HOUSTON — Alex Rodriguez’s season likely is over.
The third baseman said he didn’t expect to play in either of the final two games of the year because of nagging leg injuries.
“I don’t think I’m playing this weekend,” Rodriguez said after sitting out his second straight game, a 3-2 win over the Astros at Minute Maid Park. “My calf is pretty sore still.”
He also has been bothered by a left hamstring issue, as well as a sore right calf.
When asked what he thought of his season as a whole, Rodriguez backtracked somewhat.
“Let’s see,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t say 100 percent [that it was over].”
Before the game, manager Joe Girardi said he wasn’t sure if he would have Rodriguez in the last games of the season.
“I’ll talk to him and see how he’s feeling,” Girardi said. “I don’t know.”
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Girardi said Mariano Rivera told him he was unavailable Friday night and the possibility of the closer appearing in center field was still on the table.
“I’ll talk to him every day about what he wants to do,” the manager said. “I know he talked about playing some center field, but I know he has some concern about his legs, running out there. It’s up to him. … At this point I’m not going to question him. ”
Girardi is aware of the sentiment that Thursday night’s Bronx send-off was the ideal way for Rivera to end his career, and he’s unsure of how he would have handled Thursday if it had been a save situation instead of a Yankees loss.
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Girardi said he was “leaning toward” starting David Huff in Sunday’s season finale.
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It was only J.R. Murphy’s 14th game in the majors when he caught Rivera’s last pitch at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s a good trivia question,” Murphy said. “Who was the batterymate?”
As Rivera embraced his longtime teammates Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter, Murphy stood in front of the mound.
“We didn’t know [Derek] Jeter and Andy [Pettitte] were coming out,” Murphy said. “Everyone in the infield let that be their moment. It was pretty fun for me to be out there. I was soaking it all in. I couldn’t hear myself think, it was so loud.”
Murphy finished the game with Matt Daley on the mound.
“I told him, ‘Let’s wait a second and let it soak in,’ ” Murphy said. “It was cool for us to be out there. Luckily, we only had one out to get.”
For Murphy, it was a surreal moment.
“As long as I’ve been alive, Mo has been the closer,” Murphy said. “That’s true.”
Not quite, since Murphy was born in 1991, six years before Rivera took over the role.