsatisfied with the top Wild Card spot -- a consolation prize that would represent a disappointment for the defending AL champs. The math suggests it will be difficult, but not impossible, to overtake Toronto.
"I saw they lost, but my mind is on trying to win [Sunday],” manager Aaron Boone said. “We can’t win seven out of eight tomorrow. It’s out of our hands. What we can control is hopefully going out and getting some runs against a really tough pitcher to win a series. That’s as far as you can look at it.”
Stanton gave his club an early lead with his opposite-field three-run shot off right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano, moving past Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Jeff Bagwell (449) for sole possession of 41st place all-time.
Carl Yastrzemski is next, with 452. Stanton’s 450 homers are the most among active players, ahead of Mike Trout, who hit his 400th on Saturday for the Angels. Stanton's teammate Paul Goldschmidt is behind Trout, with 372.
“It’s just a really cool day for him, and for us as his teammates,” Boone said. “He just carries so much respect from all of us; who he is, the way he goes about things in his unique way.”
The first-inning blast was Stanton’s 21st homer of the season; he didn’t make his season debut until June 16, with his first homer not coming until July 2. But he’s making up for that lost time.
“It’s been massive production, off a really strong year last year where he was such a presence in our lineup,” Boone said. “Then obviously what he did in the postseason … he’s obviously a huge part of what we do.”
Playing in his 1,719th career game, Stanton is the fifth-fastest player to reach 450 home runs in terms of games played. He trails Mark McGwire (1,524), Babe Ruth (1,585), Alex Rodriguez (1,684), and Harmon Killebrew (1,713).
“I feel like he’s got a lot left; a lot more to go,” Boone said.
Already counting MVPs from 2022 and ’24 in his trophy case, Judge cleared the left-field fence in the third inning with his 49th homer, a solo shot off Sugano. It was Judge’s 49th career homer against the Orioles, his most against any club.
That sealed the 57th occurrence of Stanton and Judge homering in the same game (including postseason), passing Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle for second-most in franchise history. Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth did it 75 times.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trent Grisham later added run-scoring singles to support Carlos Rodón, who allowed one run in seven innings on four hits, striking out eight and picking up his 17th win, a career high for the lefty, whose changeup dazzled the O’s.
“The way [catcher] Ben [Rice] called that game, it set up the changeup well,” Rodón said. “The outer lane was kind of open with the fastball, so I just tried to tunnel that with the changeup. I was fortunate to have that today. It was a good game overall. I’m happy with the win.”