As Oswaldo Cabrera was about to be loaded into an ambulance Monday night, he looked up at New York Yankees teammate Aaron Judge and asked, “Did I score?”
Cabrera indeed scored the final run on Judge’s sacrifice fly in the ninth inning of an 11-5 victory against host Seattle but suffered a gruesome injury to his lower left leg while sliding into home plate.
DJ LeMahieu (calf) is expected to be activated off the injured list before the Yankees’ game on Tuesday in Seattle to fill Cabrera’s spot at third base.
“I think everyone understands it was a pretty serious situation. Just praying for our guy Cabby tonight and hoping for the best,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Cabrera got his left leg caught underneath him and it twisted violently as he initially slid past the plate. He was able to touch home before screaming in agony as trainers from both teams rushed to his side.
A cart originally was brought onto the field but an ambulance soon followed as trainers and medical staff put an air cast on Cabrera’s leg. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center.
“It was obviously a very somber moment toward the end of game with Oswaldo Cabrera’s injury,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “We want to wish him well.”
LeMahieu batted .444 in nine games during his rehab assignment, the past three with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
“DJ LeMahieu could fall out of bed and hit,” Boone said before Monday’s game. “I think the biggest thing that’s tripped him up over the years is the nagging, different injuries that have popped up and slowed him.”
The Yankees continued their long-ball barrage Monday as Austin Wells hit a three-run blast, Anthony Volpe had a two-run shot and Trent Grisham added a pair of solo homers.
The only thing missing was a grand slam, with Judge having a chance at one in the ninth before settling for the sacrifice fly.
“Kind of shows you what type of guy (Cabrera) is. Something like that happens, and kind of the only thing on his mind through all of it, all the pain and everything, is just, ‘Did I score?'” Judge said on the YES Network. “He loves being a Yankee. He wears this jersey with pride. This is a tough one.”
Judge went 2-for-3 with a double and two walks to raise his major league-leading batting average to .414 as the Yankees won for the fifth time in six games.
Julio Rodriguez, Jorge Polanco and Cal Raleigh each homered for the Mariners, who dropped their season-high fourth in a row.
Trailing 2-1, the Yankees took the lead with a six-run fifth off Mariners starter Emerson Hancock.
“I made a couple mistakes and they made me pay for it,” Hancock said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to keep going after them. I’ll wear this one, and I didn’t really give us a chance to win. But baseball is what it is, and you move on, you keep working and show up tomorrow and see what happens.”
Yankees left-hander Max Fried (6-0, 1.05 ERA), who has allowed one earned run over his past four starts spanning 27 2/3 innings, is scheduled to start Tuesday against Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo (4-1, 3.25).
Fried, 31, is 0-1 with a 1.50 ERA in two career starts versus Seattle.
Woo, 25, is 2-1 with a 3.94 ERA in three career starts against the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
