Yankees place Urshela, Loaisiga on IL
The Yankees' injury woes continued Friday as the club placed both Gio Urshela and Jonathan Loáisiga on the 10-day injured list.
Urshela is dealing with a bone spur in his right elbow, while Loaisiga is sidelined by an unspecified non-COVID medical condition.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Urshela aggravated his elbow while diving for a ball Thursday against the Mets. DJ LeMahieu started at third base in the opener of Friday's doubleheader in Baltimore, though Boone said he'll divvy up playing time at the hot corner between LeMahieu and Miguel Andújar, who was recalled from the alternate training site in Moosic, Pa.
Tests on Urshela’s elbow revealed no damage beyond the bone spur, giving Boone the belief the third baseman should return when he becomes eligible.
“Overall it’s very good news,” Boone said. “He’ll be down for a couple days but should be able to resume baseball activities in the next couple of days and then probably be likely to join us in the 10 days.”
As for Loaisiga, Boone said he hopes his condition “doesn't keep him down long.” The manager said there is a “realistic chance” that both players will be back soon to contribute during the regular season.
That timeline is still uncertain for Aaron Judge (right calf strain), who is “starting to get back into introducing some baseball activity stuff,” according to Boone.
“It's been slow getting to that point, but I know he's feeling good now,” Boone said. “Hopeful over the next couple weeks we'll be on the road to getting him back. … Not that I'm giving you a time frame or anything, but based on the injury and based how he's tracking now, I am confident that he'll be back before the postseason.”
The Yankees should get a lift sometime this weekend as Gleyber Torres (left hamstring strain) could be activated from the IL as early as Saturday. Torres posted a photo on Instagram Friday night of his room service dinner at the team’s Baltimore hotel.
“We're going to talk about that,” Boone said of Torres’ Saturday return. “But there's a good chance of that.”
No tipping required
After giving up four runs over five innings against the Rays in his last start, Gerrit Cole pondered whether he was tipping his pitches. The ace looked at plenty of video in recent days and no longer seems worried about that being an issue.
“I didn't find anything substantial there,” Cole said. “I felt there's probably a lot of different factors that have contributed to it, but not one main thing. Partially seeing them every week; I've pitched against them every week at this point. Going back to last year in the postseason and in the year before, I just matched up with them it seems like a lot of a lot of big games that I know are still fresh in my memory and fresh in their memory.”
Cole has faced Tampa Bay in three of his past five starts, though he won't see the Rays again this season unless they match up in October. Cole knows there's “room for improvement” when it comes to his fastball, most notably making his misses a little less hittable.
“Certainly it's not very far off,” he said. “Fine-tuning, I guess, would be how I would describe trying to kind of get better.”
Cole is 4-2 with a 3.91 ERA in eight starts as a Yankee, which is actually a step up from his numbers through the same number of starts a year ago (3-4, 4.17). With only a handful of starts left before the postseason begins, Cole called this season “a unique challenge” as he tries to round into his usual dominant form.
“Midseason form is not where you want to end the season by any means,” Cole said. “I feel like you want to be throwing your best baseball come the end of the year. … Midseason form is not the goal; midseason form is midseason form. We want the best at the end of the season -- postseason form.”