For The New York Yankees, Sweeping The Kansas City Royals Is A Good First Step

Aaron Judge began Sunday with spending a few minutes in the batter’s box on seeing 16 pitches from Jonathan Loaisiga and ended the day taking the stage at a Drake Concert at Madison Square Garden.

While none of those balls landed over fences or were in play, the progression to live pitching can qualify as some of the most encouraging news the Yankees received in a while, especially since Judge did not appear to be favoring his right toe which has a torn ligament stemming from the June 3 crash tracking down J.D. Martinez’s fly ball in Dodger Stadium.

The progression has been steadily increasing for Judge, whom the Yankees are 18-22 without and including his earlier injured list stint are 22-28 without.

Last week he started to take batting practice and tracked pitches in the batter’s box. This time he had full clearance to take swings in front of a captive audience that included most of his teammates.

“To be able to take pitches where your swing says no, those are tests that he’s got to go through in working his way back,” manager Aaron Boone said about 20 minutes after Judge finished facing the tough challenge of trying to hit against Loaisiga. “So it seemed like a good day all around.”

Good day all around could describe what unfolded after Judge finished his latest step in the rehab from the unusual injury.

Judge’s anticipated live hitting session was merely the appetizer for an encouraging weekend. It was one of those you can describe as the Yankees achieving what needed to be done with a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals, who are locked in a tight race with the Oakland Athletics for the worst record in baseball.

Three wins over a bad team are hardly enough to proclaim the Yankees will go on a major run like winning 13 straight Aug. 14-27, 2021. That streak sent the Yankees’ record from 63-52 to 76-52 and it occurred after they were one game over .500 on July 4 and 53-47 – the same record they hold now heading into a Subway Series against the Mets ahead of six games against the Orioles and Rays, the two teams to rule the AL East.

This was a feel good weekend for the Yankees, who trailed for about 10 to 15 minutes all series. That was Friday night until Billy McKinney hit the go-ahead three-run homer in a game where he made two notable catches in center field.

All weekend the Yankees played clean baseball, there were no baserunning mistakes and plenty of good defensive plays as well as a low strikeout total of 23. That came when the Yankees reached their low point, a 7-3 loss where manager Aaron Boone conceded “we stink” after his team struck out 42 times in a three-game sweep by the Angels, who may or may not trade Shohei Ohtani.

And the most positive sign were the performances of the trio of Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton, and DJ LeMahieu. All were central figures in the Yankees struggling without Judge but each were productive.

Rizzo highlighted a 4-for-4 showing with his long-awaited homer. He had not homered since his final at-bat on May 20 in Cincinnati and his average tumbled from .303 to .244.

Rizzo’s four-hit game was the first by a Yankee since Judge hit his 58th and 59th homers Sept. 18 in Milwaukee. The home run ended a 45-game drought that spanned 187 plate appearances and 166 at-bats.

It also occurred at the end of a weekend of tweaks for Rizzo.

On Friday, he was spotted taking swings on the field off a tee in early batting practice. On Saturday, Rizzo ditched the batting gloves and choked up, getting a single to end an 0-for-20. On Sunday, the change was a musical one of him walking up to Taylor Swift’s 2017 song: “Ready for It”.

And when the homer finally happened, he was met with the silent treatment in the dugout before getting mobbed by supportive teammates.

“It’s easy to look out and say, ‘I’m drowning and in the water,’” Rizzo said after seeing 25 pitches. “I just kept saying, ‘I’m on the boat and waiting for the winds to pick up.’ You’ve got to have fun with it. I think the reaction from the dugout and the guys shows that you’ve got to try to find highs, keep yourself up, stay positive.”

As for Stanton, he went 4-for-8 in the final two games and showed some signs of reversing things that saw his average drop to .193.

LeMahieu, who hit the tiebreaking homer Saturday, had another hit and is at .318 since July 6, the night of the ugly 14-1 loss to Baltimore.

The wins left the Yankees two games out of the final wild card but considering the state of the Mets, there are worst places to be and everything they achieved this weekend can be classified as a good first step.