NEW YORK — The New York Yankees never publicly established a target date for Aaron Judge‘s return to right field after he sustained a right flexor strain in late July. For weeks, manager Aaron Boone said he expected Judge to patrol grass again soon — and definitely again in 2025 — but never offered specifics.

Soon ended up being Friday.

Judge started in right field in the Yankees’ 7-1 series-opening loss to the first-place Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Friday, marking the first time he patrolled grass since July 25. He played all nine innings and did not appear to aggravate his elbow injury. But questions surrounding his ability to throw immediately surfaced as the Blue Jays extended their lead over New York in the American League East standings to four games.

With Cam Schlittler on the mound and the bases loaded with two outs, Nathan Lukes looped a single to right field that one-hopped to Judge in the first inning.

While one run easily scored from third base, Daulton Varsho, the runner at second, had not yet reached third base when Judge fielded the ball. But instead of firing the ball home, Judge made a short throw to second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. at the edge of the outfield grass in front of him. Varsho crossed home plate without a throw, giving Toronto a 3-0 lead en route to its eighth win in 11 games against the Yankees this season.

Asked if he is capable of making that throw — from the middle of right field to home plate — at this juncture, Judge insisted it’s not an issue.

“I wouldn’t be in the outfield if I wasn’t able to make that throw,” Judge said.

Boone said Judge was “in position to make the throw.” When asked why Judge didn’t, Boone did not offer an explanation.

“We’re handling it how we handle it, OK?” Boone said.

Judge was placed on the injured list on July 27 after the flexor strain left him unable to throw a baseball. He was activated after the minimum 10 days to serve as the Yankees’ every-day designated hitter and started a throwing program soon thereafter. He batted .242 with six home runs and an 0.888 OPS in the 27 games at DH after being reinstated and remains the favorite to win his third AL MVP in four seasons with Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh challenging him for the crown.

He went 1-for-3 with a walk on Friday as Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman stifled the Yankees offense over eight scoreless innings. Boone said he initially did not plan on having Judge play the outfield again on Saturday, but a decision would be made after speaking with Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, who had largely replaced Judge in the outfield before returning to his usual designated hitter role on Friday.

“Everything was feeling pretty good,” Judge said. “If you can throw, you gotta get out there.”

In the longer term, Boone said the 33-year-old Judge won’t play right field every day “initially.” Instead, he envisions Judge splitting time between right field and designated hitter, meaning Stanton will continue getting starts on defense to have both his and Judge’s bats in the lineup.

The decision comes with risks ranging from opponents testing Judge’s arm, potentially capitalizing on any reluctance to fire away, to Judge exacerbating the injury and jeopardizing his availability for the remainder of the season with the postseason a month away.

“He’s playing,” Boone said. “He’s in there. He’s in there so he’s good enough to be in there and hopefully it will continue to improve.”

The Yankees are willing to take the gamble because while Stanton remains an elite power hitter, he cannot play the outfield every day and is a defensive liability when he’s out there at this point in his career. Once a plus outfielder, nagging injuries in recent years have forced Stanton to miss substantial time and sapped his athleticism. The combination prompted the Yankees to build their roster with Stanton as their every-day DH the past two seasons.

Stanton, 35, returned to the outfield on Aug. 9, nearly two years after last playing defense. He started 12 games in right field before making three consecutive starts in left field against the Houston Astros this week.

The former National League MVP homered on Friday for the Yankees’ only run and is batting .287 with 19 home runs and an 0.987 OPS in 59 games after spending more than two months on the injured list with tendon injuries in both of his elbows to begin the season.

“There were days where we pushed it a little bit,” Boone said. “There were other days [where we were] going to be disciplined [in] having a day down. So, and I think all and all, it’s gone pretty well. Obviously, he’s performed. I think he’s done a nice job out there and now it gives us that added flexibility now that he’s in the mix out there moving forward.”

RICHLAND, Wash. — Los Angeles Angels minor leaguer Rio Foster was in critical condition after a car accident early Friday morning.

The Angels said Foster was involved in a car accident and that the outfielder is “receiving medical care at a local hospital and remains in critical condition.”

Foster plays for the High-A Tri-City Dust Devils in Pasco. Tri-City canceled its game against Hillsboro on Friday night.

“The thoughts and prayers of the entire Dust Devils organization are with Rio Foster who was a passenger in a car accident early this morning and sustained serious injuries,” the Dust Devils posted on social media.

Foster, 22, was a 16th-round pick in the 2023 draft out of Florence-Darlington Technical College in South Carolina. He’s batting .267 with 10 homers and 40 RBIs this season and was the Northwest League player of the month for August.

“We’re praying for the best — that’s all we can do,” Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said before Friday night’s game against the Athletics. “Unfortunately, I’m working on limited [information] … what I do know is it’s obviously way more important than anything we’re doing here today.

“I’m just thinking about him and his family. He’s a great kid. We had him in spring training. He was a little bit of a later round draft pick, and he’s done some good things. We saw him in spring training, and he was named [Northwest League] player of the month recently, so his career is in a good spot.”

BALTIMORE — Shohei Ohtani tossed 3⅔ shutout innings Friday night in a surprise start for the Los Angeles Dodgers against Baltimore after teammate Tyler Glasnow was scratched due to back stiffness.

Ohtani threw 70 pitches, 44 for strikes, and reached 101.5 mph with his four-seam fastball against Orioles third baseman Emmanuel Rivera. The 31-year-old right-hander allowed three hits and a walk while striking out five, but the slumping Dodgers lost 2-1 in the opener of a three-game series.

Los Angeles dropped its fourth straight but remained two games up in the NL West over skidding San Diego.

Left-hander Anthony Banda replaced Ohtani in the fourth with Ryan Mountcastle at third base. Banda walked Dylan Beavers but then retired Samuel Basallo on a grounder to end the inning.

Dodgers teammate Freddie Freeman appreciated Ohtani’s effort on short notice.

“You could see he’s exhausted after an inning or two,” Freeman said. “It’s muggy. He’s still not healthy. He’s still sick. He gave it his all. It’s amazing what he’s doing. He’s throwing 100, 101 mph. We will be saying this every year about Shohei Ohtani until he retires. He’s a unicorn. He pitched great. Everything he had in that fourth inning to get out of it.”

Ohtani was scratched from his previous turn Wednesday due to a cough, and manager Dave Roberts projected the five-time All-Star would pitch fewer than five innings Friday.

“I was able to get my high-intensity catch play in yesterday so I felt pretty good chiming in today,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “I was contacted around 2 o’clock and was told if I could potentially start today.

“I actually felt really good coming into the game today. Probably the worst I felt was game one and game two in Pittsburgh. I started to feel a lot better my last day in Pittsburgh.”

The two-way superstar threw five innings of two-hit ball his last time out on Aug. 27, allowing one run with nine strikeouts for his first win of the season in a 5-1 decision over the Cincinnati Reds.

Roberts saw Ohtani’s pitch count rising in the fourth and decided to go get him.

“I just felt that the pitch count was high,” Roberts said. “Initially, I was thinking four [innings] and 60 [pitches] for him. He was north of that. Even leading up to the fourth inning there was a lot of stress and a lot of high-velocity pitches. For me, I’m not going to risk him just to get another hitter where we have a guy that’s fresh that I felt needs to be able to get those lefties out. If it was a normal situation where it wasn’t short notice, then I would’ve let him get that hitter. We will have time to push him [later this season].”

Glasnow felt discomfort late Thursday night when the team plane landed. The back issue cropped up when he arrived at the ballpark and the right-hander is day-to-day, Roberts said.

“I think it’s just more of trusting the player and also knowing that he wants to be out there and feeling like we got ahead of it early,” Roberts said. “It’s not something that we got to a point where he’s hurt. It’s back stiffness. We feel like to not take this start will allow him to be able to start hopefully early next week.”

Ohtani batted leadoff Friday as the designated hitter again, and Roberts said the three-time MVP wanted to be a critical piece to ending the club’s slide.

“Shohei, to his credit, wants to pick us up,” Roberts said. “I really admire him for that.”

All-Star catcher Will Smith still has some swelling in his right hand and did not play. Roberts believes Smith will have to play through the bone bruise for the rest of the season.