Judge is called off bench after Brett
TORONTO — Aaron Judge’s night off, ended up being three innings. The Yankees slugger was called into emergency duty in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 8-2 loss to the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre Friday night when Brett Gardner was ejected by home plate umpire Chris Segal.
The Yankees will have to find something else to try to help Judge get plugged in for a power surge that has evaded him this season. Friday night, Judge went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts.
Since the All-Star break, Judge is hitting .271 with three homers and 10 RBI with 39 in 29 games.
“Yesterday is a good example.
He hit two balls to the fence that he just misses. He got off a really good 3-0 swing that he fouled straight back. That’s sometimes the difference, especially when really great players and great hitters are a little bit off. They just miss a ball or foul a pitch off,” Boone said. “That’s all it is. Aaron Judge is a matter of time before he really locks in. We’ll go through a stretch where he really carries us. Fortunately, a lot of the guys have really stepped up around him right now. I think there’s some subtle things that he’s working on to get himself right mechanically, but long-time he’ll be the beast that he normally is.
“I know that he’s going through a tough stretch by his standard right now, but I still look up and he’s basically a .900 OPS,” Boone said. “And he’s going to get hot again and go through the ceiling. So everyone can question it all they want, but he’s a tick away from being the stud that he always is.”
The Yankees have to hope that Judge gets hot at some point. He missed 54 games this season with an oblique injury and has just 12 home runs and 30 RBI in 61 games.
But the Yankees need him to get going.
They are without Luke Voit — on the injured list with a sports hernia and trying to see if he can avoid season-ending surgery — but ever since he suffered a related injury in June, his power had been on the decline. Gary Sanchez — expected back from the IL Saturday — was going through a power outage before going on the IL. Giancarlo Stanton has only played nine games this season because of injuries and his latest injury, a knee sprain, has kept him from even doing baseball activities.
In his three previous big league seasons, the 27-year-old Judge has never had two healthy or strong halves.
After hitting .329 with 30 homers in 84 games in the first half of 2017, Judge went to the All-Star Game and won the Home Run Derby, then immediately began to struggle. He was 1-for-21 in his first five games following the All-Star break and in his first 55 hit .185 with 11 homers and 84 strikeouts over 189 at-bats from July 14 to Sept. 12.
TORRES TAKING TIME
Gleyber Torres was out of the lineup for the third straight game, since he left Tuesday night’s game with “core pain.” He was cleared — twice — by team doctors to play, but after feeling the issue Sunday night and Tuesday, the Yankees are being cautious with him.
Boone said that there is a possibility that Torres plays this weekend, but with a 10.5 game