Giancarlo Stanton is eager for the 2024 season to start.
After enduring a brutal 2023 season, the New York Yankees' designated hitter/outfielder made adjustments to his muscular build and to his swing in hopes of improving in 2024. Although he struggled to begin the spring, Stanton began seeing results over the past week, with multi-hit games on March 13 and March 16; he hit his first home run of the spring in the latter game.
But during Wednesday's spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, it took Stanton just four innings to do something he had yet to accomplish in a regular season game; hit three home runs in a single game. All of them came against Pirates starting pitcher Marco Gonzales, and traveled at least 425 feet.
Stanton set the tone for his remarkable performance in the bottom of the first. With the Bronx Bombers already ahead 1-0 and with Aaron Judge on second base, Stanton caught hold of a changeup and annihilated it; the ball was hit 455 feet with a 110.4 mph exit velocity, and bounced off and over the batter's eye in center field.
It wouldn't take long for the 6'6", 245-pound goliath to return to the plate. With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, Stanton battled against Gonzalez for eight pitches before taking another mighty swing at a cutter. Once again, he hit a tape-measure shot, travelling 453 feet with a 113.2 mph exit velocity; the ball sailed over the left-field scoreboard for a grand slam.
Two innings later, Stanton got a third at-bat against Gonzalez and took two quick strikes. But he then swung at a low changeup out of the strike zone and again sent it into orbit; the ball landed well over the left-center field wall, 426 feet away with a 108.8 mph exit velocity. In just four innings, Stanton had three homers and seven runs batted in.
Stanton would get a chance to hit a fourth home run and second grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he faced right-hander Quinn Priester with the bases loaded. With a 2-1 count, he made hard contact yet again by hitting a 101.1 mph fly ball; unfortunately, he just got under this one, as it traveled 357 feet to center field before being caught by Joshua Palacios. On the bright side, it was another productive at-bat for Stanton, as he notched his eighth RBI of the game when Gleyber Torres tagged up and scored on the fly ball.
Ultimately, Stanton concluded his night going 3-for-3, while his spring slash line skyrocketed to .314/.359/.714 for a 1.073 OPS. While the three-homer game is mitigated by virtue of coming in spring training, the Yankees should be thrilled about the state of their lineup if Stanton is locked in like this when the regular season starts.
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