YANKEE NOTES

CLEVELAND – If Joe Torre ever has a full compliment of bodies, he may not know what to do with them.

Add Shane Spencer to the list of players who have had injuries serious enough to keep them out of games but not enough to immediately be put on the DL. And while Chuck Knoblauch believes he can play tomorrow night, he was forced out of yesterday’s game with a swollen left wrist.

“It could be a little more serious than we thought,” Torre said of Spencer, who strained a left hamstring running the bases Saturday. “It sort of traveled down his leg today.”

Spencer insists the problem isn’t a serious one and doesn’t believe it will land him on the DL. However, the timing is terrible since he has 10 hits in 24 at-bats (.417).

“It was sore today but the flexibility was better,” said Spencer, who has a small black-and-blue spot on the inside of his leg above the knee. “Let’s call it an irritation. Tear is a bad word.”

Torre already has had to manage with Knoblauch hurt enough not to play but active for nine games and Derek Jeter, who sat out five games before being put on the DL Friday.

As for Knoblauch he suffered what the Indians’ doctor described as a problem with a muscle sheath when he tagged Kenny Lofton out on the head.

“I want to play [tomorrow],” said Knoblauch, who went 1-for-3 and left after seven innings. “It’s in my wrist and I am glad that it wasn’t what I just went through [pulled muscle in the back of the hand]. Hopefully, it will quiet down. I don’t see a problem.”

Spencer and Knoblauch will spend their off day at Comiskey Park getting treatments.

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According to Torre, Jeter hasn’t tested his strained left abdominal muscle by swinging a bat since Thursday at Yankee Stadium and won’t until tomorrow at the minor-league complex in Tampa.

“He has not done anything with the bat,” Torre said yesterday. “He is supposed to start on that [tomorrow]. Since we disabled him, it’s a slow process, that’s all. If he can swing on Tuesday, by Thursday he could be playing in a [extended spring] game.”

With Jeter eligible to come off the shelf Saturday against the Red Sox, Torre doesn’t expect Jeter to need extended at-bats in Florida to know if he is healthy.

“I don’t think you need more than one game to test it,” Torre said.

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If Allen Watson came through an inning of work yesterday for Columbus (Triple-A) in Rochester, the lefty reliever will re-join the Yankees tomorrow night in Chicago.

“He pitched [Saturday night] one inning and he was fine. If he goes through it again today and feels fine he will join us in Chicago,” Torre said of his second lefty reliever who has been out since April 22 with a strained oblique muscle.

Righty reliever Darrell Einertson will go to Columbus when Watson is activated.

In order to give David Cone an extra day of rest, Ramiro Mendoza will start Thursday against the White Sox. That was Cone’s original day but he will go Friday night against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

Disabled outfielder Roberto Kelly has begun a light throwing program in Tampa.

Clemens (4-3; 3.61 ERA) opens a three-game series tomorrow night against the White Sox at Comiskey Park. White Sox are recalling RHP Kip Wells (2-3; 7.28) from Charlotte (Triple-A) to start.