Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Two of the Major League’s most feared sluggers stepped into the box one after another to open Friday’s game.
Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton both struck out. And by the time they came up to bat again for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the RailRiders were already in an eight-run hole against Durham when Stanton launched a home run.
Even the presence of the New York Yankees stars, both of whom had just joined the RailRiders on rehab stints, wasn’t enough to keep this one close. In a matchup of the top two teams in the International League, it was the reigning Governors’ Cup champion Bulls who homered four times and delivered a 16-3 thrashing in the series opener in Durham.
Playing in his first game of any kind since April 20, Judge finished 0-for-4 with three strikeouts while batting leadoff as the designated hitter. Stanton was right behind him in the lineup and manned right field, finishing 1-for-3 with two strikeouts. He drove in the RailRiders’ only runs before exiting in the bottom of the seventh.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Stanton could return to New York after the weekend series vs. the Bulls, but that Judge would likely be with the RailRiders a bit longer.
“With Giancarlo, we feel like we might finish him off this weekend and he’d be ready for us pretty early in the homestand,” Boone told Yankees reporters in Chicago before Friday night’s game against the White Sox. “With Aaron, he’ll be DHing these first two days, I think he’s going to play right field probably Sunday, but we’ll want him to get out there and get some back-to-back games where he is on defense. It’s more a building-up and getting-into-baseball shape sort of thing.
“Obviously Giancarlo is a little further along. But we feel really good about physically where Aaron’s at right now.”
Judge was placed on the injured list with a strained left oblique on April 21 and Friday was his first rehab game of the season. Stanton had been dealing with multiple injuries since early April — a left bicep strain, a left shoulder strain and tightness in his left calf — before starting this latest rehab stint with Single-A Tampa earlier in the week.
Friday was also, amazingly, Stanton’s first game ever at the Triple-A level in his 13-year pro career. He originally made the jump to the bigs right from Double-A with the then-Florida Marlins in 2010, and his few rehab stints with the Marlins were all spent in High-A ball.
After both Judge and Stanton went down swinging against Bulls starter Austin Pruitt in the first, the top of the third presented a major opportunity with runners on the corners.
While Judge went down looking on a 2-2 pitch, Stanton got hold of a 2-2 pitch of his own and smashed it out to left-center for a three-run shot. It was Stanton’s fifth home run in four minor-league games this week after going 5-for-10 with four homers for Tampa.
But that only made the score 8-3, as Jake Cronenworth had led off the first with a home run for Durham, and the Bulls put up seven in the second, highlighted by a grand slam by Nate Lowe.
Stanton’s homer didn’t do much to stop the bleeding, either, as Durham piled on five more runs in the bottom of the third, closing out a horrible night for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre starter Daniel Camarena.
Camarena got the hook with one out in the third after giving up three straight extra-base hits in the frame. His final line was a nightmarish 11 hits, 12 runs, 10 earned, one walk and no strikeouts while recording just seven outs.
It was 13-3 in the top of the fourth when Judge again came up with two runners on, but he struck out swinging to end the inning.
When Stanton stepped back in to lead off the fifth, it was 16-3. Danny Farquhar, making his second appearance since returning from a brain hemorrhage he suffered last year, gave up four earned runs on five hits.
Pruitt got Stanton swinging again to giving him five strikeouts against the MLB duo on the night. Judge closed out the top of the seventh with a ground out, and Stanton was then replaced in right field by Trey Amburgey.
“With that injury, obviously hitting was going to be the last thing,” Boone said of Judge. “The thing we were going to be conservative with and most careful with was to make sure that (discomfort) was completely out of there before we start ramping him up. Now, it’s because the nature of that injury too, you’re (shut) down and you’ve got to build up and get back in shape a little bit.”
Rex Brothers and Kaleb Ort managed to calm things down out of the bullpen, closing out the final 4.1 innings without allowing a hit between them. Breyvic Valera and Billy Burns had two hits each at the plate.
Former Scranton High School star Joe McCarthy went 1-for-4 for the Bulls, who got three hits apiece from Cronenworth (three RBIs), Kean Wong (four RBIs) and Jake Smolinski (two RBIs). All nine players in Durham’s lineup recorded at least one hit.
The series between the IL North-leading RailRiders (38-27) and the IL South-leading Bulls (41-26) continues Saturday with a 6:35 p.m. start in Durham.