Aaron Boone didn’t have an update Sunday on injuries Gary Sanchez and Edwin Encarnacion suffered Thursday. On Monday, Brian Cashman said there weren’t any updates on the All-Star catcher and first baseman/DH.
Figure there will be some official news prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Angels at Yankee Stadium, because it then will be five days since Sanchez (strained left groin) and Encarnacion (internal strain left oblique) were forced to leave Thursday’s doubleheader in Detroit.
Encarnacion, though, provided an update of his own Monday night while he attended an event for CC Sabathia’s PitCChin Foundation, saying he thinks he’ll be back for the end of the regular season.
“I’m almost ready,” Encarnacion said at the event. “I don’t know if I’ll be 100 percent this week, but I think I’m at 80 percent.”
He hasn’t begun swinging yet, which figures to be the major test for Encarnacion, one of the key right-handed bats in the lineup when healthy.
With 11 games remaining in the regular season, Sanchez’s status for the postseason is definitely cloudy. Sanchez was on the injured list twice this season with a strained left calf that cost him 11 games (April 11-24) and with a left groin strain that caused him to miss 16 games (July 24-Aug. 10). Encarnacion was shelved for 30 games (Aug. 3-Sept. 3) with a fractured right hand.
Dellin Betances, also at Sabathia’s event, said he felt good after making his season debut after being sidelined with a right shoulder impingement and then a lat strain.
At some point on the six-game homestand, the final one of the regular season, the Yankees expect Giancarlo Stanton to return from the IL.
Their hope is Stanton, who has been out since June 26 with a sprained PCL of the right knee, can be healthy enough to play left field at some point. Stanton, who was on the IL from April 1 to June 16 with a strained left biceps and a strained left calf, played in six games and returned to the shelf with the knee issue. He has played in just nine games this season.
Following Sunday’s 6-4 loss in Toronto, Brett Gardner was asked about his right foot, which he fouled a ball off of.
“It’s OK, got it on the middle of my foot,’’ Gardner said.
D.J. LeMahieu might get some AL MVP votes for his splendid season, but at this point Gardner is the player the Yankees can least afford to lose.
With Aaron Hicks’ year likely done due to a right elbow problem and Mike Tauchman’s season finished due to a strained left calf, Gardner is the only legitimate center fielder on the roster. Cameron Maybin started in center for the first time as a Yankee in the opening game of Thursday’s doubleheader.
In Gardner’s last five games, he has gone 7-for-21 (.333) with four homers, eight RBIs, a .391 on-base percentage and an OPS of 1.391.
With the Yankees and Rays idle on Monday, the Yankees’ magic number to clinch the AL East title for the first time since 2012 is at three entering Tuesday night’s action. The Yankees host the Angels and the Rays are at the Dodgers.
— With Dan Martin