NEW YORK — The Yankees are piecing it together.
With a home run from Gio Urshela, six solid innings from Jordan Montgomery and a spot start in center by slugger Aaron Judge, they made their inflexible and injury-impacted roster work with a 4-3 win over the Rays at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees (31-25) have won two straight, the first time they’ve put back-to-back wins together since they swept the White Sox. They have a chance to win their first series in their last three and just their second against the Rays (35-22) since 2019 in Thursday’s matinee with ace Gerrit Cole on the mound.
The Yankees roster is limited by injuries with Giancarlo Stanton being limited to being a designated hitter because of injury concern. Desperate to ride whatever hot hand he had, Boone moved Aaron Judge to center field Wednesday night. That allowed him to have both Clint Frazier, who had the game-winning home run Tuesday night, and Miguel Andujar, who had homered in back-to-back games, in the lineup playing the outfield corners while sitting the struggling 37-year-old Brett Gardner.
Defensively, it worked fine. Judge had one chance on a fly ball from catcher Francisco Mejia in the fourth inning and he handled it.
Offensively, it also worked out. Frazier homered with the ghost runner on second in the bottom of the 11th inning Tuesday night to snap a four-game losing streak. He also singled in two runs in the fourth inning Wednesday night. And Andujar went 1-for-3, legging out an infield single in the sixth.
With Aaron Hicks out for the rest of the season after wrist surgery and the front office having traded Mike Tauchman last month, Boone has had to lean on Gardner heavily in center. The only other true center fielder on the 40-man roster is Estevan Florial in Triple-A.
Boone wasn’t committing to Judge as a regular center fielder and in fact he moved him back to this regular spot in right field in the seventh inning. He brought Brett Gardner into center field for defense with the 4-2 lead.
But with the Yankees roster being so limited by injuries and injury concerns, there will be other times Boone has to get creative.
“Obviously understanding we’re in some unique circumstances right now where it’s needed,” Boone added “Aaron’s excited to step up to the challenge.”
This is not a one-shot assignment, Boone said. It could happen again, depending on how the Yankees roster evolves or does not.
“We’ll see. We’ll see how our situation evolves. See how it goes,” Boone said. “We’ll see what our roster looks like continuing to move forward. It’s always evolving and changing and circumstances change all the time. So we’ll say he’s in there tonight. And we’ll see how it looks moving forward.”
And there is some risk putting the 6-foot-8 Judge, who has had to battle injuries to stay on the field over the last few years, in center field where there is more ground to cover.
“I mean, it’s something I consider, but then again, there’s days where he’s really moving a ton and right field, and one of the things with Giancarlo going on the [injured list last month] one of the things I was able to do is use the DH role a lot with with Aaron, obviously, to kind of steal him little days kind of take a little bit of a load off here and there,” Boone said. “So, I feel like we’re in a good spot with him going out there.”
It was good enough on Wednesday night.
Urshela, who has had to miss games to nurse a sore knee, homered for the first time since May 14 (58 at-bats) in the first inning to give Jordan Montgomery a 2-0 early lead. Rougned Odor’s throwing error in the sixth allowed the Rays to cut the lead in half. Montgomery was charged with one earned run, giving up an RBI-double to Mike Borsseau. He struck out six and walked two over 6.1 innings pitched. Aroldis Chapman walked the first two batters he faced in the ninth and won an eight-pitch battle with Ji-Man Choi to clinch the win.
