MLB

Teixeira eyeing April 20 return

Mark Teixeira expects to travel with the Yankees when they head to Tampa Bay next week and play when he is eligible to come off the disabled list April 20.

The first baseman, out with a strained right hamstring, took batting practice in the cage before Saturday’s 7-4 Yankees win over the Red Sox in The Bronx.

“Everything felt good,” said Teixeira, who reported no discomfort.

He also believes his 15-day DL stint will serve his surgically repaired right wrist well.

“This time off can only help the wrist, just from a long spring training,” Teixeira said. “Hopefully, when I come back, the wrist will be even better.”

On Friday, general manager Brian Cashman mentioned Teixeira’s wrist as a possible reason why he wouldn’t guarantee his return as soon as he’s eligible.

But Teixeira insisted he isn’t doing any harm by taking batting practice while he’s out.

“If that was the case, I wouldn’t have been playing in spring training,” Teixeira said. “My wrist isn’t at the point where I need time off [or] shut it down. It just needs to get stronger. Taking time off doesn’t make it stronger.”

He also would like for this to be his last time sidelined for a while.

“It’s not fun,” Teixeira said. “You push your body to the limits and sometimes it tells you to take time off. And I’ve had to take too much time off the last year and a half. Hopefully this is the last break that I need. This is a very minor injury. When it’s early and cold, the team doesn’t want to push it.”

Teixeira said he thinks he’ll be able to play in two days of extended spring training in Tampa before being activated.


Shawn Kelley said he got a little “slider happy” in his outing against the Orioles on Wednesday, when he came into a tie game and surrendered two runs in a loss.

Now that he is filling at closer, because David Robertson remains out with a groin injury, Kelley wanted the chance to redeem himself.

In his tidy ninth inning Saturday, he went back to his fastball and notched his second save of the season.

“It’s something I talked to [Brian] McCann about and worked on today,” Kelley said. “A lot of games in the season don’t go your way.”

And whether it was in the ninth or his more customary eighth inning, the loss earlier in the week felt the same.

“Any time you feel like you’re the reason the game didn’t go your way, it hurts,” Kelley said.

“It’s good for his confidence,” manager Joe Girardi said. “He didn’t blow a save [against the Orioles], but he got [the loss], so you always want to see what they do the next time.”


The five Yankees homers were the most they had hit in a game since notching the same number last April 9 in Cleveland. The back-to-back homers by McCann and Alfonso Soriano were the Yankees’ first since Robinson

Cano and Teixeira did it on June 6 of last year in Seattle. … Brian Roberts continued to struggle at the plate, going 0-for-4.


Cashman had minor surgery on his left elbow Friday and said he was “all good.”