Giancarlo Stanton is back to his home-run-hitting ways…
The 27-year-old part-Puerto Rican professional baseball player, a slugger with the Miami Marlins, slugged No. 55 on the season in the team’s 13-1 rout of the New York Mets.
Batting third for the first time this year, Stanton’s three-run shot came off Mets right-hander Matt Harvey in the fourth inning.
It ended a six-game, 29-at-bat home run “drought” for the Marlins outfielder. That was the most games Stanton had gone without hitting a home run since a 14-game span from May 9 to 24.
“I thought he looked better, obviously,” manager Don Mattingly said.
Stanton’s homer total is the highest since Ryan Howard hit 58 in 2006. He added a run-scoring single in Miami’s seven-run fifth inning.
Stanton came into the game batting .147 in his previous 19 games. He has been rested and held out of the starting lineup three times in the past 10 games, including Sunday, when he asked to sit out. The break helped, he said.
“For sure, at this point,” Stanton said. “Early in the year when you have a day off, you kind of feel sluggish afterward. With all the miles we’ve tallied up through the year, it feels good to have them now.”
