Urshela, Loaisiga land on IL; Torres may return Sunday

BALTIMORE — With the Yankees preparing to continue their dominance over the Orioles in a Friday night doubleheader at Camden Yards they sent two more players to the injured list.

Losing third baseman Gio Urshela and right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga for a minimum of 10 days was balanced out, however, by the expectation that shortstop Gleyber Torres will return from the IL a day early on Sunday. Also, according to Aaron Boone, Aaron Judge is progressing to the point at which the manager is looking forward to him rejoining the team at some point.

Third baseman Miguel Andujar and right-hander Miguel Yajure were summoned from the alternate site in Moosic, Pa., to replace Urshela and Loaisiga. Andujar traveled from the Triple-A complex to Camden Yards and did not start Game 1. DJ LeMahieu started at third.

Urshela has been battling a bone spur in his right elbow. He aggravated it diving for a ball Thursday night against the Mets at Citi Field and woke up with soreness. Loaisiga’s situation, on the other hand, isn’t as clear.

The Yankees said in a release it was a medical condition that prevents him from playing and necessitated placing him on the IL.

“It’s a medical condition that is not COVID related,’’ Boone said .“It’ s not a baseball thing and hopefully it will be something that doesn’t keep him down long. He is home resting and we are hopeful in both cases it will be shortterm situations.’’

Boone said Loaisiga wasn’t with the team Thursday when he was undergoing tests.

Regarding Urshela’s elbow, Boone said tests didn’t show a change in the spur and that he received a cortisone shot.

“Overall, very good news. He will be down for a couple of days, but should be able to resume baseball activities in the next couple of days and be likely to join us in the 10 days,’’ Boone said.

As for Judge, Boone said the right fielder, who is on the shelf with a right calf injury, has entered the baseball-activity phase of a rehab program.

➤ Under the roster rules for this season a team is allowed to carry three players on a taxi squad for road games. Friday night, that list included top pitching prospect Clarke Schmidt who was activated and allowed two runs on three hits over 1 ¹/3 innings in his major league debut.

Schmidt was added to the 40-man roster between games and was in uniform. Righthander Ben Heller was optioned to the alternate site. Joining Schmidt on the taxi squad was right-handed reliever Tony Zych and outfielder Estevan Florial.