If Francisco Cervelli is suspended because of his alleged Biogenesis connection and use of performance-enhancing drugs, that could leave Chris Stewart and Austin Romine to handle the catching duties for the rest of the season.
“It doesn’t matter,” Stewart said yesterday of his thoughts on the Cervelli situation. “My goal coming into the season was to catch every single game.”
Cervelli, who posted an impressive .877 OPS in 17 games before fracturing his right hand, is on the 60-day disabled list and has missed the last 37 games. The Yankees figured he could return after the All-Star break, but a possible suspension could change that.
Stewart already has started 30 games and caught 256 innings this season and is on pace to break both of his career highs. He caught 51 games and 460 1/3 innings with the Giants in 2011.
Stewart, 31, left Saturday’s game with light-headedness and didn’t play on Sunday or Monday, undergoing tests. But he returned to catch on Tuesday and caught again yesterday afternoon, feeling fine.
“Head’s good. Two games in a row, so that’s good,” Stewart said, adding that dehydration was “the closest thing we probably could come up with” regarding what happened.
* In yesterday’s first inning, Robinson Cano reached on an error when Indians center fielder Michael Bourn dropped his liner, but Cano slid awkwardly into second base, appearing to catch his left knee.
Cano was examined at second base but stayed in the game. He was not in the postgame clubhouse.
* For the third straight game, Lyle Overbay started in right field, handling his one fly ball — a pop-up from Mark Reynolds — with no problem. Overbay was replaced defensively by Ichiro Suzuki in the seventh inning. He went 1-for-3 and scored a run.
One thing Overbay has not been tested on is his arm if a runner, for example, tries to go from first to third on him.
“I’ve got to make sure I slow it down,” he said, “because you can get caught up in that and try to do too much and that’s when things tend to go south.”