Injury bug biting senior Bombers
Jorge Posada was on his way to a hospital, keeping an appointment with an MRI tube.
Curtis Granderson, wherever he was, was hobbling around on one good leg.
Javier Vazquez, bumped from his next start, was nursing a bruised psyche.
The news couldn't possibly get any worse for the Yankees.
Cafe curtain Or could it?
Well, here it was, the top of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium, the home team holding a three-run lead over the Baltimore Orioles, a save situation and when the bullpen door swung open, Joba Chamberlain came running out.
The ending was a happy one -- Chamberlain pitched a nearly-spotless ninth to preserve the 4-1 victory -- but the big question remained:
Where's Mo?
The answer was, right where he belonged, in the bullp
en, although unavailable due to what he termed "tightness" in his left side and manager Joe Girardi called "stiffness in his flank."
But anyway you sliced it, it came down to the same thing -- the Yankees closer extraordinaire, probably the key player in their 14-year run to five World Championships, was unavailable Monday night and will probably be unavailable Tuesday night as well.
"I'm not worried at all," a cheerful Rivera said in the postgame clubhouse. "We won. What do I got to worry about?"
Indeed. The news on Posada, similarly,
Cafe curtain came back encouraging -- around 11 p.m., the Yankees announced the MRI revealed "a mild strain" of the right calf. Instead of joining Granderson on the disabled list, Posada's status was said to be day to day.
Good news for today, but what about for tomorrow? If nothing else, it served to remind you of the one big fear about this club coming in to the season, namely, the number of key players who are aging, and consequently, leading candidates to miss significant portions of the season to injury.
The Yankees enjoyed a largely injury-free trip last season, a huge boost to their successful bid for their first World Championship in nearly a decade. Team officials were aware of that, acknowledged it -- and hoped and prayed their luck would hold out again this season.
Now, little more than a month into their title defense, they are wondering if such an event-free two-year run is even possible.
"I think any time you see guys starting to get nicked up, it's a concern," Girardi said. "You know, we've talked about the importance of giving guys days off, because we have some ... I don't want to insult them, but ... older players on this club. And we have to be careful.
Cafe curtain We have to be smart about spelling them when they need a spell, and it's not always when they think they need it. Sometimes,
Curtain we have to make tough evaluations."
