Aaron Judge pulled from game vs Rangers after awful slide Wednesday

UPDATE: The team announced Judge left the game with right hip soreness, which ... ?

If you exhaled yesterday when Aaron Judge played the remainder of the Yankees' series finale against the Minnesota Twins, it's time to inhale again.

Judge finished Wednesday's contest after sliding headfirst into third base on a stolen base attempt, shaking up his wrist in the process. He even ripped a single afterward, but his comments following the game weren't entirely reassuring about his longterm health.

Instead of telling the gathered media that he was feeling great, he instead said that there comes a time when you either can play or cannot play, and he chose to play. OK. Cool. But ... how's your wrist?

On Thursday, we learned that either the wrist was bad, or something else was aggravated in the process of compensating for the wrist.

Oswaldo Cabrera took over for Judge in right field to begin the bottom of the fourth inning, an instant death blow to a team already desperate for offense.

Aaron Judge Injury Update: Leaves Yankees vs Rangers Thursday. How dumb can you get?

Any Twitter doctor worth their salt saw Judge grimacing after swinging at a high pitch earlier in the game. The Yankees took action and got him out of the game, but not before his hand was worse than it was when he arrived at the ballpark.

Glad he played yesterday. Glad he SLID HEADFIRST INTO THIRD ON A RIDICULOUSLY FOOLISH STOLEN BASE ATTEMPT.

We know how this goes. Here come some tests. Here comes an MRI. Here comes a few days sweating the results.

If it's a serious wrist injury -- and an extremely self-inflicted one, at that -- you've got to hope it has nothing to do with the sheath, which has sapped power from everyone from Mark Teixeira to Aaron Hicks.

Any way you slice it, Judge attempting to take third after already sparking the team with a bases-clearing double was an indefensible risk. Cross your fingers and hope for the best, but expect something aggravating. After all, even a short absence might kill this wimpy offense.