With one swing – and the look and bat that followed – Giancarlo Stanton breathed a sigh of relief at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees-slugger had already been booed on Opening Day and again in the first inning on Monday, as he remained hitless for an attack that also started slow. But by the fifth inning, he eased those concerns so quickly when his 471-foot moonshot reached the patio in left midfield.
Stanton turned boos into the roar of the 9,008 crowd when he crushed a grand slam to break open the game and send the Yankees to a 7-0 victory over the Orioles on Monday night.
Jordan Montgomery was sharp and threw six shutout innings with seven strikeouts to bring down an Orioles-line-up that came from a sweep of the Red Sox in Boston. The Yankees’ pitching staff was solid for the first three games, but had only one win before it due to a lack of run support.
However, the big bats finally started to break out, with Stanton leading and Aaron Judge adding his first homerun of the season – after Gary Sanchez had been responsible for the Yankees’ only two long balls in the first three games.
Stanton’s detonation came with two outs in the fifth inning, breaking his 0-for-10 start. Aaron Hicks, who was in his own 1-for-14 rut to start the season, had just signed a basesloaded walk to put it into a 2-0 lead. Stanton then got a 92 mph fastball in the middle of Shawn Armstrong and turned it on, no doubt leaving behind with a 115.1 mph rocket staring down as he flew into the stands for the 6-0 lead.
After starting the season 4-for-24 with runners in scoring position, the Yankees went 3-for-5 on Monday, including an RBI-single by DJ LeMahieu to lift the lead to 7-0 in the sixth inning.
Manager Aaron Boone had said he didn’t want the Yankees chasing hits because of the cold start and they seemed to comply, remain patient and go for seven walks.
It turned out that Judge’s solo-homerun in the fourth, which reached the short veranda in rightfield for an 1-0 lead, would have been enough for Montgomery. The lefthanded man was dominant and efficient in his first start of the year, needing only 73 pitches to get through six innings. Only one batter reached third base, with two outs in the fifth, but Montgomery calmly stranded him there.
Luis Cessa followed with two shutout-innings and Aroldis Chapman, who made his debut after a two-game suspension, struckout in the ninth.