Aaron Boone could give Yankees OFs Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge break from rough fields

TORONTO — Two of the toughest playing surfaces in baseball — when it comes to the wear and tear on outfielders — are considered the ones at Rogers Centre and at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Starting Friday night, the Yankees were to have six straight games on those fields. The three-game series against the Blue Jays will be followed by a three-game matchup against the Rays next week.

So Aaron Boone will be mindful of that with his two biggest outfielders — the 6-7, 282-pound Aaron Judge and the 6-6, 245-pound Giancarlo Stanton. Judge started in centerfield Friday night, flanked by Stanton in right and Joey Gallo in left.

“This might be the only day I have ‘G’ out there [this series],” Boone said of Stanton. “Probably try and get Aaron a DH day, maybe tomorrow, and maybe even an off day when we go to Tampa. So it’s on my plate, in the midst of a 20-game [stretch] in a row, too. It is something I’m mindful of, but also not overly concerned. either. We’re not playing in a parking lot.”

Pitching change

With Luis Severino coming off the COVID injured list after Thursday night’s game, Boone said the righthander will start Sunday’s game here in place of Gerrit Cole, who had been listed. Cole instead will start Monday night against the Rays.

That New York traffic

Because of the ongoing construction on the Major Deegan Expressway and the Van Wyck Expressway, it took the Yankees’ team buses about two hours to make the 17-mile journey to Kennedy Airport.

As a result, the club arrived at its Toronto hotel just after 4 a.m. Friday (for good measure, it took the team 45 minutes to travel the 2.3 miles from its hotel to Rogers Centre on Friday afternoon).

Packed houses

Friday night’s game at the roughly 49,000-seat Rogers Centre had just a few stray seats remaining. Both weekend games were completely sold out nearly a week ago.