Giancarlo Stanton is back in the lineup as the designated hitter after he missed the last three games with a strained quadriceps. Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said Stanton stopped by his office Thursday night after the Yankees lost Game 4, 8-3, and they both agreed he was ready to play as D.H. He will start and bat fourth in place of Edwin Encarnacion, who has struggled in all four games of the series.
“Clearly not a hundred percent running,” Boone said of Stanton. “I don’t feel like hitting will be an issue for him. And just have to kind of govern himself out on the bases.”
Encarnacion went 4 for 9 in the first two games of the postseason against the Twins, but is 1 for 19 in five games since then.
Stanton is only 1 for 8 against Justin Verlander, the Astros starter, but the hit was a home run.
“I don’t anticipate he’s going to be able to move all that well, necessarily, on the running on the bases and stuff like that,” Astros Manager A.J. Hinch said. “Thanks to all you guys who put the video out there of his early work yesterday, I got a chance to see it. I think he’s a threat from the minute he walks into the batter’s box, whether he’s got fully healthy legs or not.”