The Yankees’ dream start to this season and Juan Soto’s time in the Bronx took its first turn for the worse on Thursday, when the superstar outfielder was removed from an 8-5 win over the Twins because of a sore left forearm.
Soto’s departure after a 56-minute rain delay before the top of the sixth inning put the Yankees’ season-high eight-game winning streak in jeopardy.
After Soto was examined by the training staff and team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad during Thursday’s stoppage, he is scheduled to undergo imaging tests on Friday and the decision was made not to risk returning Soto to the game.
“Any time you take a player of Juan’s caliber out of a game, that’s a concern,” manager Aaron Boone said, “but I’m hopeful we’re just being cautious.”
The outfielder said he has been struggling with forearm problems for the past week or two.
“We’ve been trying to get away from it, [away]” Soto said, adding that he woke up feeling uncomfortable but that it had nothing to do with playing baseball.
That night, the Yankees swept the Twins again to move within 4.5 games of Baltimore in the AL East, their largest lead of the year, and passed the rested Philadelphia Phillies for the best record in the major leagues (45-19).
A lot of that can be attributed to the fearsome one-two punch of Soto and Aaron Judge.
Judge has remained healthy and the durable Soto has played every game so far this season in his first year with the Yankees and didn’t miss a game last year with the Padres.
He was replaced by Alex Verdugo.
When asked if there was a chance he might need to go on the disabled list, Boone said, “It’s too early to know.”
Jason Dominguez is with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and is finishing up his rehab from last year’s Tommy John surgery and could be an option if Soto is injured.
As for the game, the Yankees completed a season sweep of Minnesota, improving their record against their AL Central rivals to 123-44 since 2002, including the postseason.
Tommy Kahnle found himself in a pinch with two outs and a throw to second base in the bottom of the eighth, but Anthony Volpe made a great play to his right on a sharp grounder by Carlos Correa and made a powerful throw to second base to protect the three-run lead.
Trent Grisham, who had been struggling this season with just two hits in 39 at-bats prior to this game, also recorded three RBIs despite being used very little.
Right-hander Marcus Stroman allowed a season-high five runs in just 4 2/3 innings, but the offense helped overcome his shaky performance.
Stroman allowed two solo home runs in the first three innings, then two doubles and a hit by pitch prevented him from finishing the top of the fifth.
But the Yankees outscored Minnesota right-hander Pablo Lopez, scoring seven runs in four innings, highlighted by a two-run homer by Grisham in the second inning and a two-run double by Gleyber Torres in the third inning to score three runs.
With the game tied at 2-2, leadoff batter Soto, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton all walked in the bottom of the third inning.
With one out, Torres hit a two-run double that cleared first base and rolled down the right field line.
Austin Wells then hit a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 5-2, and the Yankees were up 7-2 after the fourth inning.
But Stroman collapsed after one inning, allowing three of the first four batters to score.
The Yankees took an 8-5 lead in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Grisham, and then five Yankee relief pitchers combined to pitch 5 ¹/3 scoreless innings to secure the victory.
“I think we’re a pretty confident team,” Stroman said. “When we go out there, we expect to win.”
So far, that attitude has served them well this season.
They may face new challenges in the coming days as they try to determine the extent of Soto’s injury.
