The blueprint for an Aaron Judge-less victory over a quality opponent was offered with brevity and bravura by the Yankees on Tuesday. 

Carlos Rodón pitched brilliantly, a supplementary star in Cody Bellinger stepped forward on both sides of the ball and the Yankees played pristinely on defense. The result was that in just 2 hours, 2 minutes the Yankees defeated the Rays 2-0 in the opener of a day-night doubleheader in The Bronx. 

Prior to this game, Aaron Boone conceded that he was “not expecting” Judge to be healed enough from his calf strain to be active for the wild-card series, which begins Tuesday night. The Yankees manager continued to refuse to give a grade of 1, 2 or 3 to the strain and, instead, called it “moderate.” Which is a little bit like describing yourself that way politically — as moderate — which is often designed to not tell anyone what you actually believe. 

I will liberally state that it would be shocking at this point if Judge is active for that best-of-three series and conservatively suggest the Yankees would sign up for his availability later in the postseason if they advance that far. In the present, they are back to doing what they have had to do for more than half the season now — trying to find ways to win without Judge, who was out from June 1-Sept. 7 after incurring a fractured rib.