YANKEE NOTES
Randy Johnson landing in Boston could alter the landscape, but the AL East is there for the Yankees to win for the seventh straight season based on the math.
With a major league leading 55-31 ledger entering tonight’s action in Detroit, the Yankees are seven lengths ahead of the second-place Red Sox. That means if the Yankees split the remaining 76 games (38-38) and finish with 93 wins, the 48-38 Red Sox would have to post a 45-31 ledger in their final 76 games to tie.
That would be a .592 clip for a team that played .558 ball before the All-Star break and is based on the Yankees – who played .640 ball before the break – going .500. And what if the Big Unit joins the Yankees before the July 31 trading deadline?
Keep in mind the schedule favors the Yankees. While the Bombers have only three games (vs. Seattle) on the West Coast, the Red Sox have 13. The Bosox open a six-game West Coast sojourn tonight in Anaheim (four games) and move to Seattle for two. Then on Sept. 6, the Red Sox open a three-game series in Oakland before moving to Seattle for four.
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Kevin Brown takes the first step toward coming off the DL tonight when he is slated to throw three innings for Trenton (Double-A) against Portland. It will be Brown’s first game action since June 9 due to a strained lower back problem that was followed by an intestinal parasite that robbed him of strength and 15 pounds.
“It’s a minimum of one,” GM Brian Cashman said when asked how many minor league starts the 39-year-old Brown would require. “If he needs another, we will look at it.”
If Brown, who is 7-1, doesn’t need another rehab outing, he could rejoin the Yankees and start Tuesday against the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg. That would put him on schedule to face the Red Sox at Fenway July 25.
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Having seen the MRI that showed no structural damage to Mike Mussina‘s right elbow, Cashman isn’t concerned about the veteran right-hander who was scratched from a start last Sunday.
“He is expected to take the ball,” Cashman said of Mussina, who hasn’t pitched since July 6 when he worked on three days’ rest and gave up seven runs and nine hits in six innings to the Tigers in a 9-1 loss. “I don’t think Joe [Torre] has decided when or if he is going to go with four or five [starters] at the start of the second half.”
Mussina was diagnosed with mild inflammation in the elbow and said it could have been from swinging a bat July 2 against the Mets.
Is Cashman concerned?
“No because I have seen the test results,” he said.
Torre is using Jose Contreras tonight against the Tigers in Detroit and Javier Vazquez tomorrow night. Who starts Saturday and Sunday will likely be decided today. Torre could use Jon Lieber and Orlando Hernandez and save Mussina until Monday against the Devil Rays.
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Jason Giambi‘s line drive single off Randy Johnson in the All-Star Game could be an indication the first baseman is ready to have a sizzling second half after a pedestrian first half that was interrupted by a sprained ankle and intestinal parasite.
However, Cashman didn’t need to see Giambi’s hit against Johnson to have confidence Giambi will bounce back.
“The numbers are always there at the end of the year,” Cashman said of Giambi, who has batted .241 with 11 homers and 35 RBIs in 64 games.