‘Beat up’ DJ LeMahieu out of lineup

BOSTON — DJ LeMahieu was out of the Yankees lineup Saturday with a “hip/groin” issue. The infielder has been dealing with the issue for awhile and was “pretty beat up” after Friday night’s series-opening win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

“Just kind of the last couple weeks [he has] been dealing with the hip/groin thing that last night was kind of holding him back a little bit,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s pretty beat up after last night’s game so hopefully something that a day will help him and he will be back in there.”

LeMahieu is slashing .268/.349/.363 with a .711 OPS in 146 games this season. The natural second baseman recently moved to third base when the Yankees decided to move Gleyber Torres from shortstop to second.

“I feel like he’s swinging the bat well. I think it’s more just moving around and I think in some ways it kind of affects everything’“Boone said. “I feel like at the plate he’s in a pretty good spot.”

Loaisiga’s last steps: Jonathan Loaisiga could be back for next week’s big series in Toronto. The right-handed reliever, who was among the most reliable in the league earlier this season, will throw another bullpen on Sunday and could be activated before Tuesday’s series-opener against the Blue Jays.

“If everything goes well with that pen tomorrow then he could potentially be active for the Blue Jays series. Or if we get through that and decide he needs another one, or a live session, we’ll make that call, but he could be in play for the Blue Jays series,” Boone said.

In case of emergency: Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt have made their contributions to get the Yankees to this point, now they may have to step aside and watch the finish. Boone said that their experience this season in the big leagues has been invaluable, but with Loaisiga and Jameson Taillon expected back this week, they will be relegated back to “emergency use,” situations . ... With the Yankees returning to Toronto for the first time since 2019, there comes some added concern. The Canadian government just opened its borders to Americans, but with strict guidelines, including increased testing and quarantines, that have caused other teams some issues.

“If everything goes the way we want it to go then we’re gonna have to make a couple moves to get [Taillon] back on [the roster] and then hopefully get Loaisiga back on, so obviously that takes up a couple spots if everything’s going according to plan,” Boone said.

“But we also know that we have the two guys you mentioned in Schmidt and Luis down there that if we need something, those guys are capable of it.”