YANKEE NOTES
After declining to make the move on Monday, Joe Torre opted to give the slumping Jason Giambi last night off. “I felt it’s a strange left-hander [in that Giambi hadn’t seen Detroit’s Nate Robertson] and I thought about it,” Torre said. “He told me, ‘Whatever you think.’ We’ll give him the day and see if it mentally relaxes him.”
Torre then noted he tried to reach Giambi on his cell phone Monday night to inform him of his decision. The manager left the slugger a message, only to then discover that Giambi had switched numbers.
Cracked Torre of the person whose phone he left a message on, “That person is not playing.”
Giambi, who broke a 1-for-40 slump on Monday with two hits and two walks, was fine with his manager’s decision.
“It doesn’t really bother me,” Giambi said. “My body feels good. He just said, ‘Why don’t you take a blow and we’ll get ready to run you down the stretch?”
Battling injuries and inconsistency, Giambi has seen his batting average plummet to .247. But he’s proud of how he’s battled through his ailments, especially early on, when both Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams were out with injuries.
Had the Yankees not been so injury-riddled then, Giambi admitted he might have sat himself for a little while to recover.
“I probably would have taken some time,” he said. “But I came here to win a championship, and that’s part of it. We had guys hurt and I wasn’t getting a lot of hits, but I was hitting some big home runs, so it ended up all right. Just one of those years.”
* Torre took a small shot at Raul Mondesi when explaining how his players are completely ego-free when it comes to where they bat in the lineup.
“This is the only club I’ve ever managed where people aren’t concerned about where they hit,” he said. “I’m sorry – I take that back. Because Mondesi I found out after he left,” Torre said, laughing, “because I didn’t know about it when he was here.”
* Alfonso Soriano said his ailing right thumb is better, noting that he only feels pain when he gets jammed.
“I think it’s fine,” Soriano said. “The last three days I hit the ball good. I don’t feel nothing.” . . . Jeff Weaver will likely start the nightcap of Saturday’s double-header against Tampa Bay, assuming he’s not needed in long relief this week.
