The New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds saw injuries sideline their marquee players on May 31. The teams have responded in very different ways since.
Entering the opener of a three-game series Friday night in New York, the Yankees own a respectable record since losing Aaron Judge to a stress fracture in his right rib cage. Meanwhile, the Reds are struggling since losing Elly De La Cruz to a strained right hamstring.
New York is 9-5 since Judge last played in a 13-8 win over the host Athletics. When Judge landed on the injured list, the team announced he would be evaluated in four to six weeks.
The Yankees, despite making a pair of baserunning mistakes and getting only a homer from Ryan McMahon in a 5-1 home loss to the Chicago White Sox on Thursday, are performing better than they did during Judge’s last long-term injury. In 2023, he fractured a toe and missed nearly two months, and the team went 19-23 without him.
“Good players that are playing with real purpose,” manager Aaron Boone said Thursday regarding how the Yankees are getting by without their star slugger. “We’ve been able to win in a lot of different ways.”
Before Camilo Doval allowed a pinch-hit grand slam to Andrew Benintendi in the eighth inning on Thursday, the Yankees had won four games in a row while scoring 33 runs and totaling 46 hits. That surge came despite the absence of Judge, Giancarlo Stanton (sidelined since late April due to a right calf strain) and Trent Grisham (out since straining his right hamstring on June 12).
Among New York’s hottest hitters of late is Paul Goldschmidt, who has a .395 average (17-for-43) during a 10-game hitting streak. Another is Ben Rice, who is hitting .325 (25-for-77) in his past 19 games.
Cincinnati is 5-10 since losing De La Cruz, though the shortstop is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment Friday. Since De La Cruz got hurt, the Reds are hitting .217 and the trio of Spencer Steer, Eugenio Suarez and Sal Stewart are struggling.
In June, Steer is batting 6-for-46 (.130), Suarez is hitting .185 (10-for-54) and Stewart is hitting .214 (12-for-56).
The Reds are 15-27 since winning 20 of their first 31 games. Cincinnati has scored three runs or fewer in nine of its past 15 games, including a 9-1 home loss to the New York Mets on Wednesday.
After scoring 17 runs while winning twice over the Mets, the Reds allowed 15 hits in the series finale. That figure equaled the second-highest total against Cincinnati this season.
“I do think for us to be the team we want to be, we have to play very clean baseball,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “We haven’t done that as well as we’d like to.”
New York’s Cam Schlittler (7-3, 1.82 ERA) will face the Reds for the first time as he attempts to halt a personal three-start winless stretch. Since a win at Kansas City on May 26, the right-hander is 0-1 with a 3.18 ERA.
Schlittler has allowed one run or none in 10 of his 15 starts, including Saturday in Toronto, when he yielded one run on six hits in seven innings.
Right-hander Rhett Lowder (3-3, 4.60 ERA), who is 0-2 with a 7.00 ERA in his past five outings, opens the series for the Reds. Lowder has pitched better since missing a month with a right shoulder injury, allowing one run in a total of 8 2/3 innings over two starts.
He will be opposing the Yankees for the first time.
–Field Level Media
