ST. PETERSBURG – Ian Kennedy’s mouth and right hip weren’t communicating late last night.
Kennedy said the hip bone that caught Jason Bartlett’s liner in the seventh inning was fine. However, when he left the Yankees’ clubhouse, he did so with a heavy limp.
“It got me right below the belt line,” Kennedy said of the blast that ended his night after six-plus impressive innings that would have been good enough for a win had Billy Traber and Brian Bruney not flushed the five-run bulge Kennedy left with.
“It’s fine, but we will see [today]. It will bruise up and be sensitive. There are certain movements where it hurts.”
In what was easily his best outing of three games this season, Kennedy allowed three runs and eight hits in six-plus innings.
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Derek Jeter didn’t exactly ease back into action after missing six games due to a strained left quad. Not only did Jeter have to bust it down the first-base line when third baseman Evan Longoria dropped a grounder and was safe, Jeter ranged toward the middle to field Bartlett’s ball and throw him out.
“I didn’t run as hard as I could, but everything felt fine,” said Jeter, who went 2-for-5 and drove in two runs in his first action since last Monday when he left the game.
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The spinning wheel that has been the Yankee lineup was turning again last night.
With catchers Jorge Posada (right shoulder problem) and Jose Molina (left hamstring) unavailable, Chad Moeller was summoned from Triple-A, where he was hitting .136 (3-for-22) and started behind the plate. Not only that, Alberto Gonzalez, who impressed while Jeter was out, was shifted from short to second to give the ice-cold Robinson Cano a day off.
“Every team has to deal with it,” Girardi said of injuries forcing him to use 12 different lineups in 14 games. “Hopefully it will get out of our system.”
In addition to giving Cano, who was hitting .170 (9-for-53) before delivering the game-winning homer off the bench, Girardi used the right-handed hitting Morgan Ensberg against right-hander Andy Sonnanstine at first instead of Jason Giambi, who was batting .107 (3-for-28). Ensberg responded with a 2-for-5 night that included a homer.
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Molina was encouraged that his hamstring felt better, but didn’t predict when he would able to return.
“It’s not as tight as it was [Sunday],” said Molina, who suffered the injury sliding into home in fourth and left for a pinch-runner in the eighth. “Hopefully, in one or two days it will be better.”
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Girardi, Cano, Jeter and Mariano Rivera will wear No. 42 tonight as part of MLB’s salute to Jackie Robinson. All the Rays are planning on wearing Robinson’s number.