The New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals are playing a weekend series at Busch Stadium.
ST. LOUIS — Making his first return to his old stomping grounds, Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt was out in left field at Busch Stadium around 3:30 Friday afternoon hitting groundballs to his grade-school son.
A half-hour later, Goldschmidt headed back to the Yankees dugout to reminisce with the St. Louis media. There, the seven-time All-Star addressed his six happy seasons with the Cardinals, which included four playoff berths and an NL MVP, and went over his hot-and-then cold 2025 season.
But before that …
Goldschmidt provided a very positive update on his sprained right knee.
“I’m ready to go,” he said.
Heading into Thursday’s off day, Goldschmidt was iffy to go on the 10-day IL due to an injury that occurred in Tuesday night’s game at Yankee Stadium when he stumbled on dirt in foul territory after overrunning a foul pop that he ended up catching.
Goldschmidt sat out Wednesday’s game, rested up on Thursday and then was out of the Yankees’ lineup again Friday night before being subbed in to play first base for the last two innings of a 4-3 victory.
Now that Goldschmidt is back playing, he’s probably in line to start on Saturday night and/or Sunday afternoon.
“It does seem to be moving in a good direction,” manager Aaron Boone said in his pre-game media session. “We kind of feared the worst the night before he got tested. And then we thought it still might be a short IL and it looks like we’re going to be able to avoid that.”
With Goldschmidt not starting and Ben Rice catching for the third time in four games and fourth in six, outfielder Cody Bellinger made his third start of the season at first base.
With the Yankees leading by a run heading to the home eighth, Goldschmidt was called off the bench to play first, Bellinger moved to left replacing rookie Jasson Dominguez, who still is a work in progress defensively.
The Yankees’ lineup also included super utility player Jose Caballero starting in right with Giancarlo Stanton getting a rest day and Aaron Judge still not quite ready to play the field due to the flexor strain in his right elbow, which is his throwing arm.
Before Judge’s ninth start in a row at designated hitter since his 10-day IL stint ended after 10 days on Aug. 5, he did some long tossing. He still has to throw to bases from right before being cleared to return to the field, and that figures to occur at some point during this two-city roadtrip, either this weekend in St. Louis or next week when the Yankees play two games are in Tampa for two games against the Rays.
“Eventually we’ll get to a point where we know the day we’re planning on it, and that’ll be the trainers and (Judge) getting to that point,” Boone said.
While those two active Yankees are making progress, three of the nine players that they have on the injured list are getting closer to coming off the IL.
Infielder/outfielder Amed Rosario, out with a left SC joint strain, expected his IL stint to last just the minimum 10 days all along and it’s still trending that way. He’ll likely be activated for Tuesday’s game in Tampa.
Left-handed starter Ryan Yarbrough and right-hander reliever Fernando Cruz, both out with oblique strains, started rehab assignments Thursday night with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Yarbrough allowed one run over three innings in a 37-pitch outing, while Cruz had a rough 21-pitch, one-third of an inning outing allowing two runs on two hits and a walk.
Cruz will pitch for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre again on Sunday and then next Tuesday or Wednesday either pitch in the minors for a third time or come off the IL.
Yarbrough will make a second minor-league start on Tuesday, then probably will get one or two more before returning to the Yankees as a long reliever or a starter. At some point, the Yankees will have to decide if they want to keep rolling with 6-foot-6 rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler or give his spot to Yarbrough.
Schlitter, 24, is 3-4 with a 1-2 with a 3.94 ERA in six starts since he received his first major-league call-up on July 9. Yarbrough, 33, is 3-1 with a 3.90 ERA in 16 games this season, with a 3.83 ERA and all of his decisions coming in eight starts from May 3 to June 18.
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Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected].
Category: General Sports
