For a moment it looked as though Aaron Judge was about to be the latest Yankees player to go down with an injury.
It would have been far from how we would have liked to celebrate his 31st birthday, but the slugger gave everyone quite a scare in the second inning of the Yankees’ 12-6 win over the Minnesota Twins.
Judge left the game after attempting to steal third and sliding awkwardly headfirst into the base. He immediately ran into the Yankees’ dugout and down the tunnel followed by a team trainer.
Replay showed that it looked as though Judge may have hurt his right hand or wrist. However, he did eventually reappear from the clubhouse and took his next at-bat in the fourth inning.
Aaron Judge slides awkwardly into 3rd base on a stolen base attempt in the 2nd. pic.twitter.com/h1UgUdp0Ju
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) April 26, 2023
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the play by saying Judge “banged his hand a little bit.” The New York skipper added that he was alright.
Judge fouled off a pitch and drew a walk in his first at-bat after the close call and seemed to put everyone’s nerves at ease when he drove in a run in the fifth inning on a single to put New York ahead 11-3.
“There was some talk (about coming out of the game) but we ended those pretty quick. You can either play or you can’t play. So I was able to play,” Judge said afterward, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch.
The incident happened shortly after Judge hit a three-run double to give New York a 5-0 lead in the second inning and he had hit a double in the first inning as well.
The Yankees’ offense finally appeared to come alive on Wednesday afternoon, scoring a season-high 12 runs and snapping a stretch where the Bombers failed to put up more than three runs dating back to April 20.
The Yankees have struggled this year with a number of injuries to their lineup, including the loss of slugger Giancarlo Stanton. Even Judge was slumping a bit, hitting just 158 over the 11 games prior to Wednesday’s win.
Still, the loss of Judge could have proven catastrophic for the Bombers, especially on a day when things had started to go their way. Judge remains the team leader in home runs with six so far this season.
