exited early with what the team said was right lower leg tightness<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nNeither Judge nor Aaron Boone would specify which part of the leg was the issue, or if he would be going for tests Thursday, though the back-to-back AL MVP later added, \u201cprobably not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Judge said he felt the tightness while playing right field in the bottom of the first inning and initially tried to stick it out before deciding to say something about it after the fifth inning, at which point he was pinch hit for in the top of the sixth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTried to play it off and see how long we could go, because these games are important down the stretch,\u201d Judge said. \u201cBut kind of talking it over, I thought it\u2019d be the right move to come out so we don\u2019t cost the team in the field or cost the team on the basepaths.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees looks on after an at-bat against the Minnesota Twins in the first inning, Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at Target Field in Minneapolis. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Judge has the benefit of an off-day Thursday, when he will continue to get treatment, but it was not immediately clear whether that would be enough to get him back in the Yankees lineup Friday against the Diamondbacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously he\u2019s a key figure to what we do,\u201d Boone said. \u201cHopefully we get it treated and knock it out and [he can] be a factor at some point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With 10 games left in the regular season, the Yankees (88-64) can ill afford to lose Judge again. They trail the Rays by four games for the division, ahead of Tampa\u2019s game Wednesday night, but getting Judge back healthy in time for the playoffs outweighs whether or not they have to settle for the top AL wild card.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yankees\u2019 Aaron Judge reacts after striking out during the third inning.,<\/p>\n
The Yankees had been fairly cautious in easing Judge back into action after his extended absence and not going on a rehab assignment before returning. He had two days fully out of the lineup across his first six games, the most recent one coming Tuesday after he had played four straight games. That came on the back of hitting his first home run Monday night, when the Yankees clinched a playoff berth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, Judge having to exit Wednesday\u2019s game early \u2014 after being unhappy about only playing six innings in his first game off the IL last week \u2014 was telling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still trying to ramp up, so there\u2019s going to be little things like this that come up,\u201d said Judge, who appeared to be hobbling in the field in the bottom of the fifth inning. \u201cJust thought it\u2019d be best, instead of pushing through it like I normally do and it might become a little worse, to get somebody who\u2019s ready to go in there. Just trying to do what\u2019s best for the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Yankees\u2019 Aaron Judge reacts after striking out during the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Minneapolis. AP Photo\/Abbie Parr<\/p>\n
Judge likened it to dealing with nagging things every spring training while ramping up, which he had avoided during his comeback from the rib injury until Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully it\u2019s just one little thing and we\u2019re back out there soon,\u201d Judge said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Long after Judge was gone, the Yankees added insult to injury. Anthony Volpe tied the game in the ninth inning with a two-out, two-run double before the Yankees scored the automatic runner in the 10th and 11th innings. But they could not make it stand up either time, and then after not scoring with the bases loaded and no outs in the 12th, ultimately lost in the bottom of the 13th when Victor Caratini hit a ground ball up the middle that bounced under George Lombard Jr.\u2019s glove, allowing the winning run to score for the Twins (71-81).\u00a0<\/p>\n
And while it may have put another dent in the Yankees\u2019 chances of chasing down the Rays for the division, that paled in comparison to the nightmare thought of Judge having to miss time again with the postseason less than two weeks away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never good when the best player on your team comes out of the lineup,\u201d said Carlos Rod\u00f3n, who allowed two runs in six innings. \u201cObviously I\u2019m hoping he\u2019s going to be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 With a single pinch hitter, the outcome of Wednesday afternoon\u2019s game suddenly felt a whole lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10094,4459,5311,16861,20,9,11,10,321,319],"class_list":["post-349258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aaron-judge","tag-anthony-volpe","tag-carlos-rodon","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}