The 2021 New York Yankees season has not gone exactly as planned, but at least fans would get the treat of watching Aaron Judge vs. Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday night, right?
Well, not quite.
The Yankees decided to give Judge, as well as third baseman Gio Urshela, the night off against the Los Angeles Angels’ two-way star.
No Judge in the lineup typically raises the alarm for Yankees fans, but the team is in the midst of playing 13 consecutive games so manager Aaron Boone said he wanted to give the slugger “just a day.”
“I think he gets beat up a little bit in his lower half,” Boone told reporters prior to the game. “Especially in this stretch of games where we’re in 13 in a row. It’s been hot, he’s been on the bases a lot. He’s overall a little beat up, but nothing I am concerned with that will keep him out of the lineup.”
Judge has been one of the few bright spots for the Yankees offense this season, hitting .285/.382/.522 with 18 home runs, 42 RBI and a .904 OPS.
“Today is a very hard one [to rest Judge] with all we’re going through as a club and who he is to our team,” Boone added. “But I also have to at times keep the big picture in mind.”
Judge, whose career has been plagued by injuries, has played in 75 of the Yankees’ 79 games this season.
But the team is also 41-38 and fighting to stay in the playoff race — placing a significant importance on each game, especially one with one of the game’s best pitchers on the mound.
Ohtani, who has crushed three home runs already this series at the plate, takes the mound on Wednesday night with a 2.58 ERA and 82 strikeouts over 59.1 innings pitched this season. He will also be in the Angels lineup.
Perhaps we’ll see Judge step into the plate vs. Ohtani later this season when the Yankees head to Los Angeles at the end of August. For now, Ohtani will toe the rubber vs. a Judge-less Yankees lineup.
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