The Yankees return to action on Thursday with a day-night doubleheader, and you’re going to see one pitching return and one superstar get a pair of half-days off, according to manager Aaron Boone.
The former is Domingo German, who will be activated to start Game 2 of the doubleheader after Jordan Montgomery goes in Game 1.
German, who has missed the entire season so far due to a right shoulder impingement, made five rehab starts in the minors over the last month, and allowed just one earned run over 20 1/3 innings, getting as high as six innings and 65 pitches in his last outing on July 15.
Thursday would have been the 30th day on his rehab clock – meaning he would have to be activated to some roster by tomorrow – and Boone chose to use German today based on the matchups and roster construction.
“I was going to go with Jamo (Taillon) here today, but he had a little bit of tightness in his back at the back end of his last start, so definitely wanted to give him another day,” Boone told Suzyn Waldman on WFAN’s pregame show. “He’s fine, but we wanted to give everyone a little extra rest, and with the 27th man being JP Sears, we can do a piggyback there when we activate Domingo.”
Taillon will pitch Friday’s opener in Baltimore, to be followed by Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes, meaning Taillon and Cole will both go on an extra day’s rest, as they started Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Cortes last pitched on July 14 so he will have nine days’ rest, although he did
German is ostensibly taking the rotation spot of Luis Severino this time through, although Boone was non-committal as late as last week that he would slot in there full-time going forward.
As for the latter, Boone told Waldman that Aaron Judge is likely to DH both games today, “just to lighten the day a little bit for him.” Boone cited the fact that Judge played the All-Star Game, and the team will likely get into Baltimore late tonight for their next series, so he wanted to give Judge as much of a rest as possible.
Giancarlo Stanton, who was the All-Star Game MVP, was not in Game 1’s lineup, and will likely play the outfield in Game 2. Jose Trevino, the other position player All-Star, is the starting catcher for Game 1.
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