MRI for Torres comes back negative

NEW YORK — In a nice change of pace for the battered Bombers, the injury news was positive.

The Yankees announced before Saturday afternoon’s 7-2 matinee win against Toronto at the Stadium that an MRI on Gleyber Torres’ right hamstring came back negative.

It’s a big sigh of relief for a team that clinched the AL East title earlier in the week despite an historic amount of injuries this season.

The Yankees sent Torres for the precautionary MRI on Saturday morning after Torres appeared to injure himself when his feet came out from under him during the Yankees’ 4-3 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday night. He was held out of the lineup Saturday and the Yankees will proceed with caution down the stretch.

“Felt good last night, feels good this morning, but we want to go and make sure and see if there’s anything,” Boone said before the team received the good news.

Torres had his legs buckle while fielding a grounder in the fourth inning. Boone said Torres felt weakness in his lower legs and that he pulled him from the game two innings later as a precaution.

“Obviously, that’s a hold-your-breath moment,” Boone said Friday night.

The Yankee faithful — all to used to watching stars and scrubs alike go down with injury this season — gasped when Torres went down.

Torres, 22, who has been an All-Star in both of his years in the big leagues, is one of just a handful of Bombers to avoid the injury bug that has hit Boone’s team this year. The Yankees have had 30 — yes, 30 — players land on the injured list this season. It’s the most ever in a major league season.

Given that the Yankees have a league-highest 2,300-plus games missed by injured players this season, it’s remarkable that Boone and his “next man up” Bombers have won 100 games and are in a real battle with the Astros for the best record in the American League.

Despite the goal of securing home-field advantage in the playoffs, Boone said getting his squad healthy is the top priority.

“Any ailments we’re dealing with, taking care of that trumps everything,” he said.

Torres has played 140 games in 2019 and has improved his stat line from his sparkling rookie campaign across the board. He has 38 homers, 90 RBI with a .284 batting average for the AL East champs.