Erik Boland: With Aaron Judge out, Yankees' AL East title hopes are bleak
Aaron Judge on the field after a Yankees' win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday in Phoenix. Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
The week this could have been for the Yankees and the week that it is could not be more different.
For the better part of two months, the Yankees quietly had this week, the final week of the regular season, circled on the calendar.
Especially the beginning part of the week.
That was a four-game series at the Stadium against the AL East-leading Rays, a series that begins with a split doubleheader on Tuesday, that represented one final chance, and a quite realistic one from the perspective of the confident Yankees, to take the division and avoid playing in the best-of-three wild-card.
On the night of Sept. 8, it all seemed possible.
That night against the Rockies at the Stadium, Aaron Judge returned after a three-month absence caused by a right rib fracture that had kept him from the lineup since May 31, the offense taking a significant downturn in that time.
The Yankees won that night, 5-3, to stay within four games of the Rays.
Though a four-game deficit wasn’t nothing, it didn’t appear insurmountable.
Yes, the Rays had proven themselves to be a formidable top-to-bottom club with few team-wide periods of extended poor play this season.
But the Yankees had their captain back and were ready to take off, completing a three-game sweep of the Rockies and following that by taking two of three from the Mets.
After a 2-0 victory over the Mets on Sunday Sept. 13, the Yankees had won 18 of their previous 26 games. With Judge back in tow – and all that comes with that, both his impact in the clubhouse and the scare his mere presence in the lineup causes opposing pitchers – all indications pointed toward a surge over the final three weeks with a real chance of overtaking the Rays.
Get within three games of the Rays by the time of this upcoming four-game series, and the Yankees, their standout rotation still hitting on all cylinders, could take their shot.
But everything changed last Wednesday afternoon. The Yankees, after taking the first two games from the Twins, making it 20 victories in their previous 28 games, lost in 13 innings in Minneapolis.
Of most significance, of course, was Judge leaving that game in the sixth inning with discomfort in his right calf.
Two days later came the announcement that Judge would be placed on the IL with a right calf strain, the three-time AL MVP suddenly very much questionable for their presumed wild-card series against the Red Sox.
The Yankees completed their trip with an 8-4 loss to the Diamondbacks on Sunday, giving them a 3-3 trip that put them six games behind the Rays with seven games left.
Talking to reporters in Phoenix, manager Aaron Boone, as well as his players, with an air of resignation acknowledged the reality of this last week: rather than catching and surpassing the Rays, now it’s about trying to keep them from celebrating the AL East title on the Stadium field.
“That’s a tall task,” Boone told reporters in Phoenix of overtaking Tampa Bay, according to the New York Post. “We got an off day [Monday], then come ready to play some baseball on a long day Tuesday and see where it goes.”
“It’s tough,” José Caballero said, according to MLB.com. “We fought for the whole season, but at the end of the day, we are already in the postseason. So that’s what we’ll look forward to, and just be better. Learn from little mistakes and play team baseball in the postseason.”
The games against the Rays, though not an afterthought because at least mathematically the Yankees are still alive and the Rays would like nothing better than to celebrate in front of the Yankees, will nonetheless be overshadowed.
Overshadowed by the condition of Judge. Overshadowed by questions – the answers to which no doubt will be kept as vague and opaque as possible – of just how close to his superstar self Judge can be for the wild-card round.
If he will even be able to play. And the answer to that may well not come until the very last moment, when the Yankees have to get their Game 1 lineup to MLB (and, by extension, to official league betting partner FanDuel).
“I’d like to be back by the postseason,” Judge told reporters in Phoenix on Saturday. “That’s definitely the plan.”
Take that as a positive quote at your own peril.
The Yankees, meanwhile, probably would be best served by being put out of their misery, from the division crown standpoint, as soon as possible. That would enable them to set themselves up, as best they can, for the Red Sox and provide some needed rest for gassed relievers like Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn.
“We’re going to show up Tuesday and try to kick their butt,” Boone said Sunday of the Rays. “Simple as that, and we’ll keep it simple.”
Indeed, the week is fairly simple for the Yankees.
Just not in the way they envisioned.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
