On a day in which Clarke Schmidt (side soreness) was scratched from his matinee start against the Rays and Anthony Volpe was sprawled face-down, unmoving, in shallow leftfield during a disastrous eighth inning, leaving their Bronx office with a 3-2 loss Saturday hardly was the worst possible outcome for the Yankees.
With Jazz Chisholm Jr. placed on the injured list a day earlier with a high-grade right oblique strain and the Yankees’ rotation being what it is — hello, emergency starter Ryan Yarbrough! — forgive the Yankees if they were more concerned with their body count than the standings on this particular afternoon.
Amid all that Saturday drama, including Mark Leiter Jr. coughing up a 2-1 lead, the Yankees still wound up right where they wanted to be in the eighth — with the go-ahead runs on base for Aaron Judge. By then, it appeared their fortunes had turned.
Volpe was able to stay in the game, apparently shrugging off the pop in his left shoulder (stay tuned on that), and even the .196-hitting Cody Bellinger, incredibly batting leadoff, got Judge to the plate by swatting a two-out single to rightfield. Judge already had homered in the first inning, No. 11 on the season, and smoked another single in the sixth that pushed his average to a ridiculous .435 at that very moment.
With Yankees at first and third and the supernatural Judge stepping to the plate, it didn’t seem out of the question for Rays manager Kevin Cash to give him a four-finger pass and let lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger take his chances with Ben Rice (4-for-30 with 12 strikeouts against lefthanders this season). Instead, Cash went for Door No. 2, bringing in righty Edwin Uceta for the showdown that figured to decide the game.
“You know how the Rays are — they’re going to attack,” manager Aaron Boone said. “They’re not going to do that very often. So no, I wasn’t surprised.”
Giving Judge the Barry Bonds treatment is not something new — it feels as if this query comes up with the Yankees’ captain every year. But what Judge is doing this season is next level, and taking the bat out of his hands — even if it means voluntarily moving the lead run into scoring position — always needs to be on the table. These days, the chances of getting him out is a virtual coin flip, as it happens only 48% of the time (based on his .520 on-base percentage).
So in this case, the odds again appeared to be in the Yankees’ favor. With the crowd of 44,051 on its collective feet, Judge took a changeup well below the strike zone for ball one, then swung at almost the same exact pitch — maybe an inch or two higher — and bounced a grounder to short for the third out. The fans weren’t so much disappointed as shocked. The Yankees had a similar reaction.
“He’s truly special,” Bellinger said. “But obviously you can’t get the job done every single time. He wants to get the job done there for the boys.”
Judge does everything else, nearly every night, for the Yankees. His 13-game hitting streak is one short of his career best, and he has reached base in 32 of his 33 games this season (Saturday’s multi-hit game was his 17th this year, most in the majors). Judge also has homered in three of his last four games and four of six, and Saturday was only the second time (7-2) the Yankees have lost when their captain has left the yard.
But as much as Boone & Co. lean on Judge, he can’t do it alone, and the thought of the Yankees losing their entire middle infield in the span of 24 hours would have been tough to stomach. Chisholm already is out four to six weeks with the oblique injury suffered Tuesday in Baltimore, so seeing Volpe crashing to the ground while diving for Christopher Morel’s leadoff single in the eighth was a scary sight.
Volpe stayed down for a few minutes, as Boone and trainer Tim Lentych tended to him, with Judge camped next to the shortstop on one knee. Even when Volpe got to his feet, he still clutched at his shoulder, and Lentych manipulated the joint to gauge the extent of the damage. Postgame X-rays came back negative, so Volpe may be in the clear.
“That’s my hope, knock on wood,” he said. “I’ve never really been in this situation, so it’s just scary. But it feels good, the movements and everything.”
Volpe still sounded a bit shaken up afterward. He stayed in the game but later fumbled away Jose Caballero’s grounder behind second base for an error on a play in which the go-ahead run scored. Volpe was rushing in an attempt to turn an inning-ending double play, which was unlikely anyway, and then it became a moot point.
Bigger picture, the Yankees need to cross their fingers that Volpe shows up without any lingering problems Sunday morning and Schmidt is OK to take the mound Tuesday in his delayed start, which Boone insisted was a precautionary move. Given Schmidt’s lengthy injury history — and the fact that he started the season three weeks late because of rotator cuff tendinitis — there’s no such thing as a minor issue for him.
With that in mind, Judge appearing mortal Saturday in a close loss is something easily shaken off. But multiple losses to the roster? That would be worth worrying about.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball’s Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
