Aaron Boone said it out loud this week: Aaron Judge is starting his hitting progression, the first real step back from a fractured rib. That is good news for the Yankees and bad news for anyone hoping this series stays low stakes. Judge is not in this lineup yet. Gunnar Henderson is, and he is the one currently making a Yankees pitching staff look every bit as unsettled as its record suggests.
This is the last look at this version of the Orioles-Yankees rivalry before Judge's return changes the equation entirely. Henderson has been the engine of Baltimore's lineup all year, the guy pitching staffs game plan around, and right now he gets to do it against a New York staff that has not figured out how to game plan around him. Every homer he hits this week lands a little differently, knowing the guy who used to anchor that Yankees lineup is watching from the dugout instead of standing in the box.
So the question is simple. Does Henderson leave the yard tonight, one more time, before this series stops being about what New York is missing?