SEATTLE — Three players in New York Yankees history have done it. All three are from a different era. One won three batting titles. One was a cornerstone of the most feared lineup in the sport during the late 1920s. The third played in the time when Mickey Mantle was still in his prime.
Now Giancarlo Stanton joins them.
With another two-hit performance Tuesday night in the Yankees’ 5-0 win over the Seattle Mariners, Stanton recorded multiple hits in each of the team’s first five games of the 2026 season. He became the fourth Yankee in franchise history to accomplish that feat, joining Alfonso Soriano in 2003, Bill Skowron in 1956 and Bob Meusel in 1928.
Yankees players with multi-hit games in each of team’s first 5 games
| Player | Season | Games | Notes |
| Bob Meusel | 1928 | 5+ | Hall of Fame-caliber slugger |
| Bill Skowron | 1956 | 5 | First baseman, 4x World Series champion |
| Alfonso Soriano | 2003 | 6 | Streak extended to 6 games |
| Giancarlo Stanton | 2026 | 5 (active) | 4th in franchise history |
Source: MLB Stats / Elias Sports Bureau / Sarah Langs, MLB
Two hits a night, like clockwork
The consistency of the line is almost eerie. Stanton has gone 2-for-4 in his first four games, then 2-for-3 in Game 5 Tuesday. Through five games, he is batting .529 with a 1.294 OPS, one home run, four RBIs, and 10 hits, second most in all of Major League Baseball.
His five-game multi-hit streak is the fourth-longest season-opening stretch in franchise history. The only player to extend it further in recent decades was Soriano, who stretched his to six games to begin the 2003 season.
That makes Tuesday’s output significant beyond just the game result. Stanton had two RBIs in the win. His sixth-inning RBI double chased Mariners starter Logan Gilbert and pushed the Yankees lead to 4-0. Every hit has been purposeful.
What makes this start so different for Stanton
Context matters enormously with Stanton. He missed the first 70 games of the 2025 season because of bilateral tennis elbow so severe he could not grip everyday objects without pain. He admitted during spring training this year that the condition has not healed and never will as long as he keeps swinging a bat.
Yet here he is, 36 years old, managing a chronic injury while somehow looking younger at the plate than he has in years.
Part of the explanation is a new batting stance. Stanton worked through an adjustment over the offseason and into spring training, opening up his setup slightly to create a more direct path to the ball. The approach has translated into contact at all angles of the plate, not just the pitches he can drive with raw power.
He has been hitting the ball hard when the situation calls for power and putting the ball in play when it does not. His six singles through five games tell that story more clearly than any exit velocity number can.
Giancarlo Stanton: 2026 season game-by-game log (through Game 5)
| Game | Date | Opponent | AB | H | HR | RBI | Notes |
| 1 | Mar 25 | @ San Francisco | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | RBI single off Logan Webb (114.4 mph) |
| 2 | Mar 27 | @ San Francisco | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Solo HR; bat flip; Judge-Stanton 60th shared HR game |
| 3 | Mar 29 | @ San Francisco | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Two singles |
| 4 | Mar 30 | @ Seattle | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Double + single; scored from 2B on a single |
| 5 | Mar 31 | @ Seattle | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | RBI double chasing Gilbert; 5th straight multi-hit |
| Total | 20 | 10 | 1 | 4 | .529 AVG / 1.294 OPS / 2nd in MLB in hits |
Teammate Cody Bellinger has been watching from the on-deck circle and from the dugout and offered the most direct assessment of what he has been seeing.
“He’s locked in,” Bellinger said earlier in the series. “I feel like he’s been locked in all spring and carried it over into the regular season. Just the quality at-bat and hitting the ball hard.”
Manager Aaron Boone described the version of Stanton the Yankees have had through the first five games as exactly what they hoped to carry north from spring training.
“He’s disciplined and develops his plan and goes up there and is executing really well,” Boone said. “He’s in a good place.”
The baserunning development no one predicted
If the multi-hit streak is the headliner, the baserunning has been the subplot that nobody expected to be talking about in April.
Stanton scored from second base on a single to left field on Opening Day, a play that drew as much attention as his 114.4 mph RBI single in the same game. He is not a player anyone has ever described as a threat on the bases. His career is built around what happens when he makes contact, not what happens after.
But Boone and the Yankees’ coaching staff have emphasized smart, aggressive base running across the roster, and Stanton has bought in. The combination of a healthy start, a refined approach at the plate, and sharper instincts on the bases has produced a version of Stanton that looks less like a designated hitter managing injuries and more like a complete offensive weapon.
What the 81-game sample from 2025 tells you
It would be easy to look at Stanton’s first five games of 2026 and call it a hot streak. The 81-game sample from his return in 2025, beginning June 16 of that season, argues it is something more sustained.
Over those 81 games, Stanton hit .287 with a .962 OPS, 25 home runs, 68 RBIs, and a 163 wRC+. That mark placed him among the top 10 hitters in all of baseball over that stretch. The Yankees went 53-7 in games where Stanton and Aaron Judge both homered, a record that reflects just how dangerous this lineup becomes when both are at their best.
The challenge for the Yankees in 2026 is to keep him on the field long enough for that version to take over. Boone has acknowledged as much, describing the plan as staying disciplined about rest even when Stanton wants to play through discomfort.
Through five games, Stanton has shown no signs of slowing. Neither has the lineup around him.
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