Yankees' injury updates: Judge, Sanchez
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NEW YORK -- Aaron Judge is continuing to experience discomfort in his fractured right wrist and has been unable to resume swinging a bat, according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who indicated that the outfielder will need longer than an initial estimate of three weeks to return to game action.
"He still feels it a little bit," Boone said. "He's not at the point where he's picking up a bat yet, but I feel like we are getting close to that point, hopefully."
Judge sustained a chip fracture of the wrist when he was hit by a pitch from the Royals' Jakob Junis on July 26. Judge was batting .285/.398/.548 with 26 homers and 61 RBIs in 99 games.
The club had hoped Judge would be able to resume swinging a bat during the series in Chicago. He ran the bases and continued range-of-motion exercises at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, and he saw a physician prior to Thursday's 7-3 win over the Rangers. But he was told that the fracture is still not healed, and he is unaware of when he will be able to start swinging a bat.
"Oh yeah, there's going to be discomfort for a while," Judge said. "It's still fractured. So, just got to wait until it heals up, and then we can start moving forward with some hitting and throwing and stuff like that."
"Once the pain is out of there, then it's go," Boone said. "I believe it'll move fast from there, because he's been able to lift, he's been able to do all his conditioning. We've just got to get to that point. When that pain is all out of there at that end range of motion, then he gets a bat in his hand, and I think it progresses pretty quickly from there."
The Yankees did receive encouraging reports regarding Gary Sánchez, who is continuing his rehab from a strained right groin at the team's player development complex in Tampa, Fla.
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Sanchez aggravated the injury in a July 23 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field, at which time general manager Brian Cashman outlined the catcher's likely return as late August or early September. Boone said that Sanchez is scheduled to resume on-field running, and he has been doing tee, toss and throwing activities with no issues.
"He's going to stay in Tampa through the weekend because we have the two day games," Boone said. "It's just better work days for him there. He's due to head back up here Sunday night, and then hopefully start getting out on the field with us and moving around, starting to do his catching stuff. Hopefully he'll start to take off from there."
Gleyber day
Gleyber Torres was out of the lineup for Thursday's series opener, with Boone looking to spell some of the regulars through the team's stretch of 20 games without an off-day.
Torres' production has cooled since returning from a right hip strain. He was 3-for-24 (.125) with nine strikeouts during the seven-game road trip, though he did work seven walks and hit a home run. In 14 games since being activated, Torres is batting .188 with three homers and 10 RBIs.
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"I feel like he's starting to find his timing a little more," Boone said. "I thought his at-bats [Wednesday] were good. … The good thing is, through this stretch where we've had some extra-inning games, some long games, he's bounced back pretty well, so that's been encouraging. To see him even last night getting a stolen base, I feel like he's running the bases well. I think they're all encouraging signs. Hopefully he can further benefit from getting a day here."
This date in Yankees history
Aug. 9, 2014: The Yankees hold "Paul O'Neill Day" at Yankee Stadium, honoring "The Warrior" with a Monument Park plaque.