Logo

SAN FRANCISCO — As the sizzling Yankees were delivering a severe beating to the hapless Giants on Sunday, a familiar annoyance surfaced at Oracle Park.

DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela were removed from an 11-5 victory and while X-rays were negative there has to be a level of concern. LeMahieu’s problem is inflammation in his right knee. Urshela got hit by a pitch on his left hand.

LeMahieu, perhaps the Yankees’ most complete player, will have an MRI exam Monday, which is a dark day on the surging Yankees’ schedule. No test is planned for Urshela but sometimes what an X-ray doesn’t discover further testing does.

“I think I will be good,’’ said LeMahieu, who took a foul ball off the back of the knee in the fifth inning Friday night. He stayed in that game and played nine innings Saturday. “It kind of got more and more painful as [Sunday’s] game went along.’’

Urshela has filled in very well for injured third baseman Miguel Andujar. His defense has been eye-popping and his bat has been a surprise.

“Obviously you think the worst,’’ said Urshela, who singled and scored in the second, singled in the third and was hit by a Nick Vincent pitch in the fifth and removed. “I took a deep breath.’’

Only if LeMahieu’s MRI is clean will the Yankees be able to exhale. They have 13 players on the injured list and LeMahieu is hitting .310 in 27 games, has a .363 on-base percentage and would be sorely missed if the second baseman has to sit for any length of time.

The 17-11 Yankees’ 12th win in 15 games gave them a three-game sweep of the Giants and six wins in seven West Coast games, and was witnessed by 34,540, many of whom were in the Yankees’ corner.

Gio Urshela walks off the field in pain.APGio Urshela walks off the field in pain.AP

With two runs in the first, two more in the second and two in the third when Gleyber Torres homered off Dereck Rodriguez, the son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan “Pudge’’ Rodriguez, Domingo German had a 6-0 lead. For five innings German limited the anemic Giants lineup to a single and faced one batter with a runner in scoring position.

Gary Sanchez’s second monster homer in as many games upped the lead to 8-0 in the sixth, but German gave up four in the home half of the inning and didn’t come out for the seventh.

“I wanted to throw those pitches to be sharp,’’ said German, who gave up an RBI single to Joe Panik, an RBI double to Pablo Sandoval and a two-run single to Kevin Pillar in that sixth. “And they took advantage of it. They hit the ball.’’

German improved to 5-1. In six innings he allowed four runs, five hits, one walk and struck out four. The thin right-hander started the day tied for second in the majors in wins.

And, according to Sanchez, German has room to grow.

“He has the stuff to be one of the best pitchers in the big leagues,’’ Sanchez said.

That the Yankees not only survived but have thrived with so many big names on the IL has been surprising because there are times when one star goes down and teams crumble.

Then there are the Yankees. They are 6-1 without Aaron Judge. Andujar and Giancarlo Stanton have played in three games; Troy Tulowitzki five. Luis Severino, Dellin Betances, Aaron Hicks and Didi Gregorius haven’t played at all.

Now they have their fingers firmly crossed that LeMahieu’s MRI is clean and the discomfort in Urshela’s left hand doesn’t linger. Because if not there is only so much a team can endure.

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy