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ANAHEIM, Calif.— George Lombard Jr.
is nearly out of the woods.The rookie shortstop missed a fourth straight game Wednesday with right knee inflammation, but the Yankees expect he will return to the lineup Friday when they open a series against the Padres at Petco Park.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.
“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse … but it is trending and looking like that is going to be the case,” manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday before the Yankees won the series finale at Angel Stadium.For the third straight day, Lombard was out running in the outfield before Wednesday’s game, going through agility drills and then taking ground balls.He was expected to be an active player off the bench, which had not been the case the first few days after he tweaked his knee at the plate in Saturday’s win over the Red Sox.“It’s been progressing every day,” Lombard said.
“There was just a little bit of inflammation in there, so it was just random moves [where I could feel it].”José Caballero started a fourth straight game in Lombard’s place.Aaron Judge ran the bases Wednesday for the first time in his ramp-up toward a potential return by next week, going from home to first, first to third and home to second.That came after his regular pregame work of throwing and taking defensive reps in right field.Aaron Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake were ejected in the bottom of the 10th inning by first base umpire Junior Valentine after arguing that Vaughn Grissom went around on a check swing that should have been strike three for the first out of the frame.“Well, if you want to call that a check swing,” Boone quipped.
The surging Spencer Jones started in center field against lefty Reid Detmers on Wednesday, with Heliot Ramos in right field and Trent Grisham on the bench.“I think Spencer’s earned the right to be in there too,...