Aaron Boone told reporters on Wednesday that he had planned to give Aaron Judge one of the final two games against the Orioles off due to lower body soreness, but he elected to play it safe and give the slugger two days of rest.
Judge, who was pulled from the game in the bottom of the ninth on Tuesday and was out of the starting lineup on Wednesday, was once again out of Thursday’s series finale in Baltimore, as Boone continues to proceed with caution when it comes to the oft-injured outfielder.
“He’s doing well this morning,” Boone said. “Just a decision I made late last night after the game just talking to him, feeling like ‘let’s give this thing one more.’”
Boone said Judge wanted to be in the lineup, but the manager decided to give him another day of rest after taking him out on Tuesday, shortly after Judge ripped his fifth home run of the season.
“Playing the long game,” Boone said. “We want our best players to be able to post as much as possible…trying to be as proactive and making sure our guys are able to post over the long haul, as opposed to reacting to something getting out of hand.”
Boone said Judge would be available as a pinch hitter, and the plan was to have him back in the starting lineup on Friday in the series opener against the Tigers.
“Judgey always wants to play,” Boone said. “But I think just me talking through it with him and saying I wanted to do one more day with it being a day game and having the weekend ahead of us…my message to him was ‘I want you in there regularly throughout the season.’”
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