Giancarlo Stanton came to the plate with two outs and two on, Yankees trailing by two. First pitch, he slaps a cutter down the line, close call, ruled foul. Replays show it might have caught the bag, but the umps don’t overturn it. Rangers fans had a right to be annoyed. The at-bat continues. Next pitch, the Rangers try a slider and Stanton flails badly. Complete miss, ugly swing. The pitcher then goes up high with a fastball but misses location twice, both way off target. Now behind in the count, he tries the slider again, likely thinking it worked once, it’ll work again.
Stanton seems ready this time. He might have been sitting on that same slider. Pitch comes in, hangs just a little more than the last one, and Stanton crushes it for a three-run homer. Huge swing. Bench goes wild. Fans in the outfield celebrate. Stanton rounds the bases and heads into the dugout all smiles. What made the difference? A closer look at the swings shows Stanton made a small but key adjustment. He widened his stance, lengthened his stride, and kept his weight back. That gave him more control and let him reach down to get under the ball. Side-by-side replays show how similar the pitches were, but the difference in his body positioning was clear. It was a small tweak, but it gave him the edge he needed.