Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton is having himself a month. He now has one RBI for every day in the month of May.
Except it’s the last day of April (the 30th, for those of you keeping score at home). And the team still has one game left before the calendar turns, the second of a three-game set against the Atlanta Braves tonight at Marlins Park. I’m no mathematician, but that’s more than 1 RBI per day, if the team actually played every day this month. They didn’t; he posted those numbers in just 26 games (the first one was technically played on March 31. Sue me.)
And, hey, Stanton is in the lineup tonight and will have one more chance to add to his record.
The Marlins April mark was previously held by Moises Alou, who tallied 30 RBI in April of 1997. And the team won the World Series that year! I’m just saying.
His two-run opposite field smash off Alex Wood accounted for RBI’s 30 and 31 on the young season. It’s worth noting that in all of 2013, Stanton amassed a total of 62 RBI. That’s right, April isn’t even over and he is already halfway to his total output from a year ago. Giancarlo Stanton for MVP?
Last night’s home run was his eighth of the season. In a 2013 campaign in which he spent more than a month on the disabled list, Stanton clubbed an uncharacteristically low 24 long balls. That should, however, be attributed to the dismal lineup the Marlins fielded around their right fielder last season. This year, he has the comfort of batting in front of the likes of Jarrod Saltalamacchia, a resurgent Casey McGehee and Garrett Jones (when the situation permits). While they certainly don’t provide Miguel Cabrera/Prince Fielder-like protection, the pieces around Stanton are a far cry from the laughable Placido Polanco and Logan Morrison experiment we so often saw behind him in 2013.
Giancarlo Stanton is on pace to hit 50 home runs and, like, 193 RBI in 2014. Maybe he will finally get to actually play in his first All-Star game this July, after missing the 2012 Midsummer Classic with an injury despite being voted in by fans. But it’s still super early. Here’s to 31 more RBI in May. You see what you have here, Jeffrey Loria. Don’t mess this up.