Yankees fans hold ‘candlelight vigil’ for Aaron Judge, who is out for three weeks

Aaron Judge heads to first base after he was hit by a pitch in the first inning of Thursday night’s game against the Royals. (Elsa/Getty Images)

The Yankees are slipping further behind the Red Sox in the AL East race and, after Aaron Judge’s injury Thursday night, the situation has gotten a bit more dire.

Judge took a 93-mph fastball to the right wrist in the first inning against the Royals. He made one more plate appearance in the third inning, then was replaced by Miguel Andujar in the fourth.

“[Judge] just said he didn’t feel like he had the right kind of strength behind his last swing,” Manager Aaron Boone said, via ESPN. “He didn’t balk at [coming out of the game].”

Pretty quickly, New York fans knew their slugger was in trouble. By the seventh inning, fans held a “candlelight vigil” for Judge, shining the flashlights from cellphones down on the field.

Well, the news was pretty bad. Judge suffered a chip fracture in his right wrist, and can’t pick up a bat for the next three weeks at least.

It’s a substantial loss for the Yankees. Judge is hitting .429 since the all-star break with a 1.119 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

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