Mike Stanton making history at just 20 years old - MLB

Mike Stanton connected for two solo home runs in Friday’s 7-2 loss to the Reds. At 20 years and 278 days old, he became the youngest player to homer twice in a game since Jose Reyes did it in 2003.

It continued a torrid week for the rookie outfielder, as Stanton is 11-for-16 with four homers, four doubles and eight RBI over the first four games of the team’s current road trip. I shudder to think what he could have done if he wasn’t battling a cold.

After terrorizing the Southern League to begin the year, Stanton made his major league debut back on June 8. He struggled to a .231/.299/.481 batting line to go along with a scary 61/16 K/BB ratio over his first 160 at-bats in the big leagues. Some thought Stanton just wasn’t ready to face major league pitching, but he has quickly made some adjustments this month, batting a ridiculous .444 (16-for-36) with five homers, four doubles, nine RBI and a 7/7 K/BB ratio, improving his overall batting line to .270/.345/.571 on the year.

Stanton now has an incredible 14 homers and 15 doubles through his first 196 at-bats in the majors. Granted, his numbers are a bit inflated by virtue of his recent hot streak, but he’ll enter Saturday’s action with a .917 OPS.

This struck me as something pretty special, so I tried to track down the all-time single-season OPS leaders among 20 year olds with at least 200 plate appearances (Stanton has 220 plate appearances thus far). Here’s what I found:

1) Mel Ott – 1.084 (1929)
2) Alex Rodriguez – 1.045 (1996)
3) Ted Williams – 1.045 (1939)
4) Al Kaline – .967 (1955)
5) Jimmie Foxx – .964 (1928)
6) Frank Robinson – .936 (1956)
7) Mickey Mantle – .924 (1952)
8) Mike Stanton – .917 (2010)
9) Vada Pinson – .880 (1959)
10) Orlando Cepeda – .854 (1958)

We’ll see how he finishes the year, but this is some astoundingly impressive company.

While Stanton ranks eighth, it’s worth noting that Jason Heyward is 13th (.818) and Starlin Castro is 19th (.812). Just the latest evidence that we’re witnessing one of the best rookie classes in recent memory.

SEATTLE (AP) Aaron Judge homered for the third time in two games, Anthony Volpe and Greg Allen also went deep and the New York Yankees stretched their winning streak to four with a 10-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night.

Judge hit a towering fly ball on the first pitch of the seventh inning from reliever Darren McCaughan that carried just enough to clear the fence in left-center field, even if it would not have been a homer at Yankee Stadium.

It was the 18th of the season for Judge, who hit a pair of homers in the series opener on Monday night.

While Judge hitting another homer will get the headlines, it was Volpe’s long ball that broke open the game. With two outs in the third inning, Seattle starter Logan Gilbert caught too much of the plate with a 1-2 slider and Volpe drove the pitch 413 feet for a three-run shot and a 6-0 lead. It was Volpe’s eighth homer of the season and snapped a 2-for-22 slide for the rookie.

Allen, filling in for injured center fielder Harrison Bader, hit his first of the season leading off the fourth inning. Isiah Kiner-Falefa also had a key two-run single in the first inning as the Yankees took advantage of an error to give starter Nestor Cortes a 3-0 advantage before he took the mound.

Kiner-Falefa had another two-run single in the ninth. New York has scored at least 10 runs in three straight games for the first time since Sept. 15-17, 2020.

Cortes (5-2) mostly cruised through five innings, allowing two runs and five hits with six strikeouts. Ty France and Teoscar Hernández had RBI doubles in the fifth inning. Judge nearly stole another hit from Hernández after robbing him of a homer on Monday, but his diving attempt at Hernández’s liner fell for a double.

Gilbert (3-3) lasted just four innings for the second time this season. The five earned runs allowed were a season-high and the four strikeouts matched a season-low.

SEE YA LATER

Seattle catcher Tom Murphy and manager Scott Servais were both ejected by plate umpire Brian Walsh in the sixth inning. Murphy was ejected after yelling toward first base umpire C.B. Bucknor following a check-swing that was called a strike. Servais argued the decision to eject Murphy and was quickly tossed by Walsh. It was the second ejection this season for Servais.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Yankees: Bader (hamstring) was placed on the 10-day IL after leaving Monday’s game in the third inning injuring his right hamstring running out an infield single. OF Franchy Cordero was recalled.

Mariners: McCaughan was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma to add a long reliever to the bullpen. RHP Juan Then was optioned to Tacoma. It was Seattle’s first roster move in 24 days.

UP NEXT

Yankees: RHP Clarke Schmidt (2-5, 5.58) took the loss despite allowing only one earned run over five innings in his last start against Baltimore. Schmidt has gone at least five inning in five of his last seven starts.

Mariners: RHP George Kirby (5-4, 3.43) was knocked around for seven earned runs and four home runs allowed in his last start against Pittsburgh. Both matched career highs.

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