It’s not uncommon for major league teams to have a Turn Back the Clock Day.
But Giancarlo Stanton is looking for a Turn Back the Clock Season.
The oft-injured New York Yankees slugger continued his torrid start Tuesday, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs in a 5-0 victory against the host Seattle Mariners.
The three-game series, tied at one apiece, will wrap up Wednesday afternoon.
The 36-year-old Stanton became just the fourth player in the storied franchise’s history to have multiple hits in each of the first five games of the season, joining Bob Meusel (1928), Moose Skowron (1956) and Alfonso Soriano (2003).
Soriano had a six-game streak.
“I feel like he’s been locked in all spring and carried it over into the regular season,” teammate Cody Bellinger said of Stanton, who is batting .500 with one homer and four RBIs. “Just the quality at-bat and hitting the ball hard.”
Stanton hit a run-scoring single off Seattle starter Logan Gilbert in a two-run first inning, giving him 500 RBIs with the Yankees. Stanton added a run-scoring double in a three-run sixth.
“He’s disciplined and develops his plan and goes up there and is executing really well,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s in a good place.”
Stanton didn’t make his debut last season until June because of tennis elbow in both arms and appeared in only 77 games, though he hit .273 with 24 homers and 66 RBIs.
Not bad for a guy who acknowledges he can’t open a bottle or a bag of chips because of his injuries.
But those numbers didn’t please Stanton because of his limited playing time.
“You never come into a season thinking it’s not going to be a huge season, but you let the season play out,” he said. “Just get me in the box. The key is get in the box.”
Stanton’s start has been overshadowed by the Yankees’ pitching staff, which already has thrown three shutouts. The three runs they’ve allowed through the first five games matched the MLB record set by the 1943 St. Louis Cardinals.
Left-hander Max Fried pitched seven scoreless innings Tuesday and hasn’t allowed a run over 13 1/3 innings through two starts.
Fried didn’t allow a hit until Josh Naylor’s liner to center with two outs in the fourth. It was Naylor’s first hit of the season, snapping an 0-for-20 drought.
Of the two other hits Fried allowed, one was an infield single by Julio Rodriguez, who’s now 2-for-22.
Cal Raleigh, the runner-up to the Yankees’ Aaron Judge in the American League’s MVP voting last season, went hitless in four at-bats and is 3-for-21 this season.
“He’s tough,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said of Fried. “I think he’s got a good mix, and he’s got some velo when he needs it.”
The series finale is scheduled to feature a pair of right-handers in the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and the Mariners’ George Kirby (1-0, 1.50), a native of Rye, N.Y.
Schlittler is 1-0 with a 5.06 ERA in one start against Seattle; Kirby is 0-1, 1.80 in two career starts against the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
