Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton on joining 450-homers club: 'It's cool to see the names I'm catching'

Of course there was reason to doubt Giancarlo Stanton's pursuit of another milestone moment. The veteran slugger began the regular season on the indefinite injured list with sharp and constant pain in both elbows that hampered him for months. His role with the Yankees was undefined — the same could be said about his future in the league.

But if Stanton's skeptics were a main source of motivation in his lengthy recovery, he's now silenced every last one. His knack for hitting momentous home runs never disappeared, and proof came in the form of his 450th career blast on Saturday night in the Yankees' 6-1 road win over the Orioles.

The history-making three-run shot arrived in the first inning, and Stanton had to earn it. With two strikes and two outs against Orioles starter Tomoyuki Sugano, he took a sweeper to right field that narrowly cleared Camden Yards' elevated wall. The ball didn't travel to his tape-measure standards, but it counted all the same.

"It's pretty cool [hitting No. 450]. We like round numbers," Stanton explained to the YES Network after the win. "It's cool to see the names I'm catching and tying, going above. Most importantly, it helped us win. A lot of swings away from 500. Of course, you think about it. If you bear down, I'm capable of doing it. It's just one at a time. That's all I can do."

Stanton became the 41st player in MLB history to register 450 career homers, and the fifth-fastest player to achieve the feat (1,719 games). He's also just the sixth player to hit No. 450 in a Yankee uniform, and his current mark ranks highest among active hitters.

If joining the 500 homers club grants a player access to the Hall of Fame, a willing and able version of Stanton — who turns 36 in November — has the chance to earn an invite before his contract with the Yankees expires following the 2027 season. There are only 28 players in the exclusive fraternity.

In the meantime, the Yankees will bask in Stanton's success at the plate. Since his season debut in mid-June (70 games), he's slashed a laudable .268/.341/.575 with 21 homers and seven doubles across 228 at-bats. Welcomed production that the team wound up needing in bunches.

"It's so unique how [Stanton] does it, how routinely hard he hits the baseball," Yankees manager Aaron Boone told YES. "But just a really cool day for him and for us as teammates. He has so much respect from all of us… Still going in what's a Hall of Fame career. It's a big number… I feel like he's got a lot left, a lot left to go…"

After the game, the Yankees revealed that one of their younger fans — wearing Stanton's jersey, ironically — caught the ball and wanted nothing in return. But he and his family got to meet Stanton near the clubhouse, where they exchanged one special ball for some signed memorabilia.

Read the full article here