Yankees’ star player leaves game with injury

HOUSTON — The Yankees might be dealing with their first in-season injury of the year, and it’s a biggie.

Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton departed Friday night’s 12-4 win over the Astros in the sixth inning with right lower leg tightness.

Stanton departed after he didn’t score from second base on J.C. Escarra’s single off the left-field wall.

Stanton moved about 15 steps off second waiting to see if the flyball would be caught, then he slowly jogged to third and stayed there when left fielder Dustin Harris couldn’t make the catch.

Randal Grichuk immediately pinch-ran for Stanton, who walked from the field to the Yankees dugout and then straight to the clubhouse with an athletic trainer.

Stanton reached on an RBI single to center, then took second when Jazz Chisholm walked.

In his first two at-bats Friday, Stanton hit a hard comebacker with the bases loaded in the first that was turned into a 1-2-3 double play and he flied out to right field in the third.

If Stanton is shelved for a while, this would be a big loss for the Yankees because he’s had a solid start to the season batting .256 with three homers and 14 RBIs in 24 games.

Without Stanton, the Yankees would likely turn to Ben Rice as their regular DH with Paul Goldschmidt coming off the bench to get a lot of starts at first base.