ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Having known what Curtis Granderson went through to return from a fractured right forearm, Mark Teixeira was visibly upset Friday night when Granderson suffered a fractured left pinkie.
“It’s cruel, I had tears in my eyes saying good-bye to Curtis,’’ Teixeira said Saturday after participating in an extended spring training game against the Pirates at the Yankees’ minor league complex yesterday morning, along with Kevin Youkilis. “You can’t say anything, it’s so tough.’’
Teixeira is nearing the end of a long road back from a right wrist tendon injury, suffered in early March taking swings while preparing for the World Baseball Classic. He understands what Granderson, who suffered the first fracture in his initial spring training at-bat, has endured — and what lies ahead.
The Yankees, who scored a 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Rays in 11 innings Saturday, haven’t announced how long Granderson — who returned May 14 and played eight games — will be out, but a short-end guess is four weeks. He will be examined by team doctors tomorrow.
Last year, Alex Rodriguez suffered a similar injury in the same area and missed 36 games.
“When you’ve played as long as Curtis has, and you have to take two months off, and then the excitement of getting back, on a first-place team, playing in front of the big crowds again, to have it taken away after eight games is, like I said, it’s cruel,’’ said Teixeira, who played five innings at first base yesterday, going 1-for-5 with a double and sacrifice fly.
If everything goes well, Teixeira could be with the Yankees on Friday night at Yankee Stadium for the opener of their three-game series against the Red Sox. He said there is a chance he won’t be activated because the Yankees might want him to take a day off after two games with Double-A Trenton.
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Of course, Teixeira knows there are no guarantees, even after traveling the long path back from an injury.
“There are certain things you can control in baseball, there’s certain things you can’t,” Teixeira said. “Half the injuries out there you can’t control. You slide funny, you run into a wall, you get hit by a pitch, those things, you hit the base wrong, you can’t really control those things.
“So we try to take care of our bodies as well as we can and every now and then you’re going to have freak injuries. Curtis unfortunately has had two [in] the first three months of the season.”
Teixeira and Youkilis — who played three innings yesterday — batted every inning they were in the game. Since the Pirates’ pitchers were left-handed pitchers, the switch-hitting Teixeira only batted right-handed.
“Feels better just getting into a game,” said Teixeira, who had been playing in simulated games until yesterday, “because you have more of a rhythm even though hitting every inning isn’t normal, it’s still more of a rhythm than what I have been doing, so it feels good.’’
While Teixeira got something out of the 10 a.m. start for a game played at a vacant complex, he is itching to come off the DL.
“It’s nice,” he said. “Obviously playing in front of 50,000 at Yankee Stadium is a little more exciting, but this is a step. You have to take these steps to get back from an injury.
“It’s fun. Once you’ve been playing in front of the big crowds in the big stadiums, it’s tough to do anything else.”
Though Teixeira is eligible to be activated Thursday, he is slated to play a second game for Trenton that night. And he isn’t sure the Yankees will take him off the DL the next night.
“I’m not sure I’d be activated,” he said. “They might say we want you to take a day off.’’
“I’ve been wanting to play for a while. I haven’t had any apprehensions about playing for quite some time.”