WATCH: Aaron Boone helps Jon Berti walk off the field after sustaining injury
The New York Yankees utility player Jon Berti had to leave the game against the San Diego Padres on Friday with the help of manager Aaron Boone. He left the game at Petco Park with an apparent left leg injury suffered in the ninth inning.
After hitting a groundball to second base, Jon Berti collapsed while running out of the batter’s box. He was visibly in pain and unable to put any weight on his left leg, as can be seen in this video shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Talkin Yanks:
Berti can be seen surrounded by the New York Yankees staff including manager Aaron Boone, who helps him walk off the field. Discussing his injury in a post-game YES Network interview, Boone said:
“Yeah looks like a calf injury. Just grab on them out of the box, so see what we have. Yeah I’m sure we’ll get imaging and all that. But obviously the way he walked off looked like he got it pretty good,” Boone said.
Before Jon Berti left, the New York Yankees were performing exceptionally well both defensively and offensively eventually leading to their victory. They recorded a stellar 8-0 win against the San Diego Padres in the opener of their three-game series.
Aaron Boone commends Yankees' impressive offensive play in the third inning
The New York Yankees started their lead in the first inning on Aaron Judge’s sacrifice fly. In the third inning, their bats hit three home runs scoring five more runs.
Juan Soto hit a two-run homer, his 14th of the season, followed by Aaron Judge hitting a solo home run, his 16th of the season. Giancarlo Stanton’s 417-foot homer brought in another two runs for the franchise.
Discussing their offense’s performance in the third inning, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said (via AP news):
“It was pretty awesome, actually. You get those moments every now and then in the regular season that are, ‘Man, that was pretty cool.’ When Juan kind of took the air out of it right there and Judgey follows it right up, and then here we go Verdugo and then here we go Stanton, one of those cool ones during the season that you get to be a part of,” Boone said.
The Yankees bats have been red-hot this season. They lead the American League with 660 runs, 79 home runs, and a .440 slugging percentage and are second to the Houston Astros in total hits (455) and batting average (.257).
Aaron Boone and the New York Yankees (36-17) will face the San Diego Padres (27-27) on Saturday for Game 2 of their three-game series.