After a torrid stretch, Robinson Cano is cold again at the plate – and maybe for good reason.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi revealed yesterday that Cano has a sore left hand, the result of being jammed by an inside pitch from the Red Sox’s Jon Lester last Sunday in Boston.
Cano was absent from the lineup in the Yankees’ 8-2 victory over the Angels and will have his hand reevaluated today. Wilson Betemit made his second start of the season at second base in Cano’s place.
Cano is batting .344 since the All-Star break, but was in an 0-for-10 rut as yesterday’s play began. Cano, whose hand was wrapped after he arrived at the ballpark, was examined by the team’s medical staff, but said X-rays were not taken.
“He’s been fighting through it,” Girardi said. “We just felt that the day off and reevaluate him [today], it might be helpful. He was swinging the bat so great, and I think it’s affecting him a little bit.”
Girardi, in his strongest suggestion yet that right-hander Chien-Ming Wang won’t return in 2008, called it a “long shot” that the right-hander will be available in September. Wang has a walking boot on his right foot and is probably two weeks away from beginning a throwing program.
“It would be real difficult,” Girardi said, referring to a September return. “You just take it day by day or week by week, but hopefully we have him back for October.”
Xavier Nady returned to the lineup and finished 1-for-3 with a run scored. Nady spent Friday’s game on the bench, resting an irritation to the quadriceps. Nady played left field yesterday with Johnny Damon at DH.
Though it wasn’t a big situation, Brian Bruney was thrilled to get the ball in the ninth inning. The right-hander had last pitched for the Yankees on April 25, when he sustained a Lisfranc injury to his right foot.
“It almost felt like my major league debut,” Bruney said. “I was a little nervous, but up six runs I just tried to get them to hit the ball to somebody.”
Bruney allowed a walk and a single, but did not allow a run.
“This is the [kind of situation] we were talking about, bringing him back slowly,” Girardi said. “I thought he threw the ball real well today.”
Former Yankees reliever Ramiro Mendoza, who participated in Old-Timers’ Day festivities, has been working out and says he plans to try a comeback next season. The 36-year-old last pitched in the major leagues for the Yankees in 2005.