4 Yankees under most pressure in 2020 MLB playoffs

1. Giancarlo Stanton

For better or worse, all eyes in Yankees Universe will be on Giancarlo Stanton this postseason.

An oft-forgotten nugget in the Giancarlo Stanton Yankees narrative (or, conversely, if you’re like me, the only thing you ever think about): the team destroyed the Astros in Game 1 of the 2019 ALCS with Stanton in the lineup. Then, we all learned he was subtly injured on a play no one saw in a way no one perceived.

Just like that, his season was ostensibly over, rendered an ineffective bench bat who likely shouldn’t have even been carried for the series’ remainder.

In many ways, Stanton has become the A-Rod-like lightning rod for this current iteration of the Yankees roster, and to absolve himself, he needs a 2009-A-Rod-like postseason run, or at least something approximating it.

He struck out six times in a four-game ALDS loss to Boston in his first year in the Bronx, even after a monstrous Wild Card Game home run in his playoff debut. Last year, the Twins barely let him swing the bat, walking the slugger four times in 11 plate appearances.

But against Houston, in the middle of altering the narrative, he came up lame yet again.

Stanton has no interest in getting injured and succumbing to his own soft tissue whenever the spotlight shines brightest. He’s smacked the ball at a high velocity all year long in 2020 — except during the month-long period where he was felled by a sore calf yet again.

This October, the Yankees need to prove they adequately rehabbed Stanton this time around, and the slugger needs to play every day and produce. The pressure is squarely on his wide shoulders.

Yankees: Sept. 10, 2001 and the last normal Yanks-Red Sox rainout

For as long as he lives, this author will remember waiting all day to watch the New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox on 9/10/2001.