Although Aaron Judge’s long-awaited return from the injured list was a quiet showing at the plate, the New York Yankees did enough to get another win on Tuesday.
Judge might not play Wednesday night after returning from a stress fracture in his right rib and if he does play, the slugger will hope some at-bats result in hits when the Yankees host the Colorado Rockies in the second contest of a three-game series.
The Yankees (82-62) went 45-39 in 84 games before Judge returned with a 0-for-3 showing in Tuesday’s 5-3 win. Judge struck out twice and flew out in his first game since May 31 before getting lifted after six innings.
Since Judge is skipping a minor league rehab assignment, the Yankees are handling the three-time MVP conservatively by not having him finish games just yet and are likely to give him a day off in an upcoming game.
“The competitor in him wants to be out there and I get that because he’s done a lot of work to prepare to be ready to play,” manager Aaron Boone said. “And I know in his mind, he feels he is very much ready to play and go the distance, but it’s my job to be smart here, especially these first several games here.”
Regardless of who is in the lineup, the Yankees are 6-4 in their past 10 games as they attempt to improve their playoff position in the American League East and wild-card standings. New York heads into play Wednesday four games behind the Rays in the AL East and three ahead of the Red Sox for the AL’s first wild-card.
If Judge plays, he will bat third between Cody Bellinger and Luis Garcia Jr., who are among New York’s hottest hitters of late. Bellinger scored twice on Tuesday and has 15 hits in his past 42 at-bats .357 while Garcia is batting .370 (17-for-46) in his past 13 games after getting a pair of hits Tuesday.
The Rockies (55-89) need to win eight of their final 18 games to avoid a fourth consecutive 100-loss season. Colorado is 5-15 in its past 20 games, though the past seven losses were each decided by two runs or fewer.
“We’ve got a lot of young players that are getting in these growth situations but at the same time, it’s not enough for us,” Colorado manager Warren Schaeffer said. “We want to win and we’ve been close. We’ve been close a lot of the time and lost those games, but the idea is to learn how to win.
The Rockies are hoping for a better showing at the plate after Hunter Goodman’s two-run homer with two outs in the ninth was among four hits. After five straight games with double-digit hits, Colorado was held to four hits or fewer for the first time since July 12.
On Wednesday, Will Warren (9-6, 4.16 ERA) will start for the Yankees seeking to repeat his performance in New York’s 16-1 rout of the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 30. Warren allowed one run on six hits in seven-plus innings for his first win since pitching 6 2/3 innings in a 2-0 road win against the Chicago Cubs on July 31.
The right-hander is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in two career starts against the Rockies.
Tomoyuki Sugano (12-8, 5.19), who is 0-3 with a 10.00 ERA over his past four outings, will pitch for Colorado. Sugano turned in the best start of his winless skid last Wednesday when he allowed three runs on six hits in six innings before the Rockies beat the Orioles 6-5 in the 11th inning.
Sugano debuted last season with the Orioles and went 1-2 with a 6.19 ERA in four starts against the Yankees, who hit .329 and had a .985 OPS in those games.
–Field Level Media
