TORONTO — As this season has progressed, the Yankees defense has tightened, their ability to impact games on the bases has improved, and Aaron Boone has grown comfortable with an endgame relief strategy.
It is all valuable. All part of why the Yankees still are ticking in October.
But at their essence, they are still the Bronx Bombers. The Yankees, as much as ever, are a homer-hitting team. It is their identity. Their lifeblood. Their separator.
And Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are the flex brothers. They — more than anyone on a team that produced the second-most homers in Yankees history — represent the might and menace of this style. Judge added 53 more homers this year and has 368 for his career. Stanton is the active homer leader at 453 and hit them out this year at a pace (8.5 percent) equal to his 59-homer/NL MVP 2017.
