J.A. Happ-less Yankees smack Royals, lose Aaron Judge

by Felix Pantaleón

After trading for J.A. Happ, the Yankees knocked around the Royals but lost Aaron Judge due to injury at Yankee Stadium on Thursday.

UPDATED: Aaron Judge fractured his wrist and likely won’t return for a month

NEW YORK — A 6-foot-8 black cloud hovered over the Yankees after two days of trades ratcheted up the optimism.

All it took was one pitch.

A 93-mph fastball off the wrist of Aaron Judge gave a black eye to a 7-2 win over the Royals at Yankee Stadium on Thursday.

Judge left in the fourth inning, with Miguel Andujar jumping into his designated hitter spot.

The 26-year-old has only been on the disabled list once since making his big-league debut in August 2016 and quickly becoming one of the most feared hitters in the game.

Without Judge in the lineup long-term, the Yankees’ trades that netted them veteran starting pitcher J.A. Happ on Thursday and elite reliever Zach Britton on Tuesday could prove meaningless.

That’s how much Judge, the reigning American League MVP runner-up and Rookie of the Year, means to manager Aaron Boone’s lineup. Entering Thursday, Judge, the usual No. 2 hitter, had a .283 batting average, 26 home runs and 61 RBI.

The Yankees are already playing short. Catcher Gary Sanchez (right groin strain) went back on the disabled list Tuesday. He’s not expected to return until early September. Sanchez was on the DL from June 25 until July 19 before re-aggravating the injury.

If Judge has to miss substantial time, it’s likely Giancarlo Stanton would slide into right field everyday and the Yankees would rotate designated hitter.

What it means

The win improved the Yankees to 64-36. They were 5 1/2 games behind the Red Sox at the start of the day. Boston was facing Minnesota.

Sonny Day

Yankees starting pitcher Sonny Gray, after a terrible beginning to his season, turned in his third straight solid start — although, it should be noted, his other two good outings came against the lowly Mets and Orioles.

Gray went five innings, going scoreless. He was pulled after just 75 pitches, striking out five batters and walking two.

He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third inning.

Gray had entered the game with a 7.62 ERA in nine home starts in 2018.

You should know

The Yankees were ahead, 7-0, after five innings. In the first inning, Giancarlo Stanton’s sacrifice fly and Gleyber Torres’ grounder that ended up an error on the shortstop brought in two runs.

Adam Warren gave up a pair of earned runs in the sixth when Yankees rumored trade target Mike Moustakas started the inning with a ground-rule double and then catcher Salvador Perez homered to left-center field.

Didi Gregorius clubbed a three-run shot in four-run fourth, his 18th home run. Austin Romine’s double to left-center field accounted for the other run.

The Yankees got their last run when Greg Bird cracked a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Great Britton

Britton made his Yankees debut, pitching a scoreless eighth inning.

He got Moustakas to ground out to third base to start the inning. Then he struck out Perez looking before forcing ex-Met Lucas Duda to ground out.

David Robertson threw a scoreless seventh.

Chasen Shreve allowed two bases runners in the ninth and the game ended when center fielder Aaron Hicks threw Alex Gordon out at home plate as he tried to score on Whit Merrifield’s single.

Next

Yankees lefty CC Sabathia (6-4, 3.51 ERA) vs. Royals righty Brad Keller (3-4, 3.20 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. Friday at Yankee Stadium.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.