MINNEAPOLIS -- One day after clinching a postseason berth, the Yankees had most of their everyday regulars in the lineup for Tuesday night's game against the Twins.
But not Aaron Judge.
Judge, who returned to action one week ago after spending more than three months on the injured list due to a right rib stress fracture, began the game at Target Field on the bench. It was his second game out of the starting lineup since coming back on Sept. 8. Heliot Ramos filled in for Judge in right field, while Ben Rice was the designated hitter.
Manager Aaron Boone has discussed working in more off-days for Judge in the regular season's final weeks. He said a few circumstances made Tuesday the right time to give his captain a rest.
“I was considering giving him tomorrow, into the off-day,” Boone said before Tuesday’s game. “I just felt like, having played four in a row, [including a] day game after a night game [Saturday vs. the Mets], travel out here, long game last night. You want to be smart with this, too, and it just felt like today was the right day and then have him back in there tomorrow.”
Judge is 4-for-21 with 11 strikeouts in six games since his activation. However, he did crush his first home run since returning during Monday’s win -- a 415-foot moonshot that landed in the second deck at Target Field.
With a postseason spot sewn up, the Yanks now set their sights on catching the Rays for the AL East lead over the regular season’s final 12 games. They entered Tuesday 3 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay. If the Yankees can’t track down the Rays, they are almost assured of being the top AL Wild Card team in the playoffs. They are currently five games ahead of the Red Sox for that spot, and they hold the tiebreaker over Boston.