YANK NOTES
Is Bernie Williams’ left shoulder barking loud enough to land him on the DL?
“I am not planning on it,” Joe Torre said after yesterday’s 3-2 loss to the Red Sox. “We talk all the time, but I don’t know how he is going to get better unless he plays.”
Williams underwent an appendectomy on Feb. 26 and missed most of spring training. But it appears the reason he is batting .179, is mired in a 2-for-22 (.091) slump and is not driving the ball, is the chronic discomfort in the left shoulder. Yesterday, he went 0-for-5 and the only ball that escaped the infield was a soft fly to left.
Kenny Lofton, who is on the DL with a right quadriceps problem, is eligible to return May 2. If Williams is still struggling with the shoulder, the Yankees may DL him so he can strengthen the wing. Two years ago Williams received cortisone shots in each shoulder to alleviate the discomfort and showed strong signs of improvement almost immediately.
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Skipping Jose Contreras a turn in order to clear the struggling righty’s head wasn’t in Torre’s thought process yesterday.
“We haven’t talked about that,” Torre said. “Right now he is scheduled [for Wednesday against the Red Sox] and we don’t have any plans to change that.”
His confidence at an all-time low, with a bad habit of tipping pitches and Red Sox tire tracks across his body, Contreras (0-2, 10.64 ERA) has everybody puzzled. How can a pitcher with a 95-mph fastball and filthy splitter have opposing hitters bat .354 against him?
“We know it’s in there,” Torre said of Contreras’ stuff. “We have to get him to forget about the yesterdays.”
Getting away from the Red Sox is a start. In his brief career, Contreras is 0-3 with a 20.00 ERA in four games (three starts).
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Much has been made of the Yanks not hitting and their suspect starting pitching but their defense has been horrible. In 18 games, the Yanks have committed 17 errors and have made more than one error in four of those games. They have been error-free in just six games.
Going into yesterday’s action the Yanks had botched 15 plays, one fewer than Cleveland and Detroit, who were tied for the majors’ high in miscues.
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Torre ignored Hideki Matsui‘s numbers from a year ago as a No. 2 hitter and elevated him from seventh to second yesterday when he went 0-for-4.
“I am not worried about that,” Torre said of Matsui hitting .204 (10-for-49) last year in the second spot. “I am trying to generate something at the top.”
Mariano Rivera needs one appearance to tie Dave Righetti on the all-time Yankee list for games pitched at 522.
