The Yankees knew Giancarlo Stanton’s lack of speed might hurt them in the postseason.
On Monday, in a desperate attempt to get back in Game 3 of the World Series, it did, as Stanton was thrown out at the plate in the fourth inning of a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers that put the Yankees a defeat away from their season being over.
Barely able to get anything going against Walker Buehler, Stanton’s double with one out in the bottom of the fourth and the Yankees trailing by three runs, was one of their brief glimmers of hope versus the Dodgers.
After Jazz Chisholm Jr. lined out to right, Anthony Volpe singled to left.
With two outs, most runners would have easily scored on the play — but Stanton is no ordinary runner.
Still, third base coach Luis Rojas sent Stanton and tested the arm of Teoscar Hernandez in left.
Hernandez threw a one-hopper to the plate, just in time to nab Stanton, as Will Smith made the tag to end the inning and the only Yankees threat until Alex Verdugo homered with two outs in the ninth.
“We’re going to challenge Teoscar there a little bit, especially when he’s moving to the right,” Aaron Boone said of the send. “Credit to him, he had a good throw. I thought [Stanton] had a pretty good jump and move around third base. Tough when you’re behind a few there, but a perfect throw is able to get him there. I’ll go back and look at it some more, though.”
Stanton added: “In that situation, two outs, you’ve got to roll the dice on it. Try to get something going and kick-start things. … It was a bang-bang play.”
The send by Rojas was understandable, since to that point, the increasingly feeble Yankees offense was mostly asleep.
Stanton’s double was the first hit allowed by Buehler, and he only gave up one more hit before leaving after five shutout innings.
Perhaps Anthony Rizzo would have delivered with runners on the corners and two outs against Buehler if given the chance, but the first baseman is hobbled by two fractured fingers on his right hand and didn’t get a hit in a pair of at-bats with Buehler on the mound.
As for Stanton, he’s been so plagued by leg injuries during his Yankees tenure, he runs at the same pace in virtually every situation.
“It is something we’ve kind of got to live with,’’ Boone said before the postseason of Stanton’s baserunning. “Whether you’ve seen it over the years with a particular player that is incredibly slow that’s an impactful player, it’s something we’ve got to live with.”
Stanton has lived up to the impactful part, joining Juan Soto as the main forces of the Yankee offense and mostly carrying them through the ALDS against the Royals and ALCS versus Cleveland.
He has six homers and only added to his October résumé, but the Yankees can’t afford any slipups at this point and another deficiency was exposed Monday.
