In defending Giancarlo Stanton’s 3-for-24 with 13 strikeouts start to the season, Aaron Boone insisted it was just part of the Yankees slugger’s streakiness.
“Once he gets it going, hop on,” Boone said Friday.
The Yankees were all aboard on Sunday.
Stanton crushed his second home run in as many days, this one a mammoth grand slam that gave the Yankees a lead and enough breathing room to pull out an 8-3 win over the Blue Jays on a chilly afternoon in The Bronx.
Anthony Volpe added three hits and scored a pair of runs that padded the lead on a day when the Yankees had to piece together the final 4 ⅔ innings with their short bullpen.
In the process, the Yankees improved to 8-2 and secured their third series victory in as many chances to start the season.
Following up on a three-hit effort Saturday night, which included a wall-scraping solo home run to the short porch, Stanton left no doubt on Sunday.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the third inning of a 1-1 game, Stanton clobbered an inside 93 mph fastball from Bowden Francis 417 feet into the left-field seats.
As the bullet exploded off the bat at 110.6 mph, Stanton stared it down for a few seconds and then tossed his bat before rounding the bases on his 11th career grand slam.
Luis Gil was tough to hit for a second straight start, though he battled command issues that limited Sunday’s outing to 4 ⅓ innings.
Eight of the 13 outs Gil recorded came via the strikeout and he gave up just two hits, but he walked four.
One of the runs Gil allowed came on a bases-loaded, four-pitch walk in which he appeared to be flustered by a pair of pitches from the previous at-bat that were called balls by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez.
After Gil, the Yankees turned to Jake Cousins, Nick Burdi, Caleb Ferguson and Dennis Santana to get through the game.
But two late runs from the Yankees offense allowed Aaron Boone not to use Clay Holmes in the ninth.