Gio Urshela’s pinch-hit three-run home run salvaged what was shaping up to be a disastrous day in Yankees Universe.
In the fallout of eight confirmed COVID-19 cases, including one by Gleyber Torres, came bad news on the injury front, with Aaron Hicks suffering a torn sheath in his left wrist before Giancarlo Stanton was scratched from the starting lineup less than an hour before first pitch with quad tightness.
Stanton would represent a massive loss for the Yankees, who are still waiting to break out on offense. Stanton has been the team’s best hitter in terms of home runs and RBI before Friday’s game, and was second on the team in OPS, behind only Aaron Judge, who took over the team’s home run lead with two solo blasts while Stanton rested his quad on Friday.
Judge, another one of the Yankees’ oft-injured sluggers, has been handled with caution by Aaron Boone, getting multiple days off when battling soreness, and the Yankee manager hopes the same can be said about Stanton.
“That’s the hope,” Boone said after Friday’s 5-4 win. “I don’t want to put a timetable on it other than to say it’s day-to-day and we’ll see how he is [Saturday] and Sunday. He could be down a couple days, but I’m hoping it’s not longer than that.”
Stanton was the hottest hitter in baseball earlier this month, and while he had cooled off of late, he still represents a pivotal bat in the middle of the lineup that was nearing full strength with Luke Voit’s return before Torres and Hicks went down and Stanton was pulled.
Boone hopes Stanton won’t be lost for long, though it is a possibility given Stanton’s injury history, which has caused him to miss extended time in each of his last two seasons.
“He said he felt it in one of his at-bats a little bit last night, and when he was going through his pregame today, just felt like it was something he should at least get out ahead of,” Boone said. “Hopefully it is something he got out ahead of and it’s just some tightness in there.”
The Yankees have found much more success of late after a dreadful start, but much of that has been attributed to the pitching staff, as the offense hasn’t scored more than five runs in a game since the Astros’ eventful return to the Bronx. It will be much more difficult for the bats to break out without one of the lineup’s most fearsome hitters, but the Yanks hope that is a hypothetical concern that won’t become a reality.
“It would hurt,” Judge said of potentially losing Stanton for more than a couple games. “I’m not really too concerned about what he’s got going on. He knows how to handle his body and he’s being smart about it. To lose a guy like that would hurt, and the next man would have to step up, but I don’t expect to lose G any time soon.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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