That was quick. On just the second pitch he saw, Giancarlo Stanton hit a 426-foot, two-run home run in his first at-bat with the Yankees. Even quicker was just how rapidly the ball went into the stands, with an exit velocity of 117.3 miles per hour. It was the hardest-hit opposite-field home run in Statcast history, as well as the fastest one ever tracked at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Stanton also contributed an RBI double in the fifth inning, and a 434-foot solo homer in the ninth. For one day, he made meeting expectations look effortless.

The home opener was a different story. On a drizzling, chilly afternoon, the fans were even colder than the weather, as they booed Stanton for striking out in all five of his at-bats. And this was a game where the home team won. The Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 11-4, with eight of those runs driven in by shortstop Didi Gregorius, who hit two three-run homers, a two-run single, a double, and walked. But the man who’s now warmly referred to as “Sir Didi,” knows all too well what it’s like to be the object of irrational wrath.

The high standards New York sports fans expect from their teams occasionally begets low standards in common sense and decency. In the case of Gregorius, he was replacing Derek Jeter, one of the most beloved and accomplished figures in Gotham sports history. Early on in 2015, his first year with the team, he got off to such an underwhelming start, the home fans judged him not necessarily for who he was, as for who he wasn’t, mocking him by chanting “DEREK JETER!” Three years later, the eight RBIs by Gregorius were the most by any Yankee in a home opener, and were a single-game record for a Yankee shortstop, symbolic of how the vast shadow of Jeter has long since faded.

The following day, Stanton rebounded immediately in his first at-bat. Reminding everybody that he won the NL MVP Award last year with the Marlins, Stanton annihilated a 458-foot, two-run shot into the second deck in leftfield. At 117.9 miles per hour, it was the hardest-hit ball in the big leagues this season. The same people who jeered him at his worst, no doubt cheered him at his best.

There’s no place like home.

Matt Leinwohl