MLB

Jeter out of lineup again

BALTIMORE — The Yankees are running out of days to make up ground in the wild-card race and Derek Jeter is running out of days to get healthy.

He was with the team for Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards, but was sidelined for a second straight game after being removed from Saturday’s loss to the Red Sox with soreness in his bothersome left ankle.

And while the shortstop was held out of baseball activities prior to the series opener against the Orioles, manager Joe Girardi said before the game he would use Jeter off the bench in an emergency. He didn’t.

“It’s not like I have a number of shortstops lying around,” the manager said.

Eduardo Nunez remains the lone healthy shortstop on the roster and started again Monday. Girardi was unsure if Jeter would be back Tuesday, either.

“As I said, we will go a day at a time with him and keep him off it not doing a lot of baseball activities,” the manager said. “He is anxious to get back out there. Normal Derek Jeter stuff.”

General manager Brian Cashman said he hadn’t received an update from Dr. Robert Anderson, who performed surgery on Jeter’s ankle in October and was sent images from the recent CT scan.

Cashman also noted Jeter had already been slated to undergo a CT scan during a physical following the season.

“We decided ‘Let’s do it now,’” Cashman said. “There were a number of different factors that led to it. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, let’s go do this.’ It was more like, ‘We might as well do it now and get it out of the way.’”

If nothing else, Cashman is confident the clean result will give Jeter more confidence in the ankle when he does return.

“I think from his perspective, it was probably a good mind-healer,” Cashman said. “I’m sure in the back of his mind, as he was moving around he thought, ‘This is bothering me a little bit. Does this mean anything?’’

And the Yankees wanted to make sure he wasn’t in worse shape than he was letting on.

“I just know we don’t want to be in a situation like we were in during March, where it’s sore, so you think you’re trying to play through soreness and something else happens,” Cashman said, referring the second fracture Jeter suffered in spring training. “The bottom line is if he feels a little better, he will be moving better.”