Aaron Judge Travels With Yankees On West Coast Road Trip As Mid-September Return Remains Likely
- Dominic Konareski
- 1 minute ago
- 2 min read
It’s time for West Coast baseball as the New York Yankees begin a road trip out west starting tonight against the Angels. New York faces Los Angeles for a 3-game set, before facing the Padres for a 3-game series as well. The road trip closes off the month of August and will go until September 6th.
New York goes into sunny California with a 78-59 record, -4.5 games back on Tampa Bay. The Yankees were able to extend their gap to third place Boston with what was an offensive clinic in the series finale, which now leaves Boston -4 games on New York and -8.5 on the Rays. Overall though, the AL East as a whole is playing some of the hottest baseball now, with all five teams (TBR, NYY, BOS, BAL. TOR) playing over .500% baseball in their last 10-games.
The biggest story going into the road trip isn’t necessarily the Yankees division status – rather it is about their captain who’s been M.I.A since June. Aaron Judge is progressing in baseball activities, but a return of September 1st is out of the question after previous speculation.
Judge has been out since May 31st with a right rib fracture. The AL Home Run King is slated to return in the second week of September. In recent weeks he has taken multiple steps forward in resuming baseball activities, including throwing, running and hitting in the batting cages.
Aaron Judge has mentioned how he doesn’t want to do any rehab games and rather go with a direct return to the team. Nonetheless, it remains unclear if the Yankees front office has that same mindset as Judge, who may end up taking part in a rehab assignment game or two.
Judge is going with the Yankees’ to Anaheim and San Diego, as Yankees’ skipper Aaron Boone said that the hope for Judge is that he will start hitting velocity and participating in pregame work.
Although the Yankees have not officially clinched a playoff spot, the team heads into the month of September as one of the best American League teams.
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