Yankees: Stanton again booed heavily as struggles continue

Giancarlo Stanton could not have gotten off to a better start with the Yankees after homering twice on Opening Day. Since then he has struggled mightily and Yankee fans have voiced their displeasure by booing him heavily during his first homestand in pinstripes.

The boos for Stanton started on Tuesday during the Yankees home opener after he went 0-5 with a dismal five strikeouts. Despite the Yankees winning the game it was not a pleasant homecoming for their new star. After the game, Stanton handled the situation perfectly like he’d been dealing with the New York media for years.

“You put up a performance like that, you should get some boos,” Stanton said per Coley Harvey of ESPN.

On Wednesday Stanton quieted the boos for a moment with a 458 ft blast in the first inning of a 7-2 win, but he ended the day with three more strikeouts and received another spattering of boos from the home crowd. Since then his bat has gone ice cold and the strikeouts have piled up.

In the early going, Stanton leads major league baseball with a whopping 20 strikeouts in only 42 at-bats. On the homestand, he struck out 16 times in 28 at-bats. The Yankees knew when they brought in Stanton that he was going to strike out a decent amount, but I don’t think anybody expected he’d be striking out in almost half of his at-bats.

After his 0-7 today (and his second five-strikeout game this week) during the Yankees brutal extra-inning loss fans reigned down on Stanton with the loudest boos he’s received yet. After the Yankees entered the bottom of the 12th down a run they quickly loaded the bases with nobody out to bring up Judge and Stanton to either tie or win the game. After Judge grounded into a double play back to the pitcher Stanton stepped to the plate with a chance to flip the switch and change those boos to cheers.

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Unfortunately for him and the Yankees he went down rather easily and struck out to end the game on only four pitches. It was the end of what was an awful home-stand for last year’s NL MVP and an unacceptable series loss for the Yankees.

Stanton actually came up twice with a chance to win the game in extras this afternoon and the manner in which he failed did not look good.

The strikeout to end it was bad enough but in the 10th when the Orioles walked Aaron Judge with a man on second and first base open Stanton quickly grounded out on the first pitch he saw to end the threat. Right now he looks lost at the plate as his timing and plate discipline are both off and he seems to be pressing.

That’s the last thing you want to see him doing because that could lead to him trying to do too much. That’s not a recipe for success in a team game like baseball.

Next: CC Sabathia placed on the 10-day DL

Stanton’s certainly not the first Yankee to be booed by the home crowd during his first season with the team and he won’t be the last. You just hope this doesn’t impact his psyche moving forward and that his struggles this homestand were just mechanically based. If that’s the case then he’s going to be just fine and before you know it he’ll be back to producing at an MVP level.