Judge shows thumb is OK with big homer

NEW YORK -- Aaron Judge started his Saturday by reporting to Yankee Stadium, where the slugger had X-rays performed on his sore left thumb. He completed the evening by belting a go-ahead homer in a 4-3 victory over the Mets at Citi Field, reassuring the Yankees that there is nothing to worry about.
Judge said that he felt much better on Saturday, one day after he jammed the thumb on a slide into second base. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that he received "a little more peace of mind" from Judge's clean images, and surely even more when Judge's eighth-inning blast off Anthony Swarzak cleared the left-field wall.
"It's something that I was concerned with when it happened, just seeing his reaction," Boone said. "The fact that he was able to stay in the game and go up and hit in the cage and go through it, just talking to him after the game, he said he was fine and woke up this morning feeling pretty good.
"He came into the park to get the X-rays and checked out OK, so that was a pretty big relief."

Boone added that he is not overly focused on left-hander Aroldis Chapman, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his 17th save, one night after he revealed that he has been dealing with left knee tendinitis for about two or three weeks.
Though Chapman had difficulty backing up third base on Friday, he had no need to move so quickly on Saturday, tallying two strikeouts and two walks before getting José Reyes to line out to Judge to end the game.

General manager Brian Cashman characterized his level of concern regarding Chapman as "low."
"It's something he's been dealing with for a while," Cashman said. "He doesn't feel it pitching. I think his own words were that yesterday he felt it more than normal. He's obviously able to go. It's on our radar."