HOUSTON _ And on the 28th day, Aaron Judge rested.
Looking big-picture, Aaron Boone sat his right fielder Monday night against the Astros after starting him in each of the Yankees' first 27 games of the season.
"He's OK," Boone said, stressing that Judge isn't injured. "Just basically (we're) in a grueling 18-in-a-row stretch, we got here in the middle of the night. Just trying to pick a day here and there with some of our guys that have basically played every day."
Boone, whose team arrived at its hotel here at about 4 a.m. Monday after playing on Sunday night in Anaheim, also referenced the procedure Judge had on his right shoulder that had him somewhat limited in the early part of spring training.
"You have to keep in mind he's coming off offseason shoulder surgery, hasn't had a day off yet," Boone said. "Everything's good in that regard (the shoulder), but we also want to keep it that way. It's been on my plate for the last few days to try and pick a day, and I just felt like today made the most sense."
Judge came into Monday with a .317/.449/.584 slash line, seven homers and 18 RBIs but was in his first mini-slump of the season. He is in a 3-for-17 slide with no homers and 12 strikeouts, including 10 strikeouts in 15 at-bats during the just-completed three-game sweep of the Angels.
Boone, who said Judge's weekend had nothing to do with the decision to rest him, stated the obvious: it's never an easy call sitting the slugger.
"Trust me, not writing Aaron's name in the lineup is not an easy thing to do, always," Boone said. "But it's something I felt like we needed to do for these last few days and (kept) putting it off, putting it off. At the end of the day, it's such a tough stretch of games, I felt this was the best thing playing the long game a little bit to keep us as fresh as possible."
