Giancarlo Stanton homers on hardest-hit ball of 2024

NEW YORK — Two days, two monster Stantonian blasts at Yankee Stadium. And the second one was even bigger than the first.

The 118.8 mph rocket home run Giancarlo Stanton crushed off Justin Verlander in Tuesday’s series opener against the Astros was the hardest-hit home run of the MLB season … for exactly one day.

Because in Wednesday’s 9-4 win, Stanton hit one even harder: A 119.9 mph, 447-foot blast into the second deck down the left-field line in the third inning. The solo shot off Astros rookie Spencer Arrighetti increased the Yankees’ lead to 5-1.

That’s the type of home run only the likes of Stanton and Aaron Judge can hit. Stanton’s 119.9 mph homer is the fifth-hardest home run in the Majors since Statcast began tracking in 2015.

Stanton has three of the top five. Judge has one, too. And Ronald Acuña Jr. has the other.

Hardest HR of the Statcast era (since 2015)

And Stanton’s 118.8 mph homer from Tuesday? That’s now a mere 13th on the list.

But here’s a cool fun fact about Stanton’s pair of missiles: He’s one of only two players in the Statcast era to hit 118-plus mph home runs on back-to-back days. The other? Judge.

The day after Judge ripped his 121.1 mph home run against Baltimore in 2017 — the one that ranks fourth on the Statcast-era leaderboard — he crushed a 118.6 mph, 495-foot blast that went over the left-center-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium.