At first blush, it appears the Yankees avoided another injury to a valuable piece during Thursday night’s 8-3 loss to the Rays.
When Boone Logan’s left hand was hit by Desmond Jennings’ one-hop smash to the mound in the eighth inning, it appeared the Yankees’ lone lefty reliever might have been injured.
“It hit him in the meat [of the hand],’’ manager Joe Girardi said of Logan, who gave up a two-run homer Yunel Escobar in the inning. “My guess is he is OK but we will see [Friday].’’
Logan, who threw softly to first base, insisted the hand was okay.
“I didn’t hurt my hand, the hand is good,’’ Logan said.
* Alex Rodriguez took batting practice Thursday in Tampa. It was the second time this week Rodriguez participated in that drill.
Looking at a lefty hurler who threw 25 pitches in two segments, Rodriguez took six combined swings. He also participated in agility drills and ran in the outfield.
* Lyle Overbay’s attempt to go from second to third on a grounder to short in the seventh inning with the Yankees trailing by two runs was foolish and resulted in an easy out.
“I thought [third baseman] Evan [Longoria] would go after it. I thought I had it. But too aggressive in that situation,’’ Overbay said.
* Zoilo Almonte got his first big league hit, an ninth-inning single while hitting for Vernon Wells.
* With no real other option, Yankees manager Girardi used left-handed hitting Travis Hafner as the designated hitter against Rays lefty Matt Moore.
Since right-handed hitters Thomas Neal and David Adams and switch-hitter Almonte were Girardi’s right-handed choices, the manager went with the experience of Hafner even though he had only started three games against lefties this season.
Designated hitter wasn’t the only spot Girardi had to wrestle with when it came to using a lefty. Normally, he would have started Adams at third and Jayson Nix at short against a lefty. But, wanting better defense on the left side of the infield with Andy Pettitte on the mound, Girardi went with lefty hitting shortstop Reid Brignac and used Nix at third.
“I look at the guy who is pitching for us, a guy who gets a lot of ground balls to that side,’’ Girardi said. “I feel that’s our best defense over there.’’
Clearly, Girardi’s best defense includes Brignac, the smooth fielding, accurate throwing shortstop who was hitting .098 (4-for-41) in 16 games as a Yankee and has looked overmatched at the plate.
Another reason Girardi wasn’t leery of using Hafner and Brignac, who were batting .194 (6-for-31) and .000 (0-for-4), respectively, against lefties, was the fact Moore’s numbers against lefties and righties were the same: .235. Hafner and Brignac combined to go 1-for-7, though Hafner drove in a run with a groundout and Brignac singled and scored in the three-run sixth inning.