Giancarlo Stanton matched one of Mickey Mantle’s toughest feats

The New York Yankees got their 2022 season started in the best possible fashion against the hated Boston Red Sox. After a sluggish start thanks to Gerrit Cole’s rust, home runs from Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton set up a Josh Donaldson walk-off in the eleventh inning.

Stanton’s blast was of particular interest for several reasons. On top of the fact that it left the ballpark so fast that it actually broke a fan’s finger in the right-field bleachers, Stanton’s bullet of a homer would not have left the yard in any ballpark other than Yankee Stadium.

Stanton’s blast also continued his domination of the Red Sox. After hitting four home runs against them in the regular season last year and topping that off with a homer in the Wild Card game, Stanton became the first Yankee since Mickey Mantle to punish Boston to such a historic degree.

Stanton became just the second Yankee in history to homer in five straight games against the Red Sox. That year, Mantle hit .300 with 27 home runs and 107 RBI for a team that won 103 games. We’ll take those results from Stanton and the Yankees any day of the week.

Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton is tying records set by Mickey Mantle.

While this Yankees lineup is not short on star power, there are still some questions hanging off this group. Will Joey Gallo get back to mashing as he did in Texas? Is Gleyber Torres going to have a bounce-back season? How will Aaron Hicks play after his injury-plagued stretch? What will become of Aaron Judge amid his contract dispute?

Stanton being a beacon of consistency amid all of this uncertainty would be a massive step in the right direction for this team. While he did strike out four times in the season-opening win, the Yankees can live with that as long as the vaunted power he possesses remains in his toolbox.

What did Stanton do in his next game against the Red Sox? Hit a homer. Not only did he go yard for a record sixth straight game, but he did so by crushing a Nick Pivetta baseball into oblivion. This gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead.

Stanton can be inconsistent given his propensity for swinging and missing, but he still has as much raw power as anyone in this league. The fact he’s been able to come through in regular-season openers and clutch postseason games against the hated Red Sox should help him earn some reputation points with Yankees fans.

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