NEW YORK (AP) — Minus slugger Juan Soto, the New York Yankees are struggling to generate offense.
Soto sat out again Saturday night because of left forearm inflammation, and New York was handed an 11-3 defeat for its second consecutive loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“He kind of ramped up and everything. I don’t know that he hit or anything like that, but kind of went through his pregame stuff that he does. So we’ll see,” manager Aaron Boone said after the game.
New York has the best record in the American League at 45-21, but the Yankees have managed only four runs in 23 innings at the plate since Soto exited Thursday night’s 8-5 win over the Twins with forearm discomfort. Three have come on two solo homers Saturday by Aaron Judge and his RBI single in the 11th inning of a 2-1 defeat Friday night.
Boone said Soto will “probably” hit on Sunday.
“I know today he felt really good, noticeably better in his eyes, but it was also important I think that yesterday he not do much of anything baseball (related) to try and get this to calm down,” Boone said. “It sounded like he felt a lot better today. Went through kind of his normal prep stuff that went pretty well. So we’ll see what we have tomorrow.”
The star right fielder missed his first game of the season Friday night in the series opener against the Dodgers after being removed from Thursday’s game versus Minnesota following a 56-minute rain delay before the sixth inning. He said the forearm on his throwing arm had been bothering him for about 1 1/2 or two weeks.
A scan showed only inflammation, which Soto called “a relief,” and he is day to day.