Yankees: Aaron Judge dealing with ‘mystery’ injuries

Apr 10, 2021; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) at bat during the eighth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Yankees emerged victorious against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday evening by a score of 5-1. Thanks to stellar pitching by former Cy Young award winner Corey Kluber, the Yankees only needed to post 5 runs.

The offense looked better than usual, posting 12 hits, six of which came from their top three batters. In fact, all of them scored a run to contribute, but there was a negative to extract from the victory.

The Yankees are once again without slugger Aaron Judge for at least a few days after experiencing lower body soreness. The exact words from Aaron Boone were he’s “pretty sore the last couple of days.”

This is no surprise, as Aaron Judge routinely misses games throughout any given season. In 2020, he played in just 28 games, logging 114 plate appearances. The hope was that he would be healthy for 2021 but played less than half of the allotted 60 games during an abbreviated season due to COVID-19.

The Yankees have played 23 games this year, and Judge has missed two, which by all measures doesn’t have much effect, but when he’s not in the lineup, the Yankees feel his loss tremendously. He’s currently hitting .263 with five home runs and 10 RBIs, striking out 25.3%, which is below his career average.

After playing consecutively for the past few weeks, Judge was removed in the ninth inning due to lower body soreness, and while it was mentioned that the injury isn’t serious, Judge will likely sit out a game over the next few days. He seems to be just fine, but maybe minor fatigue is setting in, which is always a problem this early in the season.

Yankees have two more games against the Orioles to finish out a four-game series, with Domingo German and Jordan Montgomery on the mound. Hopefully, they can emerge victorious against a weak team, giving Judge a few days rest, so he’s ready to go against the Detroit Tigers on Friday.