Aaron Judge has been a cheat code for the Yankees. When he plays in the regular season, they win … a lot.
In the games Judge has started since becoming a regular in 2017, the Yankees have a .596 winning percentage (652-442). It is .517 (136-127) otherwise — the latest loss coming Tuesday night when the Yankees received the opposite of the kind of collective effort they will need without their captain.
Cam Schlittler was bad and so was every hitter not named Paul Goldschmidt as the Yankees generally played in an ineffective slog in losing 9-4 to the Guardians.
This was the first game Judge had missed this season — he actually had played 108 straight dating to last year, the fifth-longest active streak. But some time in recent weeks he incurred a bone bruise in his upper right rib cage region that, Aaron Boone said, worsened over the weekend.