George Lombard Jr. expected to return to Yankees’ lineup on Friday

ANAHEIM, Calif. — George Lombard Jr. is nearly out of the woods.

The rookie shortstop missed a fourth straight game Wednesday with right knee inflammation, but the Yankees expect he will return to the lineup Friday when they open a series against the Padres at Petco Park.

“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse … but it is trending and looking like that is going to be the case,” manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday before the Yankees won the series finale at Angel Stadium.

For the third straight day, Lombard was out running in the outfield before Wednesday’s game, going through agility drills and then taking ground balls. He was expected to be an active player off the bench, which had not been the case the first few days after he tweaked his knee at the plate in Saturday’s win over the Red Sox.

“It’s been progressing every day,” Lombard said. “There was just a little bit of inflammation in there, so it was just random moves [where I could feel it].”

José Caballero started a fourth straight game in Lombard’s place.

Aaron Judge ran the bases Wednesday for the first time in his ramp-up toward a potential return by next week, going from home to first, first to third and home to second.

That came after his regular pregame work of throwing and taking defensive reps in right field.

Aaron Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake were ejected in the bottom of the 10th inning by first base umpire Junior Valentine after arguing that Vaughn Grissom went around on a check swing that should have been strike three for the first out of the frame.

“Well, if you want to call that a check swing,” Boone quipped.

The surging Spencer Jones started in center field against lefty Reid Detmers on Wednesday, with Heliot Ramos in right field and Trent Grisham on the bench.

“I think Spencer’s earned the right to be in there too, so it made the most sense to me today to go this —way,” Boone said before the rookie had a rare off night, going 0-for-4 in the Yankees’ win over the Angels on Wednesday night.

Jones had been on a tear of late, with Grisham struggling, but the lefty slugger has also handled himself well against lefties.

Jones entered Wednesday batting .400 with a 1.161 OPS in 40 plate appearances against southpaws.

“I think with lefties, you got to keep a simple approach, and I’m not really trying to do too much against those guys,” Jones said. “It’s also one of those things where I just treat them like every other pitcher and just try to get a good pitch to hit.”

Asked if he expects Jones to be in center more often than not against lefties moving forward, Boone said “not necessarily.”

“I’m taking it day by day, series by series and who’s on the mound,” Boone said. “Could be, but not necessarily.”

Clarke Schmidt made his second rehab appearance Wednesday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, four days after his first, as he tries to finish off his comeback from Tommy John surgery to help the Yankees bullpen down the stretch.

Schmidt threw 23 pitches across two innings, striking out three while giving up a run on three hits.