Aaron Judge made his long-awaited return to the New York Yankees' lineup on Tuesday night against the Colorado Rockies, but the outing fell flat as he went hitless in his first game back since suffering a rib stress fracture on 31 May. The Yankees captain's comeback had been highly anticipated by fans hoping his bat would help revive a struggling offence during a tight American League East race with the Tampa Bay Rays, but manager Aaron Boone pulled him after just six defensive innings following an unremarkable performance at the plate.

Batting third and playing right field, Judge went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a flyout across his first three plate appearances. Ironically, the decisive blow came from his replacement, Heliot Ramos, who hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning to secure a 5-3 win for New York. Judge had missed 84 games during his recovery, a stretch in which the Yankees batted just .227 as a team, and the club treated his return as a controlled reintroduction to game action ahead of the postseason push.