Aaron Judge enters this season's final home game with 61 home runs, one away from breaking Roger Maris' record. (Adam Hunger, AP)
While everyone is on 62-watch, Aaron Judge has other numbers he’s chasing as well. The Yankees slugger, who has a major-league leading 61 home runs heading into Sunday’s regular-season home finale, is not just trying to break Roger Maris’ American League and franchise record in these final games of the season. Judge is vying for the first Triple Crown in baseball since 2012.
After Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Orioles, Judge is four points, .311, behind Minnesota’s Luis Arraez for the AL batting title.
“A triple crown would be amazing. But I think we’re still a long way from that,” Judge said. “And so we’ll see how these next four games go.”
It is something that Aaron Boone said that he is constantly aware of and will consider as he plans out his lineups for the last few games.
“I mean, I keep an eye on all of it. But I don’t have anything planned as of now,” the Yankees manager said before Sunday’s game against the Orioles. “He’s in there today. And, you know, obviously we have a lot to play for from an individual standpoint, so we’ll be mindful and paying attention to all that.
“But that could change everyday.”
Boone thinks that Judge’s chase for 62, the batting title and to become only the second man to win a Triple-Crown in the last 50 years, has been good for the team overall.
“You always want to be in this position where you can play it how you want, but you never want to get into a situation where you’re just playing out the string,” Boone said. “I do think there’s something to Aaron, where he is historically, that adds something to these games, adds something to the intensity of the crowd and things like that. So I think that, hopefully, is something that does on some level serve us well.”
BULLPEN PROBLEMS
Concerns about the bullpen continue to mount after Sunday’s loss. Just in the last 14 days, Clay Holmes went out with a rotator cuff strain, Wandy Peralta was shut down with spine tightness and Zack Britton’s comeback from 2021 Tommy John surgery was cut short by fatigue.
Sunday, Ron Marinaccio revealed that he has been pitching through discomfort in his right shin for most of the season and it flared up again. He left the game in the eighth inning and will have an MRI and CT scan Monday morning, but is optimistic it will not keep him out of the playoffs.
“I guess it’s just that time of the year where there’s some wear and tear shouldn’t be any issues,” Marinaccio said. “Hopefully just a day (off) as long as everything comes back clean.”
Marinaccio has stepped up, making 40 appearances and pitching to a 2.05 ERA in his rookie season.
Maybe more concerning is that with Holmes questionable and Britton out of the picture, the Yankees may have to consider Chapman for a playoff roster spot. He’s been wildly inconsistent this season and Sunday, after five scoreless outings, he was wild again.
The Yankees former closer gave up a lead off single to Cedric Mullins and walked the bases loaded before recording his first out — a strikeout looking. The 34-year-old former closer walked in a run and Boone had to go to Marinaccio to get out of the jam. The Orioles scored another on a Austin Hays sacrifice fly and Aaron Hicks saved two more from crossing the plate with a tremendous catch on a Terrin Vavra line drive.
“It’s frustrating and sometimes it can be part of the game,” Chapman said through Yankees interpreter Marlon Abreu. “I just got to get better.
SOMERSET SITE
As expected, Matt Carpenter is not ready to play in the final regular-season series of the season. The slugger, who fractured his left foot in August, is still planning to return in the playoffs. He was moved to the 60-day injured list Sunday, a move the Yankees had to make to fit Sunday’s spot starter Chi Chi Gonzalez on the 40-man roster. Carpenter was also sent to Somerset, N.J. where he will work out with the Yankees’ select minor leaguers and big leaguers like Wandy Peralta to get back for the playoffs.
Right now, the Yankees are just hoping to get Carpenter’s lefty power bat back in the lineup, so he won’t even work out in the field.
“Probably not initially, but we’ll see how he continues to do. He ran yesterday and I know that went well. So we’ll see,” Boone said. “The biggest thing is we just want him to start getting bats. And you know, between now and the start of the Division Series, when we get back he should be able to rack up a number of live at-bats.”
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Originally published at Tribune News Service