Judge fractures wrist on hit by pitch
NEW YORK » Aaron Judge winced, and so did most everyone else at Yankee Stadium.
All geared up for a pennant race, the New York Yankees caught a bad break Thursday night: Their All-Star slugger sustained a fractured right wrist when he was hit by a fastball and is expected to miss three weeks.
After a 7-2 win over the Kansas City Royals, the Yankees said Judge had a chip fracture. The team said no surgery has been recommended, and estimated he wouldn’t be able to swing the bat in a game until mid-August.
“I’m concerned, obviously,” manager Aaron Boone said, even before the final diagnosis. His fans were, too. As Neil Walker batted with two outs in the Yankees seventh, several thousand people in the sellout crowd of 46,965 suddenly switched on their cell phone lights and shined them toward the field.
“It was a candlelight vigil for Aaron Judge,” fan Al Orrico said as he shopped postgame in the souvenir store. “I saw some people doing it, then a person behind me showed me an app and said it was a candlelight vigil for him.”
The hugely popular Judge is hitting .285 with 26 home runs
and 61 RBIs.
Normally the right fielder, Judge was the designated hitter. He grimaced when he was stung by a pitch from Jakob Junis in the first inning, was checked by a trainer and stayed in. Judge an infield hit the next time up and then was pulled for a pinchhitter in the fourth.
Boone said when Judge tried taking swings in the indoor batting cage between at-bats, “he just didn’t have a lot of strength.”
When told he was coming out of the game, Judge “didn’t balk at it,” Boone said.
Junis said the pitch didn’t wind up where he intended it.
“I was just trying to go heater away, and it totally got away from me,” Junis said. “Tried humping up a little extra on a little and it just really open and let it go.”
Judge was seen by a team doctor at the stadium and an X-ray “was a little unsure,” Boone said. Judge was then taken to a hospital for an MRI and CT scan.