Yankees' Anthony Rizzo slumping, but he's not the only one

BOSTON — Anthony Rizzo isn’t the only Yankee who hasn’t hit since Aaron Judge went to the injured list with a right big toe sprain.

But the  first baseman’s struggles have been the most pronounced, especially considering the start he had to the season.

Rizzo entered Friday night’s game at Boston in a 1-for-29 slide beginning June 4, the day after Judge injured the toe in Los Angeles.

Rizzo  was hitting .305 with 11 homers and an .891 OPS  through his first 51 games, then went 3-for-15 in the next four games before beginning the 1-for-29 stretch. He struck out 13 times in that 4-for-44 slump and entered this weekend hitting .266 with those 11 homers and a .779 OPS overall.

“Just a little bit off,” Aaron Boone recently said of Rizzo’s swing. “He’ll go through these things a little bit during the season, but he’ll also figure it out.”

Both Boone and Rizzo insist he is healthy, always a concern with a player who has battled back issues the majority of his career. Rizzo was forced from a May 28 game against the Padres after an awkward collision with San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. on a tag play at first base and missed the three ensuing games in Seattle with neck stiffness. In 10 games since returning, Rizzo is 2-for-37 with 10 strikeouts.

“It’s a six-, seven-game stretch that [stinks], but six or seven games, 10 games, three weeks, isn’t going to define your season,” Rizzo said last Friday after going 0-for-4 against the Red Sox at the Stadium. “Just have to keep going.”

Entering Friday, in the nine games since Judge last played, the Yankees went 4-5 and scored 31 runs. The Yankees collectively hit .196 with 10 homers and a .613 OPS in that span.

Among the other culprits contributing to those paltry numbers?

Since Judge was last in the lineup, DJ LeMahieu, who has slumped since late May, was hitting .185 (5-for-27) with a .548 OPS, Gleyber Torres .172 (5-for-29) with t a .673 OPS, Giancarlo Stanton .115 (3-for-26)  with a .503 OPS and Josh Donaldson .091 (2-for-22) with a .586 OPS. That means Rizzo, LeMahieu, Stanton, Torres and Donaldson have gone 16-for-133 (.120) since Judge was hurt.

(Donaldson, by the way, entered Friday night's game at 6-for-46 with five home runs in 15 games this season. When he singled in the fourth inning with the Yankees trailing 10-1, it was only his second non-homer.)

“If you’re trying to be someone else, it’s not going to do any good,” Rizzo said of players perhaps putting extra pressure on themselves to make up for the absence of Judge. “I don’t think subconsciously guys are trying to do too much.”

He added: “I mean, Judge is our guy. He’s our leader, he’s a good friend, so you always want him in the lineup. But if you try to get two hits in one at-bat, I haven’t seen it yet. You have to stay the course in this game and just keep weathering the storm.”

From Boone’s perspective, the players he’s putting on the field have the talent to get the job done offensively.

“I look at our lineup today and we’re very capable of going out there and scoring runs,” Boone said. “We’re very capable of going out there and winning baseball games right now and that’s what we’ve got to do. Any time you take a great player out, it makes it a little more difficult, but that said, [I have] a ton of confidence in this group and what they’re capable of. It’s not like we’re throwing a makeshift team out there, we’re throwing some studs out there. We just have to get a few guys that having been going through a little bit of a struggle the last week or 10 games, get them rolling and we should be in a good spot.”