Around the Empire: Yankees news - 5/27/18

MLB.com | Mandy Bell: Another day, another historic dinger from the New York Yankees. Yesterday’s juicy history dong came courtesy of Aaron Judge, who decided to show up Brett Gardner after he led off the inning with one. Rude. Judge’s 14th home run of the year is also the 70th of his career, making him the quickest player to ever reach 70 home runs. Ryan Howard held the previous record. Let’s just focus on this and forgot everything that happened afterwards.

New York Times | David Waldstein: Remember last year when pitchers insisted that something was different about the baseballs? Turns out they were right. Kinda. I mean, yes something about the balls is making them cruise out of the ballparks easier. MLB decided to hire scientists to figure out what was causing that and well, the scientists had no answer really. Perhaps it’s time to turn to the arcane to figure out what the issue is. Paging Dr. Strange.

Newsday | Anthony Rieber: As esteemed blog leader Tyler Norton wrote about yesterday, Ronald Torreyes was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Man fans did not expect this to be the corresponding move for Greg Bird activation. The clubhouse was shocked and saddened by Toe’s demotion. If you’re curious why he was sent down instead of a reliever, look no further than last night’s Sonny Gray start. Or any starter not named Luis Severino lately. Torreyes will most likely be back.

New York Post | Dan Martin: As inconceivable as it seems, Gleyber Torres did not hit a home run in yesterday’s game. It’s still hard not to be impressed by the power he’s shown thus far. Brian Cashman is both shocked and excited. It’s hard not to be. Gleyber, it turns out, is good.

Oh, and here’s an update on Jacoby Ellsbury