Giancarlo Stanton is the hardest Yankees hitter and he has been displaying that prowess since the first day of the 2023 season. So, when he hit a fly ball deep into the left-center field at Yankee Stadium against the Twins on Saturday, everyone, including Michael Kay and players in the Yankees dugout, thought that the ball was on its way to cross the fence.
Giancarlo Stanton’s moonshot hit the wall instead, but not before Kay made his famous “home run” call.
Michael Kay was misled to call it a home run
In the seventh inning of the Yankees’ 6-1 victory over the Twins in The Bronx on Saturday, two runners were on base when Giancarlo Stanton blasted a 3-2 pitch from Minnesota right-hander Jorge Alcala toward the visitors’ bullpen in left-center.
The 33-year-old Yankees‘ power hitter took a few slow steps out of the box with the bat in his hand, as if he knew he’d hit another home run.
“Drilled deep to left field,” Kay said on the YES broadcast. “There it goes… See ya’, a long home run.”
Yet Giancarlo Stanton’s hit fell a few feet short, deceiving both the audience and his play-by-play announcer. When he saw Stanton’s ball travel between Minnesota’s left and center fielders, Kay swiftly caught himself.
“No!” Kay said. “It went off the wall. My apologies, but two runs score and it’s a two-run double for Stanton.”
The call wasn’t as pompous as John Sterling’s call of Anthony Volpe’s first homer since the team’s veteran radio commentator boasts unique catchphrases in his calls.
Giancarlo Stanton has the power
Last season, Giancarlo Stanton hit one against the Blue Jays that was snagged a few feet from the warning track.
The hit, his only one of the game, put the Yankees up 6-1, which would be the final score. That snapped the Yankees’ two-game losing skid.
Giancarlo Stanton’s double off the left-center field wall sealed the game against the Twins on Saturday, but virtually everyone thought it was leaving the stadium.
Rizzo went crazy
As Giancarlo Stanton strutted out of the batter’s box, Michael Kay called a home run from the broadcast booth. The Yankee bench celebrated as if it were a home run. Anthony Rizzo, who couldn’t figure out how the ball remained in the park alter, too broke into celebration.
Rizzo went crazy when Giancarlo Stanton’s moonshot turned out to be a double, but he wasn’t the only one.
“I actually didn’t even know it was in play until after the fact,” Aaron Boone said. “And then I was like, ‘What happened?’ it definitively caught me off, guard.”
Giancarlo Stanton got close, as the ball went 403 feet and would have been a home run in any of the other 26 ballparks. However, the Yankees were victorious.
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