Aaron Judge says he feels fine, won't rest until Yankees clinch AL East title

TORONTO — Aaron Judge likely won’t be resting anytime soon.

With Judge threatening to break Roger Maris’ American League record of 61 home runs, a frequent pre- and postgame topic of conversation for Aaron Boone in recent weeks has been when he might give him a full day off.

Judge, who started at designated hitter Sunday night and remained at 60 home runs in a rain-shortened 2-0 victory over the Red Sox, said afterward that he doesn’t see himself resting in the near future — though it did come with a caveat.

“Oh, I’m playing until we clinch this division and put ourselves in a good spot,” said Judge, who hadn’t homered in five games since hitting No. 60 last Tuesday. “I’m not going to be asking for any off days.”

The Yankees entered Monday night’s game against the Blue Jays with a magic number of two to clinch the AL East title, a first-round bye and home-field advantage for the Division Series round. One Yankees win in this series would give them the title, but Judge didn’t sound like a player needing — or wanting — a rest.

“As good as I can be,” Judge said of how he felt physically after starting 46 straight games, which became 47 Monday night when he led off and started in rightfield. He has missed only four games this season.

Judge — who entered Monday as the leader in all three Triple Crown categories (he was hitting .3143, just ahead of Boston’s Xander Bogaerts (.3137) and Minnesota’s Luis Arraez (.3130) — and Boone said a big aid in that was the scheduling quirk earlier this month in which the Yankees had three off days in an eight-day stretch.

“One thing that’s helped us out is this month of September is we’ve had some nice off-days sprinkled in,” Judge said. “Because I think we kind of went through it earlier in the year, had a couple of 20 straight, back-to-back. These off days we’ve had sprinkled in here after a couple of series have really helped me out and helped this team out, a little bit to stay healthy and be where we need to be. So I’m feeling great, ready to go.”

Despite the somewhat silly narrative that cropped up toward the end of the homestand that hypothesized that Judge had begun to press in his efforts to catch Maris, it isn’t reflected in the numbers. In six games, Judge went 5-for-19 with his 60th home run, three doubles, seven walks and a 1.040 OPS. He lined a single to rightfield against Kevin Gausman to begin Monday night’s game and scored on Gleyber Torres’ sacrifice fly. He subsequently walked and was called out on strikes on a pitch the Yankees thought was low.

As one American League scout assigned to the Yankees said: “Just missed some pitches but he’s also not seeing [a lot] to hit. He’s taking what he’s given, like the great hitters do . . . If he’s pressing, I didn’t see it. There’s not a player out there who wouldn’t take [a 1.040 OPS] in any six-game [stretch].”

While the circus-like atmosphere that accompanied the homestand is in the rearview mirror (“I enjoy the circus,’’ Boone said), neither Boone nor Judge expressed disappointment that the milestone homers didn’t come at home.

“You can’t think along those lines,” Judge said. “And this is not our last home game, so not too worried about it.” (The Yankees have three home games remaining against the Orioles this weekend.)

Boone shook his head at the same question.

“No. We just went 6-0 on the homestand, he was right in the middle of all it,” he said. “The script will play out. It’s the drama of sport. Things happen if and when they’re supposed to. You’re competing at the highest level, you can’t just push buttons to have things happen. So just proud of the way he’s handling it and continuing to be the central figure in us winning games.”

Which, as Judge repeatedly has expressed — and has since his 52-homer Rookie of the Year season in 2017 — is his top priority.