Yankees’ off day didn’t come at ideal time after sour end to road trip

The Yankees had just finished their 23rd game in 22 days on Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field, but Aaron Judge wasn’t ready to fully embrace Monday’s off day just yet.

Despite going 15-8 during the grueling stretch, which included a handful of injuries to key players, the Yankees ended it on a sour note with two straight losses to the Rays to split the four-game series with their AL East rivals. It put a damper on what was otherwise a mostly strong run through the bulk of their May schedule.

“I think everybody in here wants to play again,” Judge said in the visiting clubhouse as the Yankees got ready to fly home. “We got a bad taste in our mouth. It doesn’t matter how many games we got in a row, everybody in here’s ready to go every single day. I know it’s been quite a few games in a row, but this team’s hungry. We got a lot to prove.”

The Yankees will get back in action on Tuesday in The Bronx, hosting a three-game series against a strong Angels team that includes plenty of familiar faces — from former Yankees Andrew Velazquez and Tyler Wade to former Met Noah Syndergaard (Tuesday’s starting pitcher) and two of the game’s biggest stars, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

But Monday’s off day — the Yankees’ first scheduled one since May 5 — was much-needed.

After enjoying mostly good health through the first month of the season, the Yankees’ injured list got crowded during the stretch of 23 games in 22 days. They lost Chad Green for the season to Tommy John surgery and two more late-inning relievers in Aroldis Chapman (Achilles tendinitis) and Jonathan Loaisiga (shoulder inflammation) to the 10-day IL. Their lineup took some hits, too, as Giancarlo Stanton went down with ankle inflammation and Josh Donaldson — who is still facing a one-game suspension for his “Jackie” comments to White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson — spent time on the COVID IL before being transferred to the 10-day IL with shoulder inflammation.

As a result, the Yankees’ bullpen has been a shell of itself recently and the offense has gone mostly quiet. Still, they entered Memorial Day — traditionally the first real marker to see where teams stand almost a third of the way through the long season — with the second-best record in baseball (33-15) and in first place in the AL East by 4 ¹/₂ games over the Rays.

“We got a good ballclub here that’s been grinding out these first two months,” Judge said. “Kind of got hit with a couple injuries the past couple days, past couple weeks, but that’s not going to change what this team’s about and what we can do. We’re going to take this off day, enjoy it and then get back to work with the Angels coming into town.”

Judge, who hit his MLB-leading 18th home run Sunday, has largely carried the Yankees’ offense, especially with the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Joey Gallo and Aaron Hicks mired in slumps.

The Yankees’ starting pitching has also been stellar, with a 2.82 ERA on the season after limiting the Rays to just six runs across 28 ¹/₃ innings during the four-game series.

The bullpen, meanwhile, has largely been in a slump of its own. Through May 18, Yankees relievers had an ERA of 2.47, which was the best mark in the majors. Since then, though, the bullpen’s ERA is 6.67 over its last 11 games (the majors’ third-worst mark in that span) and it was unable to hold a tie game (Saturday) or keep a one-run deficit in check (Sunday) against the Rays.

“In the immediate, we lost a tough on [Sunday], but certainly feel good about where we’re at and what we’re doing,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We certainly welcome this off day. A chance to regroup and reset a little bit and hopefully kick off a really good homestand. Would have been nice to finish off a great series down here, but overall I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot. Hopefully start getting some guys on the mend too and onward and upward.”