YANKEE NOTES
TORONTO – Mariano Rivera is ready for bigleague hitters. Now it’s up to trainer Gene Monahan, Joe Torre and Ron Guidry to tell the future Hall of Fame closer when he will pitch in a game.
Rivera was pleased with a 30-pitch bullpen session yesterday in which he threw the last 15 pitches harder than he first 15.
“I am excited,” said Rivera, who hasn’t been in a game since Aug. 31 due to a strained right forearm.
“I am waiting for the OK from the big boss.” Rivera will play catch today. With tomorrow dark, the first chance he will get to return is Friday against the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg.Of course, the Yankees want Rivera right for the playoffs.
“I want to throw three times before the season [ends],” Rivera said.
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One batting session against pitching coach Ron Guidry was good enough for the Yankees to activate Gary Sheffield from the DL yesterday.
“It went very well,” Torre said of Sheffield’s simulated game against Guidry, in which Sheffield hit three homers, all into the second deck of Rogers Centre.
“He could be a pinch-hitter [last night] if we need one.”
For the second straight day, Sheffield worked extensively at first base, the position he could start at in the postseason.
“He looked more comfortable,” Torre said.
Sheffield was pleased with the contact he made off Guidry but learned a lesson about his surgically repaired left wrist on the only pitch he missed.
“I passed the test,” Sheffield said. “He threw me a two-seamer that cut and I missed it and didn’t feel it.
I am game ready.”
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Having already taken two cortisone shots in his ailing left wrist, Jason Giambi is contemplating a third before the postseason opens.
Some medical people frown on more than three shots of cortisone a year, and Giambi has had two since Aug. 31.
Giambi started last night’s game in a 6-for-46 (.130) slide.
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Noticing a slight dip in Brian Bruney’s velocity Monday night, Torre is going to watch the righthanded reliever’s workload a little closer.
“We have pushed the envelope, and now we are going to back off on him,” said Torre.
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Lefty Sean Henn, a who was converted from a starter to reliever early this season in Columbus (Triple-A), is scheduled to start tonight.
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Torre says there is nothing to read into his weekend rotation against the Devil Rays. Torre announced it will be ChienMing Wang, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina and Jaret Wright. Since that has been the order speculated for Torre’s ALDS rotation, he was asked about it.
“You can read anything you want into it but we aren’t sure,” Torre said of his ALDS pitching plans.
