Yankees lose Aaron Judge before their worst series of the year

The Yankees got the Aaron Judge news at a brutal time. He was placed on the 10-day injured list retroactive to Sept. 17 with a right calf strain, and now Tampa Bay is in town for a doubleheader that starts the biggest stretch on the schedule.

Judge has played only 66 games, yet he still owns an .871 OPS and 18 homers. Take Aaron Judge out of the middle of this lineup for any length of time and the order stops looking like a problem for pitchers.

Carlos Rodon gets the ball in Game 1 on Tuesday afternoon, Max Fried follows at night, and the Yankees need both games. They are not walking into a soft landing after an injury. They are walking straight into the Rays .

The Yankees have no room for a quiet series

This is the sort of series where Judge would normally be the whole point of the conversation. He changes how opponents pitch the hitters around him, whether he is getting the big hit or simply forcing a bullpen decision earlier than planned.

The Yankees have recalled Max Schuemann after the Judge move, and he can help fill an active roster spot. No one is pretending he fills Judge's spot in the lineup. There is no clean substitute for a hitter who can change a score with one plate appearance.

That puts more pressure on the regulars to make the game shorter. Get traffic on base. Cash in the innings that start with a leadoff man aboard. Do not wait around for a three-run shot that may not be coming.

Tampa Bay is the wrong opponent for the Yankees to be shorthanded

The Yankees have enough pitching lined up to make this a real fight. Rodon and Fried are exactly the arms they would want for a doubleheader with the division on the line. The lineup is the part that feels exposed.

Judge's calf has to come first. Nobody should ask him to rush back for a September series. But the Yankees also cannot treat this like a normal injury absence and expect the standings to wait for them. Every at-bat without him gets heavier over the next few days.