“It felt pretty painful,” Rodriguez said. “Hopefully it’s just a day or two.”

X-rays were negative and the Yankees said Rodriguez was day to day.

The third baseman hurt himself fielding a grounder Sunday at Minnesota, his first game since July 7. The AL East-leading Yankees were off Monday.

Rodriguez, who hasn’t homered since June 11, said Tuesday his knee was feeling good and he was available to pinch-hit. He showed off his slightly swollen thumb while standing near the indoor batting cages at Yankee Stadium, saying it was difficult to grip a bat and that it hurt most when he tried putting on his glove.

Rodriguez went 0 for 5 on Sunday against the Twins, but Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he was impressed with A-Rod’s progress.

“The one thing about Sunday, he wasn’t fooled by one pitch,” Girardi said.

Girardi said he will check daily with Rodriguez to see how the knee is but he did not consult with him Tuesday when making out the initial lineup because the team was off Monday.

“It’ll be a day-by-day thing for a while,” Girardi said.

Pulling Rodriguez created a wholesale reorganizing of the Yankees’ lineup. Girardi inserted Eric Chavez at third base and had him bat seventh. And New York went with an order that was often used for much of the six weeks Rodriguez was out.

Brett Gardner moved from ninth to first, and everyone else at the top moved down one slot. Jeter went to second, Curtis Granderson to third and Mark Teixeira moved into A-Rod’s cleanup spot. Designated hitter Jorge Posada moved down to eighth and Russell Martin to ninth.

While he’s disappointed with the thumb injury, Rodriguez was happy with his health overall.

“The good news is the knee feels great, body feels good. Hopefully just a bump in the road,” Rodriguez said. “The big picture is the most important thing.”

Rodriguez was hitting .290 with 13 homers and 52 RBIs in 349 plate appearances this season.

Also, the slugger said he is scheduled to meet with Major League Baseball investigators Friday in Baltimore to discuss reports of his participation in illegal poker games.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez was scratched from the New York Yankees lineup Tuesday night because of a sprained left thumb, an injury he sustained during his first game back from knee surgery.

The three-time AL MVP originally was set to bat fourth in the opener of a three-game series against Oakland. But after cutting short an early batting practice session, he decided his thumb was too sore to play.

“It felt pretty painful,” Rodriguez said. “Hopefully it’s just a day or two.”

X-rays were negative and the Yankees said Rodriguez was day to day.

The third baseman hurt himself fielding a grounder Sunday at Minnesota, his first game since July 7. The AL East-leading Yankees were off Monday.

Rodriguez, who hasn’t homered since June 11, said Tuesday his knee was feeling good and he was available to pinch-hit. He showed off his slightly swollen thumb while standing near the indoor batting cages at Yankee Stadium, saying it was difficult to grip a bat and that it hurt most when he tried putting on his glove.

Rodriguez went 0 for 5 on Sunday against the Twins, but Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he was impressed with A-Rod’s progress.

“The one thing about Sunday, he wasn’t fooled by one pitch,” Girardi said.

Girardi said he will check daily with Rodriguez to see how the knee is but he did not consult with him Tuesday when making out the initial lineup because the team was off Monday.

“It’ll be a day-by-day thing for a while,” Girardi said.

Pulling Rodriguez created a wholesale reorganizing of the Yankees’ lineup. Girardi inserted Eric Chavez at third base and had him bat seventh. And New York went with an order that was often used for much of the six weeks Rodriguez was out.

Brett Gardner moved from ninth to first, and everyone else at the top moved down one slot. Jeter went to second, Curtis Granderson to third and Mark Teixeira moved into A-Rod’s cleanup spot. Designated hitter Jorge Posada moved down to eighth and Russell Martin to ninth.

While he’s disappointed with the thumb injury, Rodriguez was happy with his health overall.

“The good news is the knee feels great, body feels good. Hopefully just a bump in the road,” Rodriguez said. “The big picture is the most important thing.”

Rodriguez was hitting .290 with 13 homers and 52 RBIs in 349 plate appearances this season.

Also, the slugger said he is scheduled to meet with Major League Baseball investigators Friday in Baltimore to discuss reports of his participation in illegal poker games.

CBSSports.com wire reports
Aug. 19, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS — Joe Girardi has been searching for some answers for his jumbled starting rotation for weeks, hoping someone would emerge to back CC Sabathia.

With a month and a half to go before the postseason, the old Phil Hughes is showing signs of coming back, just in time.

Hughes allowed just two hits in 7 2/3 innings and Russell Martin hit two home runs to lead the New York Yankees to an 8-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.

“He’s pitched really well and it seems like he’s getting stronger, too, as we go,” Girardi said. “He got off to a slow start, and then he got hurt, and he’s rebounded pretty since coming off the DL.”

Hughes (4-4) gave up one run, walked three and struck out two in his longest outing of the season. Martin hit a solo homer in the third and a two-run shot in the sixth, his fourth career multihomer game.

Mark Teixeira added two hits and three RBIs for the first-place Yankees.

Hughes is 3-1 with a 1.75 ERA in his last four starts, and the 25-year-old appears to be finding his stride after a tough start to the season. He missed much of the first three months with right shoulder inflammation that sapped his velocity.

The fastball has shown more zip, but it’s his confidence with his changeup and curveball that is making the difference now.

“I can’t look back at the beginning of the year,” said Hughes, who won 18 games last year. “That’s over and done with. I have to make the most of what I have left.”

Kevin Slowey (0-1) gave up six runs on nine hits with four strikeouts for the Twins.

Trevor Plouffe hit a solo homer in the first inning, but Hughes put the Twins on ice the rest of the way.

The right-hander retired 14 straight hitters at one point and continued to mix all of his pitches effectively, something Girardi has been imploring him to do of late.

“If you have weapons, to me there’s no reason to keep them in your back pocket,” Girardi said before the game. “The best thing is to go out and use them.”

Girardi has mixed and match a slew of veterans behind Sabathia to get the Yankees to this point, including Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, A.J. Burnett and Ivan Nova.

Slowly but surely, Hughes has been improving each time out and making a push for postseason consideration.

“It’s not even my focus, playoffs or the next rotation around or who is going to be the guy left out,” Hughes said. “I’m happy with the way the last few starts have gone and that’s really all I think about.”

Hughes built on his confidence against one of the weakest lineups in baseball. After giving up the homer to Plouffe in the first inning, he only allowed one runner past first base, when he walked two in the seventh.

Luke Hughes had the only other hit of the game for the Twins, a single in the eighth.

Phil Hughes got plenty of help from his offense, which took a few innings to get revved up before hammering Slowey.

Martin tied it up in the third and Robinson Cano followed with an RBI double in the fourth to give the Yankees the lead.

Curtis Granderson’s double hopped over the first base bag in the fifth to score another run and Derek Jeter’s pretty slide at home beat Joe Mauer’s tag to make it 4-1.

Martin’s no-doubter in the sixth chased Slowey, who made his first full start of the season.

“I really tried to simplify my approach,” said Martin, who struggled with a back injury earlier in the season. “See the ball. Hit the ball. That’s really all I’ve been doing.”

After going 13-6 in 2010, the right-hander lost a competition for the final spot in the rotation out of spring training and then chafed at being placed in the bullpen. After six appearances, he went on the disabled list on May 25 with an abdominal injury and took two months to work his way back.

Slowey started the game on Sunday in Cleveland, but it was rained out after two innings.

“Not a good baseball game,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Pretty much dominated by Hughes. Two hits up on the board pretty much tells you what we did due to his performance.”

Notes

• The Twins honored closer Joe Nathan before the game for becoming the franchise’s career saves leader in their last home game on Aug. 10.
• The Twins announced that the game that was rained out on Sunday at Cleveland will be made up as a day-night doubleheader on Sept. 24.
• Teixeira’s three RBI gave him 1,000 for his career.
• New York LHP Pedro Feliciano, on the disabled list because of a tear in his left shoulder, could pitch for the first time since spring training next week in a Gulf Coast League game. The reliever threw 26 pitches in batting practice Friday at the Yankees’ minor league complex in Tampa.
• Yankees backup INF Ramiro Pena, who had an appendectomy on July 18, is fielding grounders and may start batting practice next week.
• Francisco Liriano (8-9, 5.12) will take the mound for the Twins on Saturday against A.J. Burnett (9-9, 4.61). Burnett snapped a seven-start winless skid in his last outing against the Royals, going 5 2/3 innings and allowing three runs. It was his first victory since June 29. Liriano has pitched past the sixth inning just once in his last six starts, going 2-2 with a 6.12 ERA in that span.
• The Yankees announced that RHP Ivan Nova will start the series finale on Sunday against Nick Blackburn.

By Ed Valentine

– Regional Editor

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Aug 8, 2011 – Jorge Posada’s days as a productive, regular contributor to the New York Yankees appear to be finished. The latest blow came Sunday when Posada, reduced already from catcher, to designated hitter, to part-time DH only against right-handed pitchers, did not start against Boston Red Sox right-hander Josh Beckett. Veteran infielder Eric Chavez was the DH.

Posada was told on Sunday by manager Joe Girardi that he is out of the lineup.

“He said he was going to put the best lineup on the field, and he doesn’t know when I’m going to DH again,” Posada said before the Yankees lost, 3-2, to the Red Sox in 10 innings. “So right now I’m sitting on the bench.”

Posada, 40, in a few days is likely to remain there. If he remains on the roster at all. The Yankees will soon have to find roster space for Alex Rodriguez, who is rehabbing from knee surgery and seems as if he is not more than a couple of weeks from a return. There is also increasing speculation that the Yankees could bring highly-touted Jesus Montero to the big leagues — perhaps as soon as this week — to serve as the regular designated hitter for the rest of the season.

Posada is hitting just .230 with nine home runs and 31 RBI. He is no longer a catcher, and appears to be a designated hitter who can no longer hit. He certainly can’t run — he has never been able to do that. The hard part is telling a proud 17-year veteran, five-time All-Star and key member of so many championship teams that he can no longer get the job done.

Watching the painful way in which the Yankees have taken away Posada’s position, then his at-bats, bit-by-bit makes it obvious this has not been easy for them.

Veteran columnist Bill Madden of the Daily news wrote this about the Posada situation:

It is never easy or pretty when a once-productive player is told by management that his services are no longer required, but in Posada’s case this has been an almost torturous process in which the Yankees, with Girardi mostly serving as the messenger, have been saying goodbye to him in stages. The first stage was last winter when GM Brian Cashman told him to forget about catching anymore and concentrate on being a full-time designated hitter. If that was a bit of a haymaker for Posada, the second stage was much more subtle when in mid-May the veteran was still hitless against lefties, and Girardi began phasing in more and more at-bats for Andruw Jones as the DH against southpaws. …

With less than eight weeks left in the season, it’s unclear whether Posada will be given a chance to regain his spot as the DH, although .Girardi didn’t rule it out completely. Posada, who turns 40 on Aug. 17, is in the final year of a four-year contract, likely playing out the final two months of his 15-year Yankee career.

“It’s tough; Jorge and I, our relationship goes back a long, long ways, 1996, and he’s done so many great things in this game and great things for the Yankees and been a part of so many championships and division winners,” Girardi said.

Time, though, catches up to all athletes — usually long before they are willing to admit it has done so. Obviously, it has caught up to Posada.

If the Yankees chose to cut ties with him soon, it will be a sad ending to a brilliant career. If they carry him as mostly a spectator the rest of the way that really won’t be pretty, either.

No matter how it officially ends, Posada’s run as a truly important Yankee ended on Sunday. Whenever it ends officially I hope Yankees fans will remember to celebrate the many great things Posada has done, not kick him in the backside on his way out the door. He doesn’t deserve that.

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CHICAGO (AP) — Ivan Nova did his part. Now the onus is on New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi.

Nova struck out a career-high 10 and the Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox 7-2 on Thursday night, completing a four-game sweep and winning their seventh in a row overall.

“That might be as good as we’ve seen him all year,” Girardi said. “This start and Cincinnati. He was excellent tonight. His slider, again, made a huge difference for him.”

The Yankees moved into a tie with Boston for the AL East lead. The teams begin a three-game series at Fenway Park on Friday night.

Nova (10-4) pitched 7 2-3 innings and won his sixth consecutive decision. He held Chicago to one run and six hits and didn’t walk a batter. His approach was simple.

“Be aggressive, try to get ahead of the hitter,” Nova said. “Slider today was unbelievable. Command was there. Everything was working good.”

The Yankees are using a six-man starting staff on their current turn through the rotation and it’s been assumed that the rookie Nova would be the odd man out, especially after Phil Hughes threw six shutout innings on Tuesday.

“I don’t know,” Girardi said. “We’ll continue to talk about it. We’ve got a good problem. We’ve got a lot of people throwing the ball well and I’d like to keep it that way.”

Girardi already announced that Hughes would start for New York on Tuesday against the Angels. In light of Nova’s performance, he’s not sure what’s next.

“I don’t have an answer for that yet,” Girardi said. “We don’t have to rush and make a decision what we’re going to do. Eventually we’ll have to.”

Nova has a 2.92 ERA over his last eight starts. He’s already been sent to Triple-A once this season despite his lofty totals. He insists he’ll be ready no matter where his next start comes.

“Again in five days,” Nova said. “Have a game in five days, no matter if it’s here or anywhere else.

“I’m happy right now because I won today. I’m not frustrated. I’ll keep waiting and hopefully I’ll stay here.”

Russell Martin hit a three-run homer in the ninth to break open the game and send Chicago to its sixth straight loss. He drove in four runs.

Robinson Cano homered, singled, walked and scored a pair of runs as the Yankees won their sixth straight over Chicago, a streak during which they’ve outscored the White Sox 49-14.

“That was a good pitch, that guy’s out of this world, especially right now,” said White Sox starter Phil Humber. “He’s so locked in, so balanced, the swings he took this series, pretty impressive.

“That pitch right there was on the corner, maybe an inch or two above the knees and just to flick it out of the park like that is pretty impressive. Their whole lineup right now is hot, it’s definitely a tough one to go through.”

The White Sox have lost six straight games after getting to the .500 mark and drawing within three games of the lead in the AL Central last Friday.

Chicago absorbed its first four-game sweep at home since dropping four in a row to Boston from Aug 23-26, 2007. The last time the White Sox were swept at home in a four-game set against New York was June 17-20, 1976.

“We just run into a pretty hot ballclub and we not playing well against them,” said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.

Paul Konerko had two singles for a quiet White Sox offense in his first start since Sunday. He missed the three previous games with bruised left leg.

“Hitting-wise I felt not bad,” Konerko said. “I felt maybe 80 or 90 percent. Definitely, for the most part, could do what I wanted to do.”

Adam Dunn homered in the ninth, a possible good sign for the struggling slugger, though it came with his club six runs down.

“Yeah, I mean they feel good, it’s just meaningless,” Dunn said. “Personally it felt good, but it meant nothing, had no impact on the game.”

Humber (8-8) lost his fourth straight start. He went 6 1-3 innings, allowing five hits and four runs.

Entering the game, the players currently on the Yankees’ were a combined 0 for 18 lifetime against Humber. He retired the first four batters on Thursday before Cano came up in the second.

With one out in the inning, Cano lined the first pitch he saw from Humber into the left-field bullpen for the first run of the game. It was Cano’s 18th homer of the season and second in as many games after he’d gone 14 games without a longball.

Nova had good stuff early, retiring the first seven White Sox in order, the last three on strikeouts.

The streak was broken when Alejandro De Aza beat out an infield grounder to shortstop Derek Jeter. That gave De Aza, who was 4 for 4 in Wednesday’s 18-7 loss to New York, five straight hits.

De Aza then stole second, went to third on Brent Morel’s single to right and scored on Juan Pierre’s sacrifice fly for a 1-all tie.

The Yankees regained the lead in the sixth thanks to the speed of Brett Gardner, who started the inning with a double to right and went to third on Jeter’s sacrifice bunt.

Curtis Granderson hit a hard grounder to Dunn at first base and Gardner broke for the plate. Dunn stepped on the bag to retire Granderson and threw home, but Gardner slid home safely just ahead of the tag by catcher A.J. Pierzynski.

“I thought after Robbie’s home run, we manufactured runs well,” Girardi said. “Gardy starts with a double, Chief moves him over. Great baserunning by Gardy, the speed to score. I thought we manufactured well tonight.”

Humber seemed to tire in the Yankees’ two-run seventh. Cano led off with a single, Nick Swisher walked and Jorge Posada hit an RBI single for a 3-1 lead.

That was it for Humber, who was replaced by Jesse Crain after throwing 94 pitches. Swisher scored on Martin’s sacrifice fly to deep center.

Next up is the Yankees’ biggest rival, Boston, in a park New York has struggled in this season. Girardi says it’s gratifying to enter the series in a dead heat.

“I think it says that we’ve been playing well,” Girardi said. “We’ve been chasing them for awhile now. It just says a lot about this club and what we’ve been through. We’ve overcome some things. It is significant.”

NOTES: Konerko had been out since being hit in the left knee by a pitch against Boston last Sunday. Manager Ozzie Guillen said Konerko would be limited to designated hitter duty for a few days. Bartolo Colon will start for the Yankees in the series opener against Jon Lester. New York is 454-458 all-time at Fenway. However, the Yankees are 1-8 vs. Boston this season and have lost seven straight at Fenway. Colon has lost both of his starts against the Red Sox this season, once each at Boston and New York. Mark Buehrle gets the call for the White Sox in their opener at Minnesota in a key series for two teams scrambling to stay in the AL Central race. The Twins have beaten the White Sox in seven of eight meetings this season and have won 29 of their last 36 against Chicago. Buehrle has posted a 2.03 ERA over his last eight starts but is just 2-1 over that stretch. He’s allowed three runs or less in 16 straight starts. … White Sox speedster Juan Pierre was thrown out stealing in the sixth. He’s just 16 for 29 on the basepaths this season.

CBSSports.com wire reports
July 17, 2011

TORONTO — An 18-game winner and an All-Star in 2010, Phil Hughes had to wait until July for his first victory of 2011.

Hughes pitched six effective innings and the New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-2 on Sunday.

“It’s not 18 but it’s a start,” Hughes said. “It’s a good feeling.”

Brett Gardner had three hits and Curtis Granderson finished with three RBI as the Yankees salvaged a split in the four-game series after being outscored 23-8 over the first two games.

“It’s really important, especially in our race and with what we’re trying to do, to be able to come back and tie this series,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “Four-game series are tough and the way we got started off, it wasn’t pretty.”

Making just his fifth start of the season and his second since missing 84 games with a sore right shoulder, Hughes (1-2) gave up two runs and four hits to win for the first time since Oct. 2, 2010, at Boston.

“I thought he took a big step today and that’s what we wanted to see from him,” Girardi said.

Armed with a new-look curveball, slightly faster than his old one, Hughes struck out five and walked two. He threw 80 pitches, 51 for strikes, and lowered his ERA to 8.44.

Hughes learned quickly how well his retooled curve was working when he used it to catch Eric Thames looking for the second out of the game.

“I knew right out of the chute it was going to be a good pitch for me,” Hughes said. “I struggled a little bit locating it, got a little lazy with it in the middle innings but overall I felt like there was some improvement there.”

Most important, though, were the strikeouts and swings and misses at his fastball.

“It was jumping out of his hand today,” catcher Russell Martin said. “From what I’ve seen in the past, that’s what he’s usually doing. Just knowing that he can throw it by guys has to feel good for him.”

Before the game, Girardi said having a healthy Hughes on his staff was akin to a midseason acquisition.

“You’re adding a quality starter to your rotation if you can get him back,” Girardi said. “It’s almost like making a trade.”

Hughes, however, saw things a little differently.

“I was here April 1 so if anything I look at it as trying to make up for some lost time,” he said. “I should have been here and winning games for us and I wasn’t.”

Gardner posted his second straight three-hit game, going 3 for 4 with a walk, two stolen bases and three runs scored. The speedy outfielder now has stolen 12 straight bases without being caught, and is hitting .625 [10 for 16] since the All-Star break.

Cory Wade pitched the seventh, David Robertson worked the eighth and Boone Logan finished for the Yankees.

The Yankees scored four times in the fourth to open a 5-1 lead. Nick Swisher hit a leadoff single and came around on a one-out double by Martin. Eduardo Nunez singled Martin to third and Ramiro Pena hit a sacrifice fly to center. Gardner grounded a single to right before Granderson capped the rally with a two-run double.

Carlos Villanueva (5-2) lost for just the second time in 10 starts since joining the rotation in late May, giving up five runs and eight hits in six innings.

The Yankees added a run in the seventh against Luis Perez when Granderson scored on Robinson Cano’s sacrifice fly.

Toronto’s Jose Bautista missed his third straight game with a sore right ankle. Bautista, who leads the majors with 31 home runs, hit off a tee before the game and could return Tuesday against Seattle. The Blue Jays are off Monday.

“His absence in the lineup is a hole to fill,” Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. “He’s our leader, he’s our most productive offensive player. That’s not to slight anyone who’s in the lineup right now, but that’s a substantial loss when he’s not in there day in and day out.”

Gardner scored New York’s first and last runs of the day. He singled, swiped second and scored on Swisher’s base hit in the first. He pulled off a similar trick in the ninth, reaching on a walk before stealing second and scoring on Granderson’s single.

The Blue Jays tied it at 1 when Edwin Encarnacion hit a leadoff double and scored on Travis Snider’s single to left in the second.

Notes

• The Yankees are a major league-best 28-5 in day games.
• With New York in the midst of eight consecutive games on turf, SS Derek Jeter got the day off and Mark Teixeira moved from 1B to DH. Jorge Posada started at 1B, Nunez was at SS and Pena started at 3B.
• Posada played in his 1,790th game, moving past Bill Dickey into sole possession of eighth place on the Yankees’ career list.
• Reliever Jason Frasor made his 453rd appearance with the Blue Jays, moving him past Duane Ward into first place on Toronto’s list.
• New York recalled OF Chris Dickerson from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and optioned OF Greg Golson to Triple-A.