YANKEE NOTES

BOSTON – In an ideal world, the Yankees would have wanted Kevin Brown to make at least one minor league rehab start before coming off the DL Monday night to face the Rangers.

However, the Yankees’ pitching situation is anything but ideal. Tim Redding was rocked Friday, 39-year-old Al Leiter will start today and the Yankees don’t know who will start in Texas Wednesday night.

“The position we are in, we will take what he gives us,” Joe Torre said of Brown, whose last start was June 15. A balky back landed him on the DL the next day for the second time this season.

Brown, 40, is 4-6 with a 5.48 ERA in 11 starts.

Asked how much he could expect out of Brown against the muscular Rangers in the suffocating Texas heat, Torre hedged.

“It depends on how hard he has to work in the first five innings,” Torre said.

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Center fielder Melky Cabrera took a seat on the bench for the first time as a big leaguer yesterday, one night after turning Trot Nixon’s sinking liner into a three-run, inside-the-park homer.

“I talked to him and told him because of his age [20] and what we have asked of him not to get down,” Torre said of Cabrera, who has struggled defensively in six games but wasn’t charged with an error and is hitting .211 (4-for-19). “He is still trying to find his legs.”

Torre, who started Bernie Williams in center field, said Cabrera won’t start today. It’s likely that when the Yankees open a three-game series tomorrow night in Texas, Cabrera won’t be with them.

Bubba Crosby would be the logical move to replace Cabrera, but Crosby can’t be recalled from Columbus (Triple-A) until July 19 unless there is an injury.

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Chien-Ming Wang will travel from New York to Birmingham today and have his bothersome right shoulder examined by Dr. James Andrews tomorrow.

Wang, who is on the DL, is suffering from a rotator cuff problem that is likely to keep him out for the rest of the season and could require surgery.