Yankees: 3 Giancarlo Stanton playoff redemption moments we’ve already seen in 2020

Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton is living up to his billing in the 2020 MLB Playoffs.

Before the 2020 Playoffs started, the kindest among us were fairly invested in getting Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton the first pieces, at least, to his redemption story.

Has Stanton earned all the scorn he faces from the fanbase? Of course not; his 2018 season was legitimately All-Star level, and his very first postseason, against the juggernaut Red Sox, did not go well for anyone on the roster.

Of course, the indelible images left over from ’18 were, fair or not, of a bat-only player on a bloated contract putting up little resistance against the slider low and away. And then the injuries really began, taking a full season away from the large-frame Californian. Frustrating, without a doubt. Career-defining…well, we hoped not.

Luckily, Stanton has spent the first few playoff games hard at work to dispel the narratives that have dogged him, fairly or not, since he first slipped on the pinstripes. In just a few short days, the man has already racked up a number of moments that the doubters would’ve had you believe would never come.

3. Stanton Homer Begins Comeback in Cleveland

With the Yankees down 4-0 to the Indians, Giancarlo Stanton did not surrender an AB.

In the second inning of Game 2 of the Wild Card Series at Progressive Field, we would’ve forgiven you if your spirits had been depleted a little bit.

After all, not only had Playoff Tanaka been whacked around with two outs by the Tribe in the first, but the umpires had taken it upon themselves to force a Game 3, popping a rain delay right in the middle of Tanaka’s inning without any regard for when the onrushing storm may or may not cease.

So there Stanton was, batting against Carlos Carrasco, nursing a huge lead and free of weather interruptions. It was fair to feel downtrodden about the prospect of a comeback.

No problem. Stanton stayed calm and composed and steadfastly walloped a home run laser into deep right field, immediately reversing the momentum that so many, on and off the field, had worked so hard to prevent.

Without Stanton’s initial blast, the snowball that became the Gio Urshela grand slam may never have rolled down the mountain. He took initiative by drawing first blood. That’s how you start a playoff rally.

2. Stanton Walks Against Brad Hand, Game 2

Giancarlo Stanton began the Yankees’ ninth-inning rally against Brad Hand.

If you’re like me, you’ve been specifically struck through the first few 2020 playoff games by Giancarlo Stanton’s ability to take a walk, especially when the pressure has been ratcheted up to a maximum.

Is it his job to take walks? Well, no. It would be ideal if he could hit a home run every time up. That would tidy things up nicely and justify his salary in the eyes of many.

But sometimes, an at-bat can go by without a hittable pitch in the bunch, beginning to end. And too often over the past few years, Stanton would spent these types of at-bats getting itchy and desperate, seemingly over-eager to please. He’d offer at a slider low and away, encouraging the opposing pitcher to lick his lips and deliver one far lower and much further away from Stanton’s not-that-long bat. It was often very frustrating.

But thus far in 2020, even with the fake crowd noise blaring, Stanton has been far more willing to spit on the breaker, comfortably not even wavering when it approaches more often than not.

He took an excellent walk against Blake Snell in the fourth on Monday, putting the fiery lefty on the ropes (he later escaped). But the premier example came leading off the ninth inning against Brad Hand on Wednesday, facing a closer with a wipeout slider who was swaggering, entering October with a 16-for-16 save streak. Stanton grinded out a walk to start the team’s ninth-inning rally, giving way to pinch-runner Mike Tauchman, who scored the game-tying run in his stead.

It’s DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela who will long be remembered for their efforts in that series-shifting inning, but it was Stanton who was more than happy to set up his teammates with patience, a virtue we haven’t seen as much from him over the past few disappointing seasons.