In this week’s Subway Series, the Yankees are looking to get back on track.
The Yankees enter Tuesday and Wednesday’s two-game set against the Mets at Citi Field having lost seven of their last 10 games and each of their last three series.
Some of that skid has coincided with injuries of varying severity to key regulars.
Aaron Judge missed one loss to Baltimore last week, a night after he was plunked in the left hand, but has mostly returned to raking since.
Anthony Rizzo is about a week into what’s expected to be a two-month absence for a fractured forearm he suffered on June 16 in Boston.
And now Giancarlo Stanton is expected to miss about a month after sustaining a mild left hamstring strain Saturday against the Braves. Stanton went on the injured list before Sunday’s 3-1 loss to Atlanta, during which the Yankees managed only one extra-base hit, did not draw a walk and went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position.
“That’s the major-league season,” manager Aaron Boone said after Sunday’s game. “It’s coming for you. Different things. It comes in different ways. We’ve had a pretty strong bill of health the first couple months of the season, and you’re gonna get nicked up along the way.”
At 52-28, the Yankees still boast the best record in the American League and have already navigated injuries this year.
The breakout of electric rookie Luis Gil (9-2, 2.77 ERA) helped them overcome nearly three months without ace Gerrit Cole, who made his season debut last Wednesday. The Yankees’ rotation ERA of 2.86 in the 75 games before Cole’s return ranked first among MLB staffs.
Cole and Gil are set to start Tuesday and Wednesday’s games, respectively.
Oswaldo Cabrera’s hot start helped lessen the blow of third baseman DJ LeMahieu’s broken foot, which kept him out for the first two months of the season. LeMahieu has struggled in his return, hitting .185 without an extra-base hit through 21 games.
Now, the Yankees are piecing things together once again. They called up lefty-hitting rookie Ben Rice when Rizzo went down. He has five hits in his first 17 at-bats.
On Sunday, they traded for J.D. Davis, a righty-swinging veteran who is expected to platoon with Rice at first base. Davis had a .795 OPS in 37 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers with the A’s this season and hit 18 home runs last year with the Giants.
Trent Grisham, meanwhile, is in line for more playing time with Stanton out. On Sunday, Grisham played center field, where he’s won two Gold Gloves, allowing Judge to slot into Stanton’s normal spot as the designated hitter.
“You’ve got to find a way in and around that,” Boone said of the injuries. “Other guys need to play a role. You don’t have to go be Giancarlo, obviously, but bringing in certain guys, hopefully they’re a piece to some winning situations.”
This is the first IL stint of the year for Stanton, who has dealt with lower-body injuries throughout his Yankees tenure. He missed about six weeks with a left hamstring strain last season and more than a month with a strain of the same hamstring in 2020.
Stanton said the latest strain felt “a little better” than last year’s.
Stanton is hitting .246 with 18 home runs in what has been a resurgent season for the five-time All-Star.
“My feelings don’t really matter in this time,” Stanton said Sunday when asked about his level of frustration. “It’s gonna be about four weeks. I’ve got to do what I can to get there.”
The Yankees’ last three series saw them lose two of three apiece to the Red Sox, Orioles and Braves. They had not lost back-to-back series at any point before then.
“Part of this is the camaraderie with the guys and the team aspect, and there’s a lot more to winning than what goes on on the field. It’s behind-the-scenes stuff, too,” Rizzo said last week. “I’ll be there to watch video, scouting reports, talk guys off the ledge that we all go on, and just be there and be as positive as I can.”
