Aaron Judge's postgame injury chat gets 'moderately' testy after Aaron Boone ruled him out

(emerges from the back room covered in grease and holding a wrench) See, here's your problem when you withhold information about injuries and decline to reveal the "grade" of a strain, but instead dance around it. It allows other people within the Yankees clubhouse to push back and rebut your narrative, creating a dramatic oddity with less than a week to go before the Wild Card Series with the Boston Red Sox.

Just before first pitch of the Yankees' meaningless tilt with the Rays on Wednesday night, an interview with Aaron Judge went live in which the star slugger pushed back on the idea that he wouldn't be available for next week's playoff games. It sounded as if he felt Aaron Boone had crossed him by ruling him out; "We've done a lot of talks, but I can't control what people say. So you'll have to talk to them about that," he told ESPN's Jorge Castillo.

In the moment, it seemed like the Captain was just trying to sway public opinion back in his corner and make it clear the decision to surrender didn't come from him. He'd likely fight, then bow out closer to first pitch after a valiant effort. He laid out "the plan" to get his body ready, but plans rarely come to fruition, and this one felt unlikely to materialize, either.

But after the win ... he took things a step or two further in the media scrum, most notably directly pushing back on the use of "moderate" to describe his strain. Again, without Grade 1 or Grade 2, there's wiggle room with a word like "moderate," and Judge intended to wiggle right through that gap.

If you were hoping this issue would go away ... nope, right up until first pitch, probably!

Not only is Judge confident he can grit his teeth through a "moderate" strain in the exact area that typically causes more severe Achilles problems after overuse, but he doesn't have any designs on DHing, either. Even though he's not the manager, he has built the "best lineup" for his return, which features him in right field.

And he's right. That is the best lineup. With a healthy Judge.

Aaron Judge backs Aaron Boone right when his Yankees press conference was starting to feel awkward

Though Judge spent a good chunk of the press conference pushing back on Aaron Boone and refuting his assessment of his injury, he did defend the manager as well, dropping a "Boonie is my guy" to make sure his feeling weren't perceived as too hard.

The best version of any Yankees team includes a healthy Judge. But the last thing these Yankees can afford is friction and a compromised Judge throwing off their algorithm in a near-coin-flip series that will be won at the margins. Fingers crossed Judge beats the odds, but ... they're more likely to stay crossed than they are to unclench.

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