Erik Boland: Yankees quiet the Aaron Judge questions with statement sweep in Cleveland
Yankees' Trent Grisham celebrates after scoring a run on a sacrifice fly by Jose Caballero during the sixth inning against the Guardians on Wednesday in Cleveland. Credit: AP/David Dermer
CLEVELAND
Aaron Boone didn’t sound exasperated.
He was exasperated.
And that was after a win.
“I’m already a little tired of answering the question and we’re only a couple of days into this,” the Yankees manager said after Sunday’s victory over the Red Sox.
The “this” was his club figuring out how it could possibly win consistently over the next two months — and likely longer — without Aaron Judge, and the requisite, not to mention obvious, questions relating to that.
Now, Boone gets asked his share of loaded, lose-lose questions, questions for which he can’t possibly provide a satisfactory answer.
Queries as to how the Yankees will persevere without the best hitter in the sport are not in that category, especially given the Yankees’ overall history in the Judge Era when the outfielder has missed significant time. Three years ago was the most recent example, that 2023 season going completely off the rails when Judge missed nearly two months with a right big toe sprain (the Yankees went 19-23 in his absence and finished 82-80 in missing the playoffs).
The only way, naturally, to shelve those questions is to, you guessed it, win.
And no surprise here, Boone didn’t hear those questions — at least not phrased in a how-can-you-win manner — this week in Cleveland.
The Yankees, who predictably looked staggered last week in losing two of three to the Guardians at the Stadium as they awaited final word on Judge’s diagnosis of a stress fracture of the first rib on his right side, completed a three-game sweep of Cleveland Wednesday afternoon with an 8-4 victory at Progressive Field.
The Yankees, 2-3 without Judge when Boone made his comments, improved that mark to 5-3 on Wednesday, the collective swagger and confidence that the team displayed since Day 1 of spring training back and very much apparent.
“Nothing changes for everybody in this [clubhouse],” Trent Grisham said after going 2-for-4 with three runs scored and a stolen base Wednesday. “We know how great of a player he is, we know what he means to this team, we know what he means to this clubhouse. But I think everybody talks about it on the outside, but on the inside, it’s business as usual.
“Our job remains the same. We’re going out there trying to win every night. It’ll be a different guy every night, but at the end of the day, we trust everybody in this clubhouse.”
The Yankees won three vastly different games here over the Guardians who, with their strong pitching staff and Jose Ramirez-led lineup, look like the clear favorite in the AL Central.
Monday night, Boone used his entire bench and seven of eight relievers (only Fernando Cruz didn’t pitch) in a 7-5 victory in 10 innings.
“It took all of us,” veteran Paul Goldschmidt said afterward.
Tuesday was more solid relief work, including a five-out save from Cruz, and an eighth-inning homer by Jazz Chisholm Jr. lifted the Yankees to a 3-2 victory. On Wednesday, Grisham was front and center in a three-run sixth inning that saw his club take a 6-3 lead, an inning that in many ways was emblematic of how the Judge-less Yankees can win.
After successfully challenging a called third strike on a 1-and-2 slider from Parker Messick with one out, Grisham smoked the next pitch, a changeup, to right for a triple.
Jose Caballero flied out to David Fry in foul ground in left. Grisham tagged and scored, diving in headfirst with a right-hand slap of the plate, contorting his body to the mound side of the dish to avoid the tag. Catcher Austin Hedges fielded the outfielder’s off-the-mark throw that took him toward the third-base side of the dirt.
That put the Yankees ahead 4-3 but, with two outs, they weren’t done. Chisholm, who hit a two-run triple in the second, worked a walk and the slumping Anthony Volpe roped an RBI double to left. Light-hitting catcher Ali Sanchez walked, and the still-hot Goldschmidt singled in Volpe.
The Yankees, after two white-knucklers the first two games, opened it up to 8-3 with two more runs in the seventh.
“We have people capable of stepping in and doing their job, and they’ve done a good job of that these last few days,” Boone said.
Boone noted that the entire roster contributed to the series win in “meaningful ways.”
“A lot of little things [were] done well,” Boone said.
For now, the questions shifted to the Yankees winning without Judge rather than can they win without him.
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.
