NEW YORK _ As the Yankees readied to play two games Wednesday, they were already looking ahead to the next four _ which manager Joe Girardi didn't hesitate to call the most important games of the season.
The Yankees had to get through a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians after Tuesday's game was rained out, but they were already peering ahead to the four-game series against the Boston Red Sox. And in the first game, they stumbled, falling, 2-1, at Yankee Stadium.
With the Yankees and Red Sox separated by four games in the American League East standings entering Wednesday, the Yankees were well aware that these _ the last games between the rivals this season _ presented their best chance to make up ground.
"Absolutely," Girardi said. "At this point in the season you're going to be able to say those are the most important games of the season because we won't run into them and where we are in the standings. But before we get to that we've got to take care of business today."
To get there Girardi was already working to prep his lineup as best he could. He gave Aaron Judge two games off _ Monday and then after the rainout, sitting out the first game of the doubleheader. He also sat Starlin Castro in the first game. But he brought both in as pinch hitters in the bottom of the ninth.
Castro struck out swinging and after a Jacoby Ellsbury groundout, Judge stepped up as the potential tying run, but on a full count he swung weakly at a fastball, striking out.
The Yankees certainly could have used offensive production from somewhere. Just four batters into the game Jaime Garcia had already been touched up for three hits and two runs. Francisco Lindor started the game with a single to right, stole second and after moving to third on an infield single by Jose Ramirez, scored on a passed ball as a pitch slipped through the legs of Gary Sanchez. Ramirez, who moved to second on the passed ball, then scored on a single by Yandy Diaz.
Garcia wouldn't blame Sanchez for his miscue on the passed ball, noting, "That was kind of where I wanted to throw it but my stuff sometimes moves. I don't even know when it moves. That was the pitch I wanted to throw. All I know is if I was a catcher I wouldn't want to catch me."
Garcia would allow just three more hits and not another run in throwing five-plus innings, but the damage was already done.
The Yankees got one run back in the third inning with Didi Gregorius plating Aaron Hicks with a two-out double. But Chase Headley struck out, ending that threat after Gregorius moved to third on a wild pitch. The Yankees managed just four hits and one run against Cleveland's Trevor Bauer and just one hit against relievers Tyler Olsen, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen.
Judge said that the time off, which may have been as much mental as physical, helped with his body beaten up. He not only sat Monday, but didn't even take batting practice, getting a full break.
"Every day coming to the park you get locked in and you get ready to go so it's not much of a mental break," Judge said. "The biggest thing for me is just a physical break.
"You can go around this whole clubhouse and ask everybody. They're all kind of beat up. Everyone is beat up. We've been playing every day since April. Yeah, you know getting a day off here doesn't hurt. I've got ice on my shoulders, my knees. I got ice on my whole body. I ice it every day. My whole body is kind of beat up."
Of particular interest to the Yankees as he has slumped terribly in the second half of the season is his left shoulder. The team has considered a cortisone injection to relieve the pain, but so far they have resisted.
"Just been icing it. just trying to take care of it, try to maintain it," Judge said. "There's been discussions but right now that old RICE, whatever that is Rest, Ice, Compression. Whatever that is."
"You know, we've had some discussions about it," Girardi said. "He feels pretty good about it. So I feel pretty good about it. The couple days off probably could have helped that as much as the rest of his body, but he feels pretty good.
"We discuss everything. What he feels he needs, what we need to do to keep players on the field all the time, so right now he feels pretty good."
Girardi said that he didn't believe that the pain has been the cause of Judge's second half struggles.
"No, not necessarily," he said. "Again, I believe the struggles are mechanical, but it has nothing to do with _ in our mind _ his lead shoulder."
