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Juan Soto Stopped in His Tracks on Base Paths to Admire Yet Another Giancarlo Stanton Homer

Stanton has given the Yankees much to admire this postseason.

Josh Wilson

Stanton has hit four home runs this postseason for the Yankees
Stanton has hit four home runs this postseason for the Yankees / David Richard-Imagn Images
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The postseason was made for players like Giancarlo Stanton. He's one of those special players who locks in and rises to the occasion when the lights are brightest. The New York Yankees' slug-heavy designated hitter has been critiqued at various points for his high strikeout rate (which was nearly a career-high in 2024), but you have to credit his ability to turn it on when it matters most.

Stanton has homered 15 times in 35 playoff games. His postseason home run rate of 10.4% in the postseason dwarfs his career regular-season rate of 6.2%.

After another three-run blast on Friday night to expand the Yankees' lead over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 4 of the ALCS, his teammate, Juan Soto, who was driven in from third base, had to just stop and enjoy it before he began his trot.

It was Stanton's fourth home run of the 2024 playoffs (eight games). He has struck out just three times, going six consecutive games without letting an opposing pitcher get him out on strikes.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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