The New York Yankees lived up to their Bronx Bombers moniker this season as the clear-cut best power-hitting team in the MLB. Facing a 0-2 hole against the equally formidable Houston Astros, Giancarlo Stanton thinks the team might need to switch up their approach.
Stanton was vocal after their subpar hitting display in Game 2, with the Yankees tallying just four hits in the 3-2 loss. It's their ninth such game with six hits or less in a row dating back to the regular season, which is the longest such single-season streak in franchise history.
“We’ve got to shorten up a little bit and put the ball in play,” said Giancarlo Stanton. “You never know what can happen if you put the ball in play.”
The Yankees have been able to get by this long by mashing home runs, which has been their modus operandi since the regular season. They were first in the league at the long ball with 254, but they were also in the bottom half in the league in total hits, tied for 16th with just 1308.
Against a formidable team top to bottom as the Astros have, playing for power alone isn't going to be enough and Stanton knows it. It was perhaps a symbolic sequence that Aaron Judge's home run attempt somehow fell short in Minute Maid Park, stymied by the controversial open roof.
With just two proverbial lives left, the Yankees need to play with a sense of urgency. If it means getting out of their comfort zone and shortening up instead of swinging for the fences, so be it.
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