Yankees slugger Aaron Judge expects to be activated from injured list Saturday
Aaron Judge of the Yankees scores on a home run by Mike Ford in the third inning during Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Rays at Tropicana Field on Aug. 8 in St Petersburg, Fla. Credit: Getty Images/Mike Ehrmann
Sunday Aaron Judge sounded certain.
Saturday, when he’s eligible to come off the injured list, the rightfielder, placed on the IL with a right calf strain last the weekend, said he expects to be activated and in the lineup.
Aaron Boone isn’t quite ready to make that assurance.
“I hope so,” Boone said Tuesday afternoon. “We'll see again how the ramp up goes this week. As he ramps up the intensity with his running and his movements and everything, I know he's hitting again today, hit out on the field today. And I know he's feeling really good and feeling like he is there. We're at Tuesday right now. We'll see where he is at the end of the week and hopefully be in a position to make that call and get them back in there.”
Judge, on the IL for the third straight season, suffered the injury playing three games in four days on the rough Tropicana Field turf in St. Petersburg, Florida Aug. 7-9.
“I don't need 10 days to be feeling good,” Judge said Sunday. “I already feel 100% now. So it's tough. Tough especially now with [Stanton] out and DJ out. It makes it tough, but it's all precautionary stuff and we'll be back there on Saturday.”
Within a seven-day stretch, the Yankees, winners of six straight entering Tuesday, put Giancarlo Stanton, Judge and DJ LeMahieu on the IL.
A different look
For the first time in his professional career Tuesday night, Luke Voit hit leadoff.
“It was actually something I talked to Luke about on occasion last year, when we were down some guys,” Boone said. “I mentioned it to him today so he was pretty fired up about it, excited…just trying to create a little bit of balance [in the lineup].”
LeMahieu, typically the leadoff hitter, was hitting .411 with a .990 OPS before sustaining a left thumb sprain during Saturday’s game vs. Boston. Voit, who homered twice Monday to give him seven, came into Tuesday hitting .281 with a .968 OPS.
Cleaning it up
Boone said he’s noticed one common thread when it comes to shortstop Gleyber Torres and the team-high six errors he’s committed.
“I think every now and then it’s the footwork,” Boone said. “And then kind of finding that middle ground where not always, as an infielder, are you airing it out. We've obviously seen the arm strength that he has…you don't necessarily have to get a ton on it [every time], but finding that middle throw you make.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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