Yankees overcome latest injury with walk-off win
NEW YORK (WABC) -- One day after losing star outfielder Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees find a silver lining with a walk-off single from Austin Romine.
All you can do is look for the positives.
The New York Yankees are 11-10, and that in itself is a positive given the injuries that have piled up on the roster just a few weeks into the season.
After adding Aaron Judge to the IL on Sunday with a strained oblique, the Yankees have now lost 14 players to injury this season and have had to replace the likes of Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, Aaron Hicks and Miguel Andujar with Michael Tauchman, Austin Romine, Gio Urshela and Clint Frazier.
The list goes deeper, but Yankee manager Aaron Boone has instead focused on how much "sweeter" it will be once they get healthy.
That is the hope of course, that in the marathon run of a 162 game season, the Yankees will eventually get healthy and welcome back the star players we're all accustomed to seeing in the Bronx.
Until then, the players that do remain have adopted a "next man up" mentality, one that has created a silver lining to their growing list of injured teammates.
During the Yankees' recent homestand, the team went 6-3 and have won five of their last six games capped by a walk-off, game-winning single on Sunday thanks to backup catcher Austin Romine.
In a stretch where the Yankees must find any way possible to win, they found a way despite their bullpen blowing a 5-0 lead in the top of the 8th that turned into a 6-5 deficit against the Kansas City Royals.
While Romine delivered the finishing blow on Sunday, it also took a scoreless start from James Paxton, who struck out 12 batters, a three-run homer from Clint Frazier, a key sacrifice bunt from Thairo Estrada in his first major league at-bat and timely hitting from the bottom of the Yankees' order to put one in the win column.
With the Yankees' greatest offensive threats shelved for the next several weeks, you get the feeling that the team will have to win this way pretty often, relying less on the long-ball and more on situational hitting, good pitching and contributions from each player on the field.
They will certainly need to keep that up as the Bombers begin a nine-game west coast road trip starting with the Los Angeles Angels on Monday.
If there is another silver lining to be had, Gary Sanchez is set to be activated from the IL this week and if the Yankees are lucky, perhaps Stanton will return by the end of the road trip.
At this point, the Yankees will take all the positives they can get.
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