YANKEE NOTES

BOSTON – Looking for every advantage against Pedro Martinez yesterday, Joe Torre used John Vander Wal’s left-handed bat in right field and sat the slumping Shane Spencer.

“Every time he takes a good swing, he is swinging too hard,” Joe Torre said of Spencer. “He is feeling for it. He has to get more on top of it.”

Spencer, who started eight of the nine previous games against a right-hander, is hitting .229 overall, 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and in a 3-for-18 (.167) slide.

Spencer was 0-for-7 with four strikeouts against Martinez, but Vander Wal was 0-for-6 and five whiffs.

Friday night was especially frustrating for Spencer, who was 0-for-2 and left four runners on base. Torre used Vander Wal to hit for Spencer in the eighth against right-hander Rich Garces.

“I had chances to drive in runs. I still hit the ball hard but not up the middle,” Spencer said. “I haven’t been swinging at bad pitches and I’ll take that every day.”

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Jorge Posada returned to the lineup yesterday after sitting out Friday night with a bruised right shoulder and immediately contributed with a bases-loaded triple in the first inning off Martinez.

“He still feels it, but I don’t think it’s related to the surgery,” Joe Torre said of Posada, who had a foul tip hit him Thursday in the same area he had surgery on this past winter. “It’s just a bruise.”

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As Rondell White was hitting the Fenway grass hard on his left shoulder after making a diving catch of Shea Hillenbrand’s liner Friday night, Torre wasn’t holding his breath.

“I am enjoying the kind of player he is,” Torre said. “He doesn’t know how to play half-way. I don’t think about [White getting hurt].”