Yankees news: Pitcher who ‘threw guts out’ scratched; Aaron Judge on record pace

“I lost nine pounds in two days. I couldn’t really eat anything, I couldn’t drink anything. I got an IV (Wednesday) and feel a lot better.”

The worst part of his ordeal was being stuck on the second floor of his Connecticut home for two days and nights with his wife and two-week-old son downstairs.

“That was horrible,” he said.

BLACKBURN FILLING IN

Reliever Paul Blackburn will come out of the bullpen to start Thursday’s series finale against the Rangers.

The Yankees probably will be hoping for at least three innings from Blackburn, who is 1-1 with a 3.21 ERA in nine relief appearances. His longest outing was three innings and 43 pitches in Houston on April 26.

Blackburn began his career starting for Oakland from 2017-23 and was an All-Star in 2022.

Last season, 11 of his 15 games with the Mets were out of the bullpen, then he joined the Yankees and got into eight games as a reliever.

CASTRO COMING?

The Yankees will add a reliever Thursday to replace Yerry De Los Santos, who was recalled from Triple-A on Tuesday and optioned back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after working 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief in Tuesday night’s 6-1 loss to the Rangers.

The Yankees will be summoning a Triple-A arm who can give them multiple innings Thursday, and there are only have two possibilities who own 40-man roster spots, starter Luis Gil and reliever Kervin Castro.

The likely choice will be Castro, who has a 3.14 ERA in 11 games and hasn’t pitched since Sunday. The righty has worked two innings three times this season.

Gil hasn’t pitched in Triple-A since he was optioned on April 27 with a 6.05 ERA in five starts for the Yankees.

Castro, 27, is a native of Venezuela who has 20 games of MLB experience, but all of it came a few years ago with the Giants (2021-22) and Cubs (2022).

HERE AND GONE … AGAIN

Both of De los Santos’ stints with the Yankees this season have lasted just one day.

The righty was pushed to a season-high 3 1/3 innings and 54 pitches on Wednesday because Boone was thinking ahead to Thursday’s bullpen game. With the Yankees in a big hole, De los Santos did a nice job allowing no runs and one hit while striking out five and walking one.

“He ended up getting us 10 outs, which was huge,” Boone said.

The only other reliever used in Wednesday’s game was left-handed long reliever Ryan Yarbrough, who pitched the final 1 2/3 innings.

JUDGE’S HOMER PACE

The Yankees’ only run was a sixth-inning solo homer by Aaron Judge, who has 15 for the season in 37 games while hitting .273.

That’s a 66-homer pace.

When Judge hit an AL record 62 homers in 2022, he hit 14 in his first 37 games and recorded his 15th in game 38.

RAYS ON YANKEES’ TAIL

It’s surprising the Yankees are barely first in the AL East with a 25-12 record that includes 15 wins in their last 18 games.

It’s more surprising that it’s the Rays who are in second place just a half-game back with a 24-12 record.

Tampa Bay was projected by most to finish last in the five-team division, but the small-market franchise has won two-thirds of their games.

Amazingly, every American League club besides the Yankees and Rays own a losing record — including two AL East clubs that made the playoffs last season, the pennant-winning Blue Jays (16-21) and Red Sox (16-21).

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