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Aaron Judge gave fans a scare on Wednesday in a game between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. The star slugger was seen rushing to the locker room following an awkward slide early in the contest.
On the play, Judge appeared to injure his hand, leading to his quick departure from the field. After a brief exit, he’d return to play.
In the top of the second inning, Judge stood on second base following an RBI double. The outfielder then attempted to steal third, a decision that nearly ended in disaster.
Not only was Judge thrown out by a mile, but he appeared to hurt his hand on an awkward landing in his headfirst slide.
Judge quickly ran off the diamond and straight to the tunnel while clutching that hand.
Aaron Judge slides awkwardly into 3rd base on a stolen base attempt in the 2nd. pic.twitter.com/h1UgUdp0Ju
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) April 26, 2023
He looked to be in some pain, causing many Yankees fans to immediately think the worst. They rushed to social media to post reactions.
One person wrote, “I’ve never seen a player exit the field that fast.”
Someone else posted, “Don’t do this! We need you healthy!”
— ThatGuy (@KnightFan99) April 26, 2023
Others wondered why he was stealing at all with his team up 5-0 early in the game.
This fan wrote, “Getting thrown out trying to steal 3B up 5-0. Especially when it’s your best player, let’s do everything possible a– backwards.”
Luckily, Aaron Judge would return to action and finish out the game. After the contest, he said the following about the injury.
“You can either play or you can’t play so I’m able to play and it’s going good.”
It doesn’t seem to be as significant as first believed. We’ll see if he’s back in the lineup tomorrow with the Yankees travelling to Texas to take on the Rangers.