Aaron Judges unknown injury return cant come soon enough for Yankees and Ben Rice

BOSTON — There’s still no date set for Aaron Judge to get his fractured right rib imaged again, according to Aaron Boone, which means the Yankees can’t begin to point to a day when their best player might be back in the lineup.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

It can’t come soon enough.For a third straight game, the Yankees were held without a hit until at least the fifth inning.And in Sunday’s 5-4, 10-inning loss that finished off a nightmarish weekend at Fenway Park, the Yankees didn’t get a hit against ex-Yankee Sonny Gray until the eighth.Aaron Boone called it “a terrible weekend” made worse by Sunday’s performance.“Overall, we’re not swinging the bats great this weekend,’’ Boone said.“We had some pitches to hit [and] just missed a couple of them.”Clearly, they’re not very intimidating without Judge.“Certainly, having Aaron Judge in the lineup changes our team in a profound way,’’ Boone said before the game.They had scored just five runs over the first three games of the series and didn’t break through Sunday until Boston’s defense collapsed in the top of the ninth.And in clutch situations, they’ve been especially bad, as they’re 7-for-72 with runners in scoring position since June 18.“Give them credit, they threw the ball well,’’ hitting coach James Rowson said of Boston’s pitchers.

“It was a tough couple of games, but in the grand scheme of things, I feel good about our guys and have confidence in them.You’re gonna have tough series and this, obviously, was one.”Ben Rice has been especially impacted.The first baseman had an OPS of 1.056 in 54 games before Judge went out with the rib fracture and entered Sunday with a .686 OPS in 23 games since then.He went hitless Sunday.Boone said Rice was fine at the plate without Judge before the last week, when the manager believes Rice has struggled.He�...