NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Giancarlo Stanton’s half season has been better than most players’ full years.
, Stanton has 23 homers and 64 RBIs in 75 games after hitting a pair of two-run drives that led the Friday night and kept New York tied with 海角社区官网for the AL East lead.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been effective, efficient and not over,鈥 he said. 鈥淪till got to do more.鈥
海角社区官网and New York are 92-68 and the Blue Jays hold he tiebreaker over New York, which has won six straight and nine of 10.
Stanton put the Yankees in front against Trevor Rogers with a 397-foot drive to right-center on an 0-2 pitch. New York set a major league record with its 48th home run in the first inning, one more than Atlanta hit in 2023.
After Jordan Westburg鈥檚 three-run homer in the third against Will Warren, Aaron Judge hit his 52nd homer, a two-run shot in the bottom half. The 423-footer landed in the netting above Monument Park behind center field.
Stanton followed two batters later with a 451-foot homer that wound up in the bleachers to the left of Monument Park for his 39th multi-homer game, including one in the postseason. He added an RBI groundout in the seventh.
With his 452nd homer, the active major league leader tied Carl Yastrzemski for 40th on the career list.
鈥淒on鈥檛 get me wrong. He hit it great, but that鈥檚 not all of it either,鈥 Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. 鈥淭hat’s like a good healthy fly ball to center for us regular people.鈥
Stanton is hitting .267 and his RBI total ranked 102nd in the majors after Friday night’s game. He is , pain he is able to manage.
Nearing his first batting title, Judge has a .330 average and 111 RBIs. He also tops the major leagues in on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.687) and OPS (1.145).
Judge is hitting .420 (21 for 50) with eight homers and 20 walks in his last 15 games.
鈥淚 feel like he鈥檚 been on base seven times a day the last week,鈥 Boone said. 鈥淗e’s playing like an all-time great.鈥
Judge and Stanton have homered in the same game 58 times, with the Yankees winning 51. They joke with each other about who hits the longest home runs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all in good fun,鈥 Stanton said. 鈥淭oday was like: 鈥楾hat鈥檚 how you hit it out to center!鈥欌
Stanton batted .339 with a 1.253 OPS in August before cooling to a .200 average with a .746 OPS and 34 strikeouts in 70 at-bats this month.
鈥淗e鈥檚 grinding a little bit at it.鈥 Boone said. 鈥淗e was just kind of carrying us through that that month where it was just 鈥 seemed like a homer every day or a big hit every day.鈥
Stanton’s three-run double put the Yankees ahead in Thursday鈥檚 5-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Eight of his last 20 homers gave New York the lead and another tied the score.
鈥淕etting back to more comfortable, for sure. Getting my balance right the last little bit,鈥 he said. 鈥淪quaring up pitches I should square up in the zone. It鈥檚 their job to keep us off balance, so the more times I could be balanced and on time, the better.鈥
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