MLB

Freddy ready to rejoin Yankees rotation

MOOSIC, Pa. — The Yankees may have one too many starting pitchers, but Freddy Garcia doesn’t think he should be the odd man out.

“I’ve been doing my job all year, so I probably deserve to be in the rotation,” Garcia said last night, when he made a minor league rehab appearance in the first game of a doubleheader for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

When Garcia returns to the major league club, the question will now become which of the Yankees starters — Garcia, Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova, Bartolo Colon and A.J. Burnett — will remain in the rotation with CC Sabathia following the Yankees’ series at Baltimore this weekend.

“It’s not gonna be a problem this week, but I don’t know what they [want to] do after we leave Baltimore,” Garcia said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Garcia said he’s ready to return to the rotation to pitch one of the two games of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Orioles after throwing four innings of two-run relief last night for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the completion of a suspended game against the Rochester Red Wings.

Garcia has been out since Aug. 7 after cutting the index finger on his pitching hand.

“[The finger] was fine,” Garcia said. “No problems. I’m ready for Saturday.”

After giving up a two-out double to Brandon Roberts and a long two-run homer to Jason Repko in the third inning, his initial inning of work, Garcia, who earned the win, managed to keep Rochester off the board over the next few innings, thanks in large part to forcing double plays in the fourth and sixth.

Garcia allowed two runs on eight hits, walked one and struck out none. He said he was happy with his command of his pitches after throwing 42 strikes in 59 pitches, including first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 18 batters he faced.

“That’s what I need,” he said. “For me, I have to throw first-pitch strikes. . . . If I’m able to do that, I’ll be fine.”

Garcia said he never expected to miss as much time as he has after cutting his finger, but needed to wait for it to heal in order to throw his split-finger fastball. After staying away from the splitter in his first inning of work, Garcia began throwing it after that and, by his count, threw 12 or 13 in his final 35 or so pitches.

“I had to make sure [I could throw it], so I started throwing it,” he said. “It was fine. In the beginning, it was a little slow, but by the end I threw some pretty good pitches. That’s what I needed.

“Of course it’s disappointing [to be injured]. When I did it, I was thinking [I wouldn’t miss a start], but I wasn’t able to throw the splitter. That’s my pitch, and it has to be 100 percent.”

tbontemps@nypost.com