New season, same story with the sluggers of the New York Yankees as outfielder Aaron Judge has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Braves with what is being called a lower-body injury.
Judge, who will join fellow oft-injured outfielder Giancarlo Stanton on the sidelines, is out because of tightness in his lower body and it was uncertain whether he will be ready for the Yankees weekend series against the Boston Red Sox.
Both Judge and Stanton have dealt with injuries over the course of the past two seasons.
“I hope so but that’s, in a lot of ways, a long way from now, so let’s just kind of get through today,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Judge’s weekend availability.
“Hopefully this is something we’re out ahead of and will only be a couple of days,” Boone said.
Losing Judge will be rough for the Yankees as he leads the majors in home runs with 9 as of Wednesday, and tied for first with 20 RBIs.
Judge, 28, left Tuesday’s game against Atlanta, pulled after hitting a homer in the fifth inning for pinch hitter Mike Tauchman.
Boone stated that
Judge felt some “wear and tear” during last weekend’s series on the artificial turf at Tampa Bay against the Rays.
“Essentially what’s going on with Aaron is I made a quick decision in the game just based on how I felt he was moving around,” Boone said.
“He’s in getting treatment now. He wanted to play,” he said. “He’s just dealing with some lower body tightness that we’re hoping to get out ahead of and hopefully prevent an injury moving forward.”
“It’s kind of all over the lower body, just where he’s kind of dealing with some rigors. So, you know, the hips down into the hamstring and calves,” Boone said. “I think it’s a result of probably the four-game pounding in three days down in Tampa.”
Boone made the decision to pull Judge during Wednesday’s game when watching him move around cautiously.
“It kind of goes back to the 60-game season and you’ve heard me talk a lot about the importance of building these guys up and making sure that we take care of them in some degree based on a three-week summer training right into the grind,” Boone said.
In a bit of good news for Yankee fans, New York called up outfielder Clint Frazier to take the place of Stanton in the lineup. Frazier’s name has been popping up in conversations among Yankee fans calling for the team to give him a legitimate chance to play.
