WASHINGTON - The Yankees walked out of Nationals Park on Sunday with the kind of mood that can carry a clubhouse through an All-Star break: beer in hand, music blasting, and a comeback win in the books.
New York finished off a 5-3 victory over Washington to complete a sweep, and it was the latest rally in a stretch that has changed the feel around the team in a hurry. The Yankees had dropped 15 of 20 before ripping off four straight wins, and Sunday’s finish fit the pattern. Down 3-2 in the eighth, they flipped it with Ben Rice’s triple, then added another run on José Caballero’s sacrifice fly in the ninth.
“Nothing is better than a comeback win,” Rice said.
Rice’s big swing came on a 2-2 curveball that he drove 376 feet to center, where Dylan Crews misread the wall and crashed into it while trying to make the catch. Rice’s triple brought home Max Schuemann and Trent Grisham and put New York in front for good.
“That’s the mentality we’ve got to have,” Rice said. “We go down in those later innings just knowing we’ve still got some at-bats left. That’s the kind of mentality we need to carry into the break.”
The win left the Yankees at 54-42, three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East. Boone called the weekend “terrific,” and the numbers around the club back up the optimism: FanGraphs gives New York a 97.2 percent chance to make the playoffs and an 11.2 percent chance to win the World Series, the best projection in the AL.
“We’ve given ourselves a chance to realize all our hopes and dreams,” Boone said. “We’re set up to go take it.”
Still, the biggest question hanging over the break has nothing to do with the standings and everything to do with Aaron Judge.
At some point this week, doctors will re-examine Judge’s stress fracture in his right first rib, and the result could shape everything that follows. Judge has not played since May 31, has not been able to do upper-body workouts, and did not travel with the team to Washington. Instead, Boone said, he stayed in Tampa, Fla., working out at the team’s player development complex.
Boone said the club is hoping for good news.
“I mean,” Boone said, “hopefully we get some positive news there, and we can start moving forward. But try not to think too much about it until we hear … what it is.”
Last week, general manager Brian Cashman said the Yankees did not expect Judge to be fully healed when he is checked again this week, though the team still believes the star right fielder will return this season. One team source said the doctor’s assessment could play a major role in whether the Yankees pursue a major deadline push or settle for smaller additions.
“He’s the key to everything,” said the source, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The Yankees also had another piece of good news Sunday when they drafted Luke Pettitte, the son of Andy Pettitte, in the eighth round. Boone didn’t hear about it until after the game.
“Heck, yeah,” Boone said. “I’m fired up.”
Andy Pettitte, 54, won five World Series titles with the Yankees and is now a coaching adviser who occasionally appears around the team and works with pitchers and coaches. His son, 21-year-old Luke, hit .337 with 16 home runs, 48 RBIs and a 1.096 OPS in 42 games for Dallas Baptist this year. He was a DH after undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing much of 2025, and he is listed as a two-way player.
Boone said the younger Pettitte brings “Big power as a hitter,” and added, “Coming back from Tommy John, so he’s in the recovery phase, and he’s got pretty good genes.
“Andy has become a really good friend now, and obviously, he’s not here. But they know he’s around a lot and a big part of our staff and our culture.
Getting to know Luke and his journey and his story, having Tommy John and going out and raking in college this year. Oh, that fires me up.
Yeah, looking forward to seeing his journey unfold. He’s a great kid.
That’s great news.”
For a Yankees team heading into the break with momentum, the clubhouse energy was easy to read. The bigger question is whether the next update on Judge gives them even more reason to believe.
In Other News...
Andy Pettittes Son Suddenly Faces A Career Path Nobody Saw Coming
Luke Pettittes baseball path has taken a sharp turn since his sophomore season at Dallas Baptist University, when he was unable to pitch and had to reinvent himself at the plate. The son of former Yankees left-hander Andy Pettitte made the most of that switch, settling in as a designated hitter and showing enough pop to make scouts take notice.
Now the question around Pettitte is no longer just about whether he can get back on the mound. With draft projections stretching from the fourth to the ninth round, clubs are weighing him as a hitter, a pitcher, or even a two-way option, and that uncertainty has become part of what makes his case so intriguing heading into the next step of his career. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees May Finally Make The Infield Move Fans Have Feared
The Yankees infield picture has a familiar uneasy feel again, with second base unsettled as Jazz Chisholm Jr. approaches free agency and shortstop still split between Anthony Volpe and Jose Caballero. That is why the idea of a trade for Corey Seager has started to surface, even if it would amount to a major shakeup for a club that has spent the season trying to sort out its middle infield without a clean long-term answer.
Seager is not coming off the kind of year that usually screams buy-low opportunity, but the underlying indicators still leave some room for optimism, and his contract runs through 2031. For the Yankees, the appeal is obvious: a proven shortstop with staying power, even if making that kind of move would almost certainly require parting with a young piece the organization has leaned on while trying to keep the position stable. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Just Made A Pick That Brings Back A Familiar Feeling
The Yankees added another intriguing name to their draft class when they took Luke Pettitte, a right-handed two-way player from Dallas Baptist, in the eighth round. Pettitte has spent time as both a pitcher and a hitter, and the organization is keeping both paths open as he works his way back from elbow surgery.
For now, the appeal is in the flexibility. Pettitte showed real pop as a designated hitter at Dallas Baptist, but the Yankees are also interested in seeing what he can do on the mound once he is fully recovered. It is the kind of pick that fits New Yorks tendency to stay open-minded with talent, especially when a player offers more than one way to help. [Read more 🡒]