Yankees: Good news! Aaron Judge hasn’t lost his stroke

Out since July with a fractured right wrist, Yankees superstar Aaron Judge isn’t as rusty as we feared he may have been. This is fantastic news for both the team and the fans.

For someone with a fractured right wrist being out since July and not having any minor league regular seasons to play, Aaron Judge is off to a very impressive start. Once the reigning AL Rookie Aaron Judge stepped onto home plate, he returned to a standing ovation. He has already impressed Yankees broadcaster, Paul O’Neil.

In Judge’s first at-bat back, he managed to already hit a hard liner to right field on the second pitch that he saw at over 112 mph. It was an out, but so what? That’s something. He could have easily struck out. A few innings later, he grounded a double play but hit the ball sharply again.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Judge just missed hitting a home run to the short porch in right field. So he hit the ball hard three times in his first three at-bats ever missing over six weeks and not playing any rehab games.  Again, at least he made contact. That’s what matters. Could this article be seen as premature? It could be, but the fact that he’s putting the ball sharply into play and having good at-bats so far is a huge positive. He went 0-4, but it’s still tolerable.

You would think he would be rusty, but this is certainly encouraging. I’m sure Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone, the team, and fans are thrilled once they saw him putting the ball into play. The priority now? Start driving in some runs and win every possible game out of the remaining 12 games left, or possibly lose home-field advantage in the Wild Card game. No one wants that. Going into tonight’s game, the Yanks have a 1.5 game lead over the Athletics for the Wild Card.

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The Yankees also need Giancarlo Stanton to get hot, who has cooled off so far this month batting .160 with one home run and five RBIs with a total of 34 home runs and 89 RBIs so far this season.

We certainly know what Stanton is capable of doing, as he was the NL reigning MVP hitting .281 batting average with a new record of 59 home runs and 132 RBIs. The statistics prove it, and the Yanks hope he can snap out of the cold streak since the time is ticking.

Gary Sanchez hasn’t been himself this year with his sloppy defense lack of been production regardless of the right groin injury. He’s hitting .188 batting average with 16 home runs and 47 RBIs slashing .284/.408/.692. At least Didi Gregorious is starting to heat up hitting four home runs and driving in nine in the last six games. He is crucial to the lineup as the team’s top left-handed hitting power source.

The Yanks also need to stop playing sloppy. Especially against teams with records under .500. There’s no excuse for that. There’s not much time left, so hopefully, everyone can start clicking on all cylinders and bring the fans home to the Bronx under Yankee Stadium bright lights for the Wild Card game. They can’t afford any kind of mistakes, big or small.