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Aaron Boone said at the time the Yankees were flipping Stanton and Aaron Judge in the lineup to mix things up, but added the two sluggers are “somewhat interchangeable.”
Giancarlo Stanton was back in the two-hole in Thursday’s lineup. No surprise, considering his 11-game hitting streak started when he was moved there when the Yankees were in Cleveland and he’s hardly made an out since.
Aaron Boone said at the time the Yankees were flipping Stanton and Aaron Judge in the lineup to mix things up, but added the two sluggers are “somewhat interchangeable.”
Stanton hit two homers in that April 23 game and hasn’t looked back, hitting .500 (24-for-48) with five homers, four doubles, 10 RBIs, two walks, eight strikeouts and an OPS of 1.416.
Asked again before Thursday’s series finale against the Astros about the move, Boone downplayed its importance.
“He went into the two-hole and started really raking,’’ Boone said with a smile. “I look at it more as a really good hitter getting it rolling. Had he been hitting two, four, three, whatever, I feel like we’d be in the same position. With that being said, there’s no denying what he’s meant in that two-hole and I think I’m gonna keep him there for a little bit.”
And the manager insisted there was no grand plan behind the switch, saying it was “a little bit for the heck of it.”
“Honestly, we got off to a tough start offensively for the first two weeks of the season as a group, so it was a little bit changing things up,” Boone said.
Stanton continued his torrid stretch at the plate in Wednesday’s win over Houston, with three more hits and another home run.
This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Dan Martin