The New York Yankees have found it difficult to extract any success when playing the Tampa Bay Rays this year. In their first series of the regular season at Tropicana Field on the astroturf, the Yankees lost two of their more impactful players.
Giancarlo Stanton picked up a hamstring injury that would cost him 3-4 weeks of play, and Aaron Judge suffered a grade-1 calf injury that placed him on the 10-day injured list.
Nonetheless, Judge was adamant about staying on the team and returning to play. His desire would’ve helped a struggling Yankee team, who were recently swept by Tampa at home, suffering their first home series loss since 2017.
Before Judge went down, he was hitting .290 with nine homers and 20 RBIs. He was having a stellar campaign, sliding in at the number two spot in the batting order. The Yankees have struggled without him offensively, being limited to just 10 total runs over three games against Tampa.
Gaining Judge back will undoubtedly help a struggling lineup, but the number of injuries that have plagued the Yankees recently is simply too extensive to come back from in an efficient way.
The New York Yankees are close to gaining bak their best offensive player:
“He looks good. He looks ready to go,’’ Boone said of Judge, who has been participating in batting practice before games. “When we return, Aaron will be in there.’’
With the matchup against the New York Mets being canceled, Judge had extra time to heal and repair himself to return next week against the Atlanta Braves.
Aside from Judge, the notable absentees are James Paxton, Stanton, Zack Britton, Gleyber Torres, and DJ LeMahieu.
It is expected that most will have returned within the next three weeks, which counts for close to 21 games. The Yankees currently have the second overall record in the AL East behind Tampa. Their schedule doesn’t get any easier with the Yanks hosting Tampa once again on August 31.