New York Post, Monday, August 19, 2019nypost.com48
By BRIAN LEWISAaron Judge seems to be one of
the few Yankees not beefing with
the umpires lately. But without say-
ing a word, he still may have given
the Bombers their latest rallying
cry with Sunday’s homage to Brett
Gardner’s bat-banging.
Yes, this has become a thing.
After both his hits in Sunday’s 8-4
loss to Cleveland, Judge looked
right into the Yankees’ dugout and
mimicked holding a bat and bang-
ing it on the dugout roof, as Gard-
ner often does.
Gardner had been one of threeYankees ejected on Saturday,
tossed by first base umpire Phil
Cuzzi for banging his bat on the
dugout ceiling. Before Sunday’s se-
ries finale, Aaron Boone said he
spoke with Gardner and warned
him that umpires might be eyeing
him specifically to see if he keeps
banging his bat.
So he didn’t. Instead, when the
Bleacher Creatures chanted Gard-
ner’s name during roll call, he pre-
tended to bang his bat on the dug-
out roof. Then Judge did him one
better, mimicking the motion after
his third-inning single and again af-
ter his ninth-inning RBI double.“Yeah, he’s one of the leaders of
this team,” Judge said. “We do a lot
of crazy things in that dugout when
we get on base. Just showing sup-
port for him. He’s the leader of this
team so we’re just supporting him.”
Despite Boone saying he’d prefer
to avoid any contention with the
umpires, he couldn’t help but laugh
about Judge’s celebrations.
“Those guys are really close,”
said Boone, chuckling before add-
ing, “There’s little things that hap-
pen throughout the course of the
year all the time that are kind of in-
side things between guys. So that
was probably a little more of that.”When asked if this might be the
newest version of the Yankees
“thumbs down” celebrations, Judge
said, “It might be. ... That might be
the new thumbs down. We’ll see.”
For Judge, it marked the first time
he managed consecutive multi-hit
games since July 23-24. And he
didn’t get any favors from Cuzzi,
when the plate umpire called a low
strike on him in the first inning to
make it 0-2, then punched him out
on a check swing when he probably
should have gotten help from Tom
Hallion at first base.
But Judge is known for getting
along with the umpires, and evenhad a laugh with second base ump
Todd Tichenor after his double.
“I asked him where are you guys
headed next? He said, ‘Going to
Texas.’ [I said] ‘It’s going to be a hot
one, so bring appropriate clothes,’ ”
said Judge, confident the recent tes-
tiness with the umpires won’t have
any lingering repercussions.
“Not really. We’ve got a job to do,
just like they do. ... We’re going to
keep going out there and playing, it
doesn’t matter who is umpiring or
not. That’s not our job. Our job is to go
out there and win ballgames here for
the New York Yankees. I don’t think
anything will carry over with them.”Judge may have created new ‘thumbs down’ celebration
By BRIAN LEWISYankees ace Luis Severino
took another step toward
making his season debut,
throwing off a mound for the
first time all year.
Severino — who hasn’t
pitched all season due to in-
juries to his pitching shoul-
der and right lat — tossed in
the Yankee Stadium bullpen
Sunday and then threw what
he estimated were 15 pitches
to batters under the watchful
eye of both general manager
Brian Cashman and manager
Aaron Boone.
“I feel very good. Even the
[hit off a] changeup that al-
most hit me. It’s good,” said
Severino, buoyed by a posi-
tive session and even joking
about a line drive sent back
at him by assistant hitting
coach P.J. Pilittere.
After his prior throwing
session, Severino said things
went better than expected.
Sunday was every bit as en-
couraging.
“Continue to be really en-
couraged. And you can tell
even talking to Sevy just
how good he feels,” Boone
said. “And this has been
building for awhile where
he’s, I think, starting to
really gain some confi-
dence in his mind about
being sound, being sharp,
being healthy, continuing totake these next steps.
“And [Sunday] getting out
there and facing hitters for a
handful of pitches was big,
and I thought overall he
looked really sharp. The
shape of the slider looks
good to me, the ball’s coming
out free and easy, so another
encouraging step for him.”
After going 19-8 last season
with a 3.39 ERA, Severino
earned a four-year, $40 mil-
lion extension in February.
But he hasn’t made a single
appearance since.
The 25-year-old righty
suffered soreness in his
right rotator cuff before his
first outing in March. Then
he had a right lat strain, and
has been on a long road
back. But he’s convinced
Sunday was auspicious.
“Good. I sort of feel pretty
good. I haven’t been on the
mound this year — the real
mound this year — but this is
very good,” Severino said. “It
feels [like it’s] coming
around: The fastball is there,
breaking pitches, too. I feel
like I’m on the right track.”
The next stop on that track
is Tampa. Severino had said
before Sunday that he ex-
pected his next step would
be heading down to Florida
for a simulated game, andthen on to a minor league re-
hab stint. This latest session
hasn’t dimmed that opti-
mism.
“Yeah. I’m very excited
about the next [step]. I’m
headed to Tampa to throw a
sim game there, and then after
that ... maybe a rehab assign-
ment in High-A or Double-A.
We’ll see,” Severino said.
“Larry [Rothschild, pitch-
ing coach] told me in the
bullpen everything looked
good. ... But I will definitely
go to the video room and see
how it looks now and in the
past and see how it is.”
Not surprisingly, Boone
took a more conservative ap-
proach, noncommittal about
exactly how Severino’s rehab
would proceed.
“No, and I honestly don’t
know yet,” Boone said.
“I haven’t even sat with
Steve [Donohue, head
trainer] and said when he
envisioned a rehab situation,
or how we would do that.
Would we do that more
through sim games and then
go make a start? But he’s cer-
tainly moving toward that
direction. He and Dellin [Be-
tances] will go to Tampa and
continue with their progres-
sion.”
[email protected]GOOD START: Luis Severino, who has yet to make a start for
the Yankees this season, said he feels “very good” after throwing
off the mound at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Paul J. Bereswill
More Yankees / Pages 40-41