New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge was not in the starting lineup on Thursday, but manager Aaron Boone indicated there was no cause for concern.
This was a scheduled day off for Judge, who recently returned to play after missing 84 games due to a stress fracture in his right rib. He had played in six innings in right field on Tuesday and eight innings on Wednesday.
"I think he feels ready to play and wants to play, but probably at some level understands today," Boone said before the Yankees' 10-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday. "Hopefully today is a good recovery day for him on some level as we continue to build him up."
Judge is expected to be back in the lineup for Friday's Subway Series opener against the New York Mets. He was available off the bench on Thursday but was not needed in the game.
In his first two games back, Judge went 2-for-7 with three strikeouts.
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Prior to Friday's game, Brielle Saracini McGuire and her husband Sean will throw out the ceremonial first pitches as part of a pre-game 9/11 ceremony. Brielle's father, Victor, died on 9/11 when the United airplane he was piloting was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.
Brielle and Sean met at a camp for children who lost parents on 9/11 and later reconnected at Boston College. Brielle was a Yankees fan and became friends with Derek Jeter and then-New York Times reporter Jack Curry. Curry, now a studio analyst at YES Network, will narrate a special profile on YES as part of its pre-game coverage.
In other team news, Boone was uncertain about the next steps for rehabbing right-hander Clarke Schmidt. Schmidt completed a scoreless inning of work on 12 pitches in his fourth rehab appearance Wednesday with Double-A Somerset. He underwent internal brace surgery on his elbow last July. The Yankees also demoted outfielder Jasson Domínguez to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.