Aaron Judge said he felt like a cat at the plate on Sunday night, playing with nine lives as he was awarded another strike, then another, before ripping a go-ahead double in the eighth inning to send the Yankees to a crucial sweep of the Red Sox.
But his slide into second base wasn’t as fortuitous as his luck at the plate.
After first baseman Bobby Dalbec misplayed a foul ball that should have been caught and catcher Christian Vazquez dropped a foul tipped third strike on the transfer to his throwing hand (ruled a drop by home plate umpire Joe West, a call that is not reviewable), Judge lined a gapper into left center, but when he rose up from his head-first slide to celebrate with a fist pump, the pinky finger on his left hand was facing the wrong way.
It was a dislocated finger that the training staff needed to pop back into place out at second base, causing a long delay.
“Just going for two there, trying to get in scoring position for big G behind me,” Judge said. “The biggest mistake was not going feet-first. I’m kicking myself for that. I popped up, really didn’t feel too much, and when I went to check my batting gloves, I saw it was kind of out of place.
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“I tried popping it back in and it kind of got stuck again, so I needed some help. Not too concerned with it. I really don’t know what’s going on with it, but I really don’t need it to hit, so I think I’ll be in good shape.”
Judge was back out for the bottom of the eighth with a 6-3 lead after Giancarlo Stanton drove him home with his third home run in as many nights, and his hand was quickly tested when he caught a fly ball, but he didn’t sound concerned about his finger after the game.
“Playing basketball over the years, you get a bad pass and kind of get your fingers jammed up a little bit,” Judge said. “It felt something like that. You just pop it back in and get back out there.”
Manager Aaron Boone is also holding out hope that Judge is fine for what will be a massive series against the Blue Jays this week.
“We were having a hard time getting it back in,” Boone said. “We’ll see, hopefully we’re OK. We’ll just have to see how the next 24 hours is.”
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