ANAHEIM, Calif. — On a day when the Yankees welcomed the return of a key player from the injured list, another essentially took his place, continuing the team’s seemingly endless stream of injuries.
The power-hitting catcher Gary Sanchez became only the second Yankee to make it back from an I.L. stint so far this season. Even though he struck out four times and made a fielding error on Wednesday, the depleted Yankees came back to beat the Los Angeles Angels, 6-5, for their sixth consecutive victory.
After the game, Yankees Manager Aaron Boone announced that the outfielder Clint Frazier, who was handed an opportunity following injuries to others and had become one of the team’s best hitters, was headed to the I.L. on Thursday with an injured ankle. Boone said that he was unclear on the exact diagnosis, but that a magnetic resonance imaging examination revealed that Frazier had suffered a partial tear — in other words, a sprain — in the left ankle he twisted while sliding back to second base in Monday’s zany victory.
This will bring the Yankees’ number of players on the I.L. back up to a major-league-leading 13. A whopping 15 different players have been on the I.L. this year; only the starting pitcher C. C. Sabathia and Sanchez have returned.
“Dang, that’s really tough but you just have to keep moving forward,” Sanchez said in Spanish about his swapping spots with Frazier. “You have to keep playing. We can’t give up. I returned from the I.L., struck out four times and we still won. That’s what’s important.”
Although the Yankees (14-10) shied away from providing a timetable for the star right fielder Aaron Judge’s return, Boone gave one for Frazier, 24. He said the good news was that the team felt Frazier’s absence could be between the minimum of 10 days or two weeks.
“We don’t feel like it’s a long thing,” Boone said. Frazier “very much feels like he can play or is close to playing, but the M.R.I. revealed enough in there.”
Only the day before, Frazier spoke optimistically about his ankle injury, describing Tuesday’s absence from the starting lineup as precautionary. He had missed most of last season with a concussion so he was thrilled to be healthy and playing every day. And entering Tuesday’s game, Frazier, who was in Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when the season began, led the Yankees with six home runs and 17 runs batted in. (First baseman Luke Voit surpassed him with two home runs in Tuesday’s game.)
Frazier, however, admitted then that he felt some pain in his ankle. But he pointed to his ability to play two more innings on Monday, running in the outfield and on the basepaths, as positive signs that he could go on. He said he also passed the ankle mobility tests given to him by the Yankees training staff.
“The I.L. is too full and I’m not trying to join that party,” he said before Tuesday’s game.
When Frazier was out of the starting lineup on Wednesday for a second straight day, Boone said it was because there was black-and-blue bruising and swelling in Frazier’s ankle. While a doctor didn’t feel Frazier needed any imaging after the initial injury, Boone said, the Yankees decided Frazier should receive an M.R.I. on Wednesday because of the discoloring.
Normally sprightly and chatty, Frazier declined to speak with reporters after the game. The Yankees overcame a rough start by Sabathia, who is three strikeouts short of 3,000 for his career, thanks to stout pitching from relief pitchers Jonathan Loaisiga and Aroldis Chapman, tough at-bats in the latter innings against the sputtering Angels’ pitching staff, and a go-ahead R.B.I. single by D. J. LeMahieu in the top of the ninth. Four of the Yankees’ six runs came from players who weren’t on the major league opening day roster.
“This has been unbelievable watching this bunch of guys and their grittiness,” Sabathia said.
Earlier in the day, Boone ran through his usual list of updates on the Yankees’ many injured players. While the center fielder Aaron Hicks (back) has progressed to running, throwing and swinging, the shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (calf strain) and third baseman Miguel Andujar (labral tear) are further along and may face pitching soon at the team’s spring training facility in Tampa, Fla.
The most concerning revelation from Boone was about a setback with the slugging outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, who landed on the I.L. in early April with a left biceps strain. Boone said on Wednesday that Stanton’s biceps ailment had healed but that there was a “residual” problem with his left shoulder that merited a cortisone shot two days before. Stanton will rest and remain in Southern California for a few days to work with the people who helped with his past rehabilitations.
So while the Yankees were already eagerly awaiting the return of several injured players, another one — Frazier — joined their ranks.
“Another opportunity for somebody else,” Boone said, pointing to Tyler Wade, an infielder who can play the outfield and was handling left field in Frazier’s recent absence. Boone continued, “We got a lot of good players in here that are capable of getting this thing done.”
At this rate, though, the Yankees may run out of bodies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/sports/baseball/new-york-yankees-injuries-clint-frazier.html
2019-04-25 11:38:25Z
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