Giancarlo Stanton brought the ferocity the Yankees so desperately need

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Yankees finally got the play they had been waiting for from Aaron Judge. Only it wasn't from Aaron Judge.

It was from the Mammoth original “I can’t believe how hard and far he just hit the ball.” Because as Judge continues to try to figure out how to step up this month, Giancarlo Stanton – despite the long injury history and extended slumps he can experience from April to September – is showing that there's some Mr. October in him.

“That’s why I came here,” Stanton said, explaining why he delivers this time of year.

Judge had better shots in Game 3 on Wednesday. He smashed a first-inning liner at 114.4 mph that had an expected batting average of .860, but Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. caught it on a bounce. Judge narrowly missed a ball that still flew wide to the left. He should have walked in the seventh game, but a check swing that wasn't a swing was called a strike. And he walked in the ninth.

Ultimately, however, Judge is still 1-11 in this series and has batted .203 in 47 career playoff games. He was also a member of the top four of the lineup — with Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto and Austin Wells — that finished 0-for-15.

It put additional strain on the No. 5 batsman. Stanton responded with a 114.1 mph RBI double in the fourth. He hit a single and — really, don't do an eye exam — stole a base in the sixth. And with one game tied and one out in the eighth, he crushed a Kris Bubic slider from 417 feet.

That was the difference in a 3-2 victory for the Yankees over the Royals that left them one win away from advancing to the ALCS.

“From his first shot to his last, I could tell how committed he was to the game,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said.

Stanton actually started locking long before his first at-bat. In an empty stadium, Stanton came out alone to take extra work from a machine that can deliver MLB-style fastballs and sliders, something coach James Rowson said he likes to do on occasion. Stanton said he wanted to get a good feel for the hitting backdrop at Kauffman Stadium and also practice spraying throughout the yard.

“I'll tell you, one of the biggest things that stood out to me about working with (Stanton) from the beginning this first year is seeing how much he cares,” Rowson said.

Stanton, with an MVP and a $300 million contract and (at least) an outside chance of hitting 500 home runs, has nonetheless been relegated this season with so much attention being paid to the Soto-Judge duo. Stanton also logged more IL time and looked like an older jogger at times as he protected his oft-injured legs while running the bases.

What remained the same was that when he hit the ball, his bat moved at speeds and distances that perhaps only Judge can truly understand.

And now he's back in his season. Stanton has a .964 OPS and 12 home runs in 30 playoff games.

“He’s so good at playing in these big games,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s done it his entire career with us. He's just really able to focus from pitch to pitch. I thought the hit against Bubic was simply phenomenal. I think he went there to cause harm, and that’s exactly what he went there.”

The impact of this change was great. The Royals had spent most of this series outplaying the Yankees. The best-of-five ended with both the games tied 1-1 and 2-2 in the eighth inning of Game 3. The Yanks were on track to tie the higher seeds in the Division Series at 4-4 they were defeated 1:4. 2. And that would keep the Yankees one loss away from declaring more failures in October.

But they overcame it. It looked like Torres had a hit that hit the right field foul line that should have made it two ons with two outs in the third inning. But a real umpire in right field missed it and the replay center confirmed it with seemingly unclear, disabled replays that made your family's old home videos play like Spielberg.

For the offense of calling the Royals “lucky” after a Game 2 win at Kansas City in the Bronx, Chisholm was booed like someone who took an illegal hit or two on Patrick Mahomes, a minority owner of the Royals who was at Game 3 was there.

The Yanks actually had a lot of good at-bats – particularly Anthony Volpe and Oswaldo Cabrera – and a successful sac bunt from Alex Verdugo and the shocking steal from Stanton. But they were 1 for 13 with men on base, reaffirming that these Yankees simply have trouble scoring when they don't hit the ball out of the park.

So Stanton has hit the jackpot.

“You come into the game with that understanding,” Stanton said of understanding the transition between a 2-1 lead or a 2-1 loss. “And then I just have to concentrate, with laser focus on the shot, and good things will happen from there.”

Good things happened again for Stanton in October. He's been here before and did an excellent job. So when he meets the moment – and the ball with ferocity – you know it's not about one thing:

Happy.