ARLINGTON, Texas — After standing by Alex Verdugo as his left fielder, Aaron Boone came to Verdugo’s defense again on Wednesday night for not running hard on a groundout.
In the fifth inning of the Yankees’ 10-6 loss to the Rangers — which they trailed 5-0 at the time — Verdugo hit a grounder to second base and jogged up the line without much urgency. Boone said he understood how it looked, but did not take issue with it.
“He’s OK. He’s beat up. He’s playing his ass off,” Boone said after the Yankees dropped a third straight series. “He picks his spots to where — when he needs to, he beats out the force play, beats out a double play, gets the infield hit.
“Sometimes I wish it would look a little better on certain ones but when he hits the one-hopper to the second baseman and he’s got it, I get the look. But I don’t have any issue with how hard he’s playing the game.”
Asked about being “beat up,” Verdugo said, “I’m fine.”
Boone pulled Gleyber Torres from a game last month for not hustling on a line drive to left field that he thought was a home run, only to end up on first base, which eventually cost the Yankees a run.
But the manager viewed Verdugo’s situation differently on Wednesday, not pulling him until taking out the entire starting outfield in the bottom of the eighth inning of the blowout loss.
Verdugo, who ran into a wall at Nationals Park last week to make a catch, went 1-for-3 Wednesday.
Amid calls for Jasson Dominguez to be called up and replace him, Verdugo is batting 14-for-41 with two extra-base hits over his last 11 games.
There was enough concern about Austin Wells’ sore right hand/wrist on Tuesday that the Yankees at one point considered flying in another catcher in time for Wednesday’s series finale against the Rangers.
But by the time they left Globe Life Field on Tuesday night, Wells had shown enough improvement that they held off on that decision, and they continued to be encouraged on Wednesday.
Wells still remained out of the lineup for a second straight game, after getting hit with a 95 mph fastball in Monday’s game, but he was able to swing a bat on Wednesday and Boone expects him to start Friday’s series opener against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Wells got an X-ray and CT scan on Tuesday to rule out any kind of a fracture.
Both tests came back negative, which the catcher said gave him some assurance. He said swinging on Wednesday “felt pretty good.”
After missing three months with a lat strain, Clarke Schmidt is champing at the bit to get back on a big league mound, which he will do on Saturday in Chicago.
“Pumped, for sure,” Schmidt said Wednesday. “It’s been a long journey. Feeling really good physically and just really excited to get back out here.”
The right-hander is hoping he can pick up right where he left off in May, which was pitching to a 2.52 ERA through his first 11 starts.
He will still be on a pitch count somewhere around 75 on Saturday, with Nestor Cortes likely to pitch behind him as the Yankees figure out how to handle their rotation crunch.
“The main reason I was having so much success was my command was in a really good spot and my stuff was maintaining really well,” Schmidt said. “Those two things have really checked out so far in these rehab outings.”
The Yankees transferred Ian Hamilton’s rehab assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he tossed 1 ²/₃ perfect innings on 26 pitches Wednesday night.
It’s possible that Hamilton could join the Yankees as soon as this weekend if he stays healthy.
After hitting his 51st home run on Aug. 25, Aaron Judge has now gone nine straight games without one, marking his longest “drought” of the season. … Duke Ellis recorded his first career hit with a single to left field in the ninth inning against Grant Anderson.
