A native of Southern California, New York Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton made his first appearance in an All-Star Game Tuesday evening since all the way back in 2017.
It didn’t take Stanton too long to show his home-town fans what he was made of inside Dodger Stadium.
Going up against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin in the top of the fourth inning, Stanton hit a two-run bomb to tie the game at two. It was a monster of a homer with Gonsolin not even flinching after throwing the pitch.
Talk about a blast. This thing traveled 457 feet to left-center with an exit velocity of 111.7 miles-per hour.
Not to be outdone, Minnesota Twins star Byron Buxton made it back-to-back homers for the American League with a 425-foot blast of his own off Gonsolin.
Yeah, one could say that Gonsolin wasn’t fooling anyone in that fourth inning as the American League took a 3-2 lead.
After two consecutive injury-plagued seasons for the Yankees, Giancarlo Stanton has returned to earlier-career form. He hit 35 homers and drove in 97 runs in 2021. Stanton followed that up by blasting 24 homers in 76 games heading into the All-Star Break.
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As for Byron Buxton, the 28-year-old outfielder already boasts a career-high 23 homers thus far this season.