DJ LeMahieu sprains left thumb as Yankees beat Red Sox

There will be other days to worry about James Paxton’s velocity and whether the lefthander will get on any kind of a roll this season.

There will be other days to wonder if, at last, Gary Sanchez has emerged from a horrible early-season slump and if Clint Frazier finally is in the big leagues to stay.

But not Saturday. Not after the Yankees saw perhaps their best all-around player, DJ LeMahieu, leave their 11-5 win over the Red Sox with a sprained left thumb.

The second baseman, who entered the night hitting .429 with a 1.031 OPS in 18 games (his batting average and .474 on-base percentage led the American League), was replaced on defense in the top of the sixth by Tyler Wade.

Is a stint on the injured list in LeMahieu’s immediate future? “It could be,” Aaron Boone said. “He was pretty sore.”

Two innings earlier, LeMahieu swung and missed at a Nathan Eovaldi cutter on the second pitch of his at-bat and seemed to favor his left hand. He was evaluated, stayed in the game, grounded out to end the fourth and took his position in the top of the fifth (after again being evaluated by Boone and a trainer).

But with the Yankees batting in the bottom half, Boone gestured to Wade in the dugout to get ready for the next half-inning and replaced LeMahieu.

“You worry about it,” Sanchez said through his interpreter. “Hopefully it’s not [too serious].”

Said Paxton: “I hope it’s not serious. DJ can’t be replaced. He’s one of our best players. That being said, we’re very deep.”

LeMahieu, hands-down the team MVP in 2019 and off to another absurdly good start offensively in 2020, is the third big Yankees bat to hit the injured list in the last week. Giancarlo Stanton landed on the IL with a left hamstring strain last Sunday and Aaron Judge ended up there Friday with a left calf strain

“We’ll absorb it,” Boone said. “We have everyone in that room capable of absorbing guys [being] down. Any time you lose guys of that caliber, it’s not a good thing and it’s a difficult thing but, as always, the expectations in that room never change despite what happens.”

It was an otherwise positive night for the Yankees, who improved to 14-6, including 8-0 at the Stadium, their best home start since a 10-0 mark in 1987. They’re 5-0 against the Red Sox (6-15), who are 1-13 at the Stadium since the start of 2019.

But the LeMahieu situation, for the moment, overshadowed it all.

Gio Urshela and Sanchez hit two-out, two-run homers in the early going, with Sanchez’s blast off Eovaldi in the fourth giving the Yankees the lead for good at 4-3. It was his third straight game with a home run.

Frazier, who drove in five runs, had three hits for the second time in three games since his recall from the Yankees’ alternate site. His three-run homer in the sixth made it 7-3 and he highlighted a three-run seventh with a two-run single. He also made a diving catch in right on a sinking liner by Xander Bogaerts that likely saved a run in the first.

Eovaldi, a Yankee from 2015-16 who came in 1-1 with a 4.09 ERA, allowed eight runs and nine hits in 5 1⁄3 innings.

Paxton, whose diminished fastball velocity was the dominant storyline from his first three starts of the season, saw a slight uptick in that department Saturday, as he did in his previous start last Sunday against the Rays.   But the lefthander was not sharp overall and made too many mistakes.

Paxton, who hit 94-95 mph consistently for the first time in 2020, allowed three runs, six hits and a walk in five innings. He lowered his ERA to 7.04.

He worked with a lead early. Urshela, who snapped a 0-for-13 skid Friday night with a seventh-inning single, punched a 98-mph fastball to right for his fourth homer to make it 2-0. The blast improved Urshela to 8-for-16 with three homers and eight RBIs in five games against Boston this season.

The Red Sox drew even in the third. Jose Peraza led off with a walk and Rafael Devers doubled. J.D. Martinez got ahead 3-and-1 before lining a curveball to left for a two-run single that tied it at 2-2 (Martinez attempted to stretch it into a double and was thrown out by Mike Tauchman for the second out).

Bogaerts then homered to leftfield for a 3-2 Boston lead.

“Just rhythm,” Paxton said of his issues Saturday. “Trying to find that consistent delivery, so I had to battle that tonight.”