In the midst of the crisis the Yankees are experiencing, they received some good news on Tuesday: captain Aaron Judge is back with the team after being on the injured list. The New York outfielder has spent the last few days watching from the sidelines and suffering from not being able to fight on the diamond with his teammates.
Judge was placed on the injured list on July 27 with a right elbow flexor strain, an injury he had been carrying since days earlier from a throw to the infield in one of the games against Toronto. The injury could not have come at a worse time, as the Yankees are going through a general crisis.
During his absence, the Bombers lost six of the 10 games they played, including last weekend’s sweep in Miami and Monday’s loss in Texas, where the bullpen collapsed again with two home runs allowed between the ninth and 10th innings. The captain witnessed this catastrophe in Arlington from the bench.
Judge will reappear in the Rangers’ stronghold, where he leads all of Major League Baseball in batting average (.342), on-base percentage (.449), slugging percentage (.711), OPS (1.160) and bases reached (268). He is also second in runs scored (90), third in hits (129), fourth in home runs (37) and fifth in RBIs (85). The Yankees have missed that production, as in his absence they have posted an offensive line of .231/.311/.399.
Judge is joined by relievers Mark Leiter Jr. and Yerry de los Santos, who will try to clean up the bullpen mess of recent days. In Miami, newcomers David Bednar, Jake Bird and Camilo Doval were all at sea, while on Monday Devin Williams again blew a save opportunity and then Bird was also ineffective in extra innings.
Leiter has been inactive since early July with a stress fracture of the left fibular head. The right-hander has a 4.46 ERA in 41 outings, with a 12.1 strikeout-per-nine-inning rate. De los Santos, meanwhile, has been one of the Yankees’ most reliable relievers over the past few weeks, with a 0.68 ERA in 13.1 innings in July.
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