Judge: No worries over cortisone shot
Three weeks after Aaron Judge suffered a chip fracture in his right wrist when he was hit by a pitch, the right fielder remains out instead of being back on the field by now, as the Yankees had hoped.
Judge said Thursday he’s not concerned he needed a cortisone shot in the area on Wednesday. He also hasn’t begun swinging a bat.
“[The cortisone shot is] something they said I might have to do at some point,’’ Judge said before the Yankees lost to the Rays, 3-1, in The Bronx. “We wanted to see how it would heal up and how everything would feel without it. We just wanted to kind of do the cortisone shot just to get me over the hump.”
There’s no timetable for Judge’s return. He has missed 20 games since the injury.
“I’m not frustrated with the pace, I’m frustrated at being out,’’ Judge said. “But the pace, you never know. I’ve got a broken bone, it’s still fractured so you’ve got to give it time to heal and just got to make sure I’m 100 percent before I head back out there because I don’t want to have a setback when I come back.”
For now, Judge can hold a bat, but he’s not able to swing. “I’d be out there if I was,’’ he said. Asked about the original timeline that proved to be overly optimistic, Judge said: “I was hoping. I’ve got to
listen to the doctors. They’re the ones making the big bucks and everything.”
The Yankees got another injury scare when Aaron Hicks rolled his right ankle crossing first base in the eighth inning. After a visit from trainer Steve Donohue, Hicks remained in the game. He said he believes he will be able to play Friday against the Blue Jays after receiving more treatment.
“Running out there, it felt pretty good,’’ Hicks said. “It’s just sore right now.”
Boone remains optimistic CC Sabathia, out with an inflamed right knee, will be able to make his next scheduled start after his stint
on the 10-day DL ends next week.
“We’ll see where we are in a couple of days,’’ the manager said. “He’ll throw his side [session], but all indications point he’ll be right around that 10-day mark and then hopefully we can slot him in however we decide … with those off days coming.”
Struggling Zach Britton was unscored upon Thursday for just the second time in his past five appearances, pitching a perfect seventh. … Tommy Kahnle is back with the Yankees after Luis Cessa was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Kahnle tossed a scoreless ninth in his first game with the Yankees since Aug. 3 at Boston. … Gleyber Torres snapped an 0-for-17 skid with a single in the ninth.