New York Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton follows through on his two-run home run off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Pete Fairbanks during the 10th inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
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Giancarlo Stanton’s long rehab from tendinitis in both elbows officially ended June 16 when he began this season with 429 career home runs, two ahead of Mike Piazza for 52nd on the all-time list.
A little over two months later, Stanton is inching up the all-time home run list. He matched Cal Ripken Jr. by hitting his 431st career homer on July 8 in a 10-3 win over Seattle and then surpassed the Orioles’ iron man shortstop two nights later with his first career pinch hit homer.
Passing Ripken occurred in a game when the Yankees were no-hit into the eighth inning by Bryan Woo, trailed by five runs and eventually rallied to win.
Since then, Stanton has gone past Andruw Jones, Juan Gonzalez (434), Carlos Beltran (435), Andre Dawson (438), Paul Konerko (439), Jason Giambi (440) and Dave Kingman (442).
After hitting three of the Yankees’ 14 homers at Steinbrenner Field in a two-game sweep over the Tampa Bay Rays, he is at 444, leading manager Aaron Boone to describe the admired slugger by saying: “he’s an animal”, which is similar to when Boone said Stanton was “hashtag weird” in an endearing comment to express amazement at some of his exit velocities on home runs.
The current number for Stanton puts him five away from matching Vladimir Guerrero and Jeff Bagwell, who are tied for 41st on the all-time list. It is eight away from Carl Yastrzemski into the top-40 on the all-time list.
Stanton’s clutch pinch hit tiebreaking two-run homer on Wednesday occurred in his 1,695th career game. Bagwell finished with 449 homers in 2,150 games for the Houston Astros from 1991 to 2005 while Guerrero achieved 449 in 2,147 games for the Montreal Expos, Los Angeles, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles between 1996 and 2011.
Stanton is approaching 450 in his age-35 season while Bagwell’s career ended after his age-37 season and Guerrero’s career ended in his age-36 season.
Stanton’s home run binge is at seven in his past 14 games and 14 in his past 13 games after he was homerless in the first 11 games back from the injury that cost all of spring training and was another extended absence.
“The way he’s been hitting lately, the preparation and the mental side of the game is really fun to watch,” Cody Bellinger told reporters about Stanton Tuesday. “He’s locked in at the plate right now. It’s very impressive.”
Stanton is also hitting home runs as clutch as the ones he hit during the postseason at a time that coincides with him getting time in right field for the first time in two years. Stanton is getting time there because Aaron Judge is recovering from an elbow injury and there are mixed messages about how much throwing the two-time MVP can do at this point.
“G’s here to win — period,” Boone said last week about Stanton. “There’s different things that pop up over the course of the season that require changing course or doing something a little bit different. In his case, with Aaron going down for this period of time, [it’s] making himself an option again in the outfield.
“He knows it’s important to the club, so he started working hard at it to prepare for this and . . . give us that option,” he added. “So [we’re] super appreciative of him because G is about winning and that’s all he really cares about and he knows there’s things you’ve got to sacrifice along the way and he’s been willing to do that.”
Stanton is handling his time well in the outfield and his power surge is coming at the right time and a contributor to the Yankees winning nine of 12 after losing 13 of their previous 20. The best stretch in two months coincides with a four-game series at home against the Red Sox and suddenly puts the division in play.
Though a 6 1/2-game deficit is hardly impossible, especially since the Yankees blew a seven-game lead after their first 55 games, a four-game deficit is moderately more manageable. Stanton’s performance is helping the Yankees go from a potentially bleak postseason picture to a possible division crown.
