Aaron Judge’s titanic 457-foot blast into the third deck at Citi Field on Wednesday night may only be a preview.
Giancarlo Stanton, baseball’s home-run leader who is known for tattooing Mets pitching — he has 32 homers all-time in 102 games against them — comes to Queens on Friday. And by the sound of it, the Mets don’t plan on pitching around the Marlins’ hulking power hitter.
“For sure we’ll go after him,” catcher Rene Rivera said Thursday before the Mets were swept in the Subway Series after losing 7-5 to the Yankees. “You have a way to pitch him. Same thing with Judge here, he’s got 37 bombs, and you have to go right after him. You got to get outs. You cannot make a mistake. That’s when you get hit.
“We got to go out there and pitch to him, don’t be afraid of the long ball.”
Following an off day Thursday, Stanton comes to Flushing with a major league-best 44 home runs, and is fourth in MLB with 94 RBIs. He’s on pace to set a career high in slugging percentage, with his .645 clip, and his .287 batting average is close to his career high of .290 set in 2012.
Rookie Chris Flexen, Friday’s starting pitcher, has never faced Stanton, but is looking forward to the challenge.
“Why not?” said Flexen, who has won his past two starts. “I’m excited to face a team like that with a guy like that. … After scouting him and watching video and stuff, it’s about executing the game plan and executing the pitches. Keep him off balance, work him up and down. Everybody’s got a hole, and you just got to exploit it.”
Since the All-Star break, the 27-year-old slugger has been on another planet, belting 18 homers in 31 games. A streak of going deep in six straight games, two shy of the major league record shared by Ken Griffey Jr., Dale Long and Marlins manager Don Mattingly, was broken in Wednesday’s win over the Giants. In August, Stanton has put up absurd numbers: 11 homers in 15 games, a slash line of .386/.462/1.018, and a 1.479 OPS.
Stanton has homered five times in 13 games against the Mets this season, and is batting .280 (14-for-37) versus them overall. But the Mets haven’t seen this version of Stanton. The Mets and Marlins last met June 27-29 in Miami.
“There’s a lot of things different,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “We’ve noticed a change in his stance. We’ve noticed a change in his approach at the plate. We’ve got to make certainly some adjustments how we’re going to pitch to him.
“We’re seeing him hit balls he didn’t hit in April.”
Collins did say the Mets will try to be “very, very careful with him,” but also pointed out the Marlins’ lineup is too deep to just put Stanton on base. Mets pitchers can’t be afraid of him.
“No matter what he does, or any of those other guys do, as long as we come out on top, that’s all that matters at the end,” Flexen said.