Friday was a bad day for the New York Yankees even though they opened their final road series of the regular season with a blowout win (NYY 9, ARI 2). Captain Aaron Judge is headed back to the injured list with a right calf strain less than two weeks after returning from a fractured rib that sidelined him more than three months. Judge's status for the rest of the season is up in the air.
"I don't have a timeline on him. I'm not going to predict anything. We'll just obviously treat it and see what transpires," manager Aaron Boone said (via MLB.com).
The reality is, we've had to play a lot of the season this year without him. There's no replacing a player who is as great as Aaron Judge, but we have high expectations. Those don't change now." The Yankees are always cagey about Judge's injuries.
They declined to reveal the severity of the calf strain or give a timetable for his return. Generally speaking, Grade 1 calf strains (the least severe) require 2-3 weeks on the injured list, though calves are very tricky and easy to reinjury. They must be allowed to heal fully, otherwise you risk a more severe injury.
For all intents and purposes, the Yankees are locked into the top wild-card spot. They're six games up in the loss column on the Boston Red Sox, who currently sit in the second wild card spot, plus the Yankees won the season series and have the tiebreaker, so it's really a seven-game lead. New York can clinch the top wild-card spot as soon as Sunday.
The AL East title remains mathematically possible, but it is a long shot. The Yankees are four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the loss column with four head-to-head games remaining next week in the Bronx. The Rays only need to win one of those four games to clinch the season series and secure the tiebreaker, upping the difficulty for New York.
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