Yankees: Aaron Judge saves the day after mystery scratch from lineup

What a rollercoaster of emotions the last few hours have been for Yankees fans.

It all started with Aaron Judge being scratched from the lineup. That forced fans into a state of panic, though it was eventually revealed mid-game it wasn’t injury or trade related.

Then, Yankees fans got word that Joey Gallo was scratched from the Rangers lineup moments before first pitch against Arizona. Before you could even refresh your Twitter feeds, news broke that confirmed the Yankees agreed to a deal to acquire the 27-year-old slugger.

We’ll have more on that later. At that point, fans had to know they were in for a strange night, right? We sure hope so, because it was one for the record books.

After an absolute dogfight of a nine innings against the Rays on Wednesday night, it was Judge who played hero for the Yankees, coming through with a go-ahead, and what proved to be the game-winning, RBI single in the top of the 10th inning.

Aaron Judge came through for the Yankees after his last-minute scratch.

Listen, they don’t all have to have exit velocities in the triple digits! In fact, the slow-moving pace of this base hit helped set up New York with runners on the corners and they would eventually tack on to their lead after Greg Allen scored on a wild pitch to make things 3-1.

After a stressful bottom half of the inning, Aroldis Chapman shut the door, and the Yanks tallied their second straight win over the vaunted Rays. Let’s make it three in a row tomorrow.

Getting back to Judge’s mystery scratch. Folks, let’s just say we haven’t seen Yankees Twitter collectively erupt like that in a LONG time. To start, trade and injury rumors were floated around, before those gave way to a potential COVID-19 setback. At one point, fans starting growing genuinely concerned about the All-Star’s well-being.

The Yankees went several innings without giving an update on Judge’s status…before he was utilized as a pinch hitter in the top of the fifth inning. What? No worries, though, Aaron Boone cleared it all up postgame, saying Judge had to “complete some doctor stuff.”

Was there a potential COVID-19 scare or did Judge and the Yankees simply forget a step of his pregame protocols seeing that he was just activated?

Whatever the case, Judge coming through after scaring half of the Yankees fan base to death is simply a poetic ending to one of the craziest nights of the year.

Please don’t put us through that again.

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