ARLINGTON, Texas — Aaron Judge was back in the lineup a day after his injury scare, but his night didn’t last long.
The Yankees captain was removed from Thursday’s game against the Rangers in the bottom of the fourth inning of the Bombers’ 4-2 win over the Rangers due to “right hip discomfort,” with Oswaldo Cabrera replacing him in right field at Globe Life Field.
It was not originally clear why Judge was taken out of the game, but it’s was first thought it had something to do with the right hand that he jammed into third base in Wednesday’s game against the Twins in Minnesota.
But it turned out to be a hip issue.
After the game, the Yankees did not do any tests on the hip of Judge, who said following the win that he would be out of the lineup for a couple of days.
Judge struck out swinging in each of his first two at-bats Thursday night against Rangers left-hander Andrew Heaney.
Before the game on Thursday, Judge said that the hand was feeling “good,” and manager Aaron Boone said everything had checked out OK overnight.
“I considered giving him a day [off] today, and I might in this series, but after talking through it with him and the trainers and once he was alright today, I feel good about that,” Boone said.
The Yankees hardly can afford to lose Judge, the reigning AL MVP, for an extended period of time, especially with Giancarlo Stanton, Harrison Bader and Josh Donaldson already on the injured list.