He is 28 years old, and locally difficult questions, cool questions for the Yankees and Yankees fans, embraced Aaron Judge:
Have we seen the best of him already?
Will he ever stay on the field long enough to once again be the most feared face of the franchise? The impressive Sultan of Swat who ran 52 home three long seasons ago 52?
Would the Yankees decide to push the pause button on a mega expansion, as judge for now limited to free agency in 2022?
Aaron Judge (mild right calf strain) posted on the ILL, Yankees fans posted on the ILL.
This is the kind of precaution you are forced to take when your star with injury plague has a history of disappearing from day to day in week after week and month after month.
For one night, the cunning clubs of Gary Sanchez (a 457-foot Judge-ian two-run HR) and Gleyber Torres (4-for-4, doubles, two RBIs) woke up with a vengeance in support of Gerrit’s 20th consecutive victory Cole, 10-3 over the Red Sox, and red-haired Clint Frazier (double, two RBIs) remained red hot.
“It’s apparently a bit of a blow, but we have a mentality of next man-up here,” Cole said.
As much as it makes Judge sidelined once again, especially when there is so much urgency for each and every game, the sobering reality is that no one is dealing with Cal Ripken Jr. as retired Giants Iron Man Eli Manning will be confused.
From his shoes in 2019 to pale in 2020, with judge not returning early until August 22nd.
“I just think it’s really important that he does not go out there and do this thing significantly and try to play something through,” Aaron Boone said. “Hopefully it should be a nice short stint on the IL.”
Boone judges that it was the tightness of lower bodies that prompted him to pull Judge out of Tuesday night’s game. Until a Thursday MRI revealed otherwise.
‘When you talk about calves, when you talk about a hamstring,’ said Boone, ‘it’s a situation where you can adjust it more and then all of a sudden we see a four-to-six situation of the week. , and that’s really what we’re trying to avoid here. ”
If there were no pandemic, Judge’s rooms might be as hostile as it was, and is.
“Hopefully we’ve got this thing a little bit ahead,” Boone said. “Hopefully it’s a mild situation, and Aaron will be back on the field.”
Hope, however, especially with justice, is not a strategy.
His beautiful, muscular 6-foot-7, 282-pound body has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. Wear and tear has now become a cunning companion for him.
Judge, granted the benefit of the COVID-19 jump training 2.0 following his fractured right rib and collapsed lung was started after a monster start with nine homers, and with Giancarlo Stanton at IL for the next time it will fall on Torres and Sanchez, both have been more Bronx Bummer than Bomber, like Frazier, to pick up the snail.
“We lost two MVP caliber players, which is a blow,” Boone said, “but we absolutely have the people who can stop it.”
It would help if James Paxton can return to form and Cole can help in the rotation, and closer Aroldis Chapman is on his way back, and maybe someone can come forward like Gio Urshela this season. Even without a judge, this is not The Little Sisters of the Luxury Tax.
“We have four months to win a championship and we want everyone on the field,” Judge said in early July.
Boone is enough manager and he has enough team to keep it going until Judge returns … when he returns sounds a much better bet than when he returns, but who knows for sure?
“This is a case of just trying to make sure we protect him, and making sure we have him for the long haul,” Boone said. ‘And even though we’re in a 60-game season, or as so many people put it, a 60-game sprint, the end line when we do that hurts more, we’re putting the season in danger and we do not want to do that. ”
Mighty Mickey Mantle battled injuries (and alcohol) and stayed on the field long enough to swallow 536 HRs. By the time he was 28, he had hit 280 of those HRs in 1,246 games and 4,478 in bats. Judge has 119 HRs in 413 games and 1,479 in bats. What a shame that that 99 jersey periodically has to hang on to his closet instead of on his back.
Aaron on the side of caution is always a good idea with Judge. And because hope is not a strategy, fans of World Series-of-Bust Yankees might want to go straight to prayer.
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