Brian Bruney doesn’t know when he will return from the disabled list. What the right-handed reliever does know is that it won’t be a week from Thursday, when he is eligible.
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“We are being smart about it,” Bruney said of a strained flexor muscle in his right elbow that hasn’t allowed him to pitch since April 21. “Despite what it looks like lately, we have a lot of talent in the bullpen. There is no need to rush me back. It’s still May, we’ve got a lot of season left.”
Bruney played catch Friday and Saturday, but his workout plan has been altered.
“It’s not a setback,” said Bruney, who dominated in eight games after a rough debut. He is 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in nine games and fanned 12 in eight innings. “We are just being careful.”
With Bruney out for an undetermined time and Damaso Marte going on the DL Sunday with an inflamed left shoulder, Joe Girardi said yesterday Phil Coke could work the eighth inning, but also said if the rookie lefty is needed earlier he will be used.
Marte was examined by Dr. David Altcheck yesterday and the doctor agreed with the initial diagnosis.
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Hideki Matsui was hitting .400 (8-for-20) against lefties and was hitting .370 (17-for-46) with a homer and nine RBIs in the previous dozen games.
However, he was on the bench last night against Red Sox lefty Jon Lester since Girardi decided to go with the same lineup that produced two runs and seven hits in six innings against Lester on April 24 in Fenway.
“There is no knee problem, he looks great,” said Girardi, who used Jorge Posada as his DH.
Matsui pinch-hit for Posada in the eighth — and struck out — after it appeared Posada may have tweaked a hamstring running the bases in the seventh. Posada missed two games in Detroit with a barking left hamstring.
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Outfielder Xavier Nady hopes to start taking batting practice in a week.
“That would be the four-week mark,” Nady said of him injuring the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow on April 14. “I have been doing exercises and feeling good.”