“I think that it was plain and simple that we got our asses kicked pretty good.”
– Mike Lowell just about sums up
the 20-11 trouncing the Red Sox experienced at the hand of the Yankees
on Friday night. The Bombers have now won five straight over their
division rivals and sit 7 1/2 games ahead in the American League East.
“He called me in the office, I was in the lineup and he just went over
the whole waiver thing with me because I guess a lot of people in the
media were speculating a lot of different things and he wanted to clear
that up. So I asked him after that, well, if you pull
me back and you’re keeping me from going to a contending team, what’s
my future? And basically I got a maybe, maybe not. And that’s basically
not much of a future.”
– Gary Sheffield explains a conversation he had with general manager Omar Minaya on Thursday. The 40-year-old outfielder denies asking for a contract extension, as reported in various media outlets.
“To me, an ace is not something that floats. It’s career
numbers stuff, to have that dominating pitcher year in and year out.
It’s an overused term.”
– Despite a 2.94 ERA since July, Randy Wolf deflects any talk about him as the staff ace.
He may never be an ace, but he’d be a decent cleanup hitter for the
Dodgers right now. After knocking in three runs with a homer, double
and single against the Diamondbacks on Sunday, Wolf drove in the only
two runs of Friday’s victory over the Cubs.
“I didn’t know I was like that. That would be a first for me.”
– Derek Jeter responds to comments made by Hall of Famer Jim Rice earlier this week.
Yankees place Nestor Cortes on 15-day injured list with left rotator cuff strain
Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
The Yankees placed Nestor Cortes on the 15-day injured list with a left rotator cuff strain that will sideline the left-hander for at least two starts.
The move is retroactive to Monday and Cortes will be shut down for at least 15 days.
After Tuesday’s game, Cortes said the shoulder has been bothering him between starts and more so after he pitched five innings May 30 in Seattle.
“I took two days off and when I got to LA and threw that first day, I didn’t feel right,” Cortes said Tuesday. “But it was first day coming back from pitching so I knew it was going to be nagging a little bit. So I waited a little bit.
“That second day in LA was when I said something because it felt like I had pitched yesterday. So I wasn’t recovering in time.”
Cortes is 5-2 with a 5.16 ERA in 11 starts and has particularly struggled later in outings. Opponents are hitting .447 when facing him for the third time in a game.
Last year, Cortes was an All-Star and went 12-4 with a 2.44 ERA in 28 starts.
Randy Vásquez was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre to take Cortes’ spot in the rotation and will make his second career start in Thursday’s doubleheader. Vásquez made his major league debut May 26 against San Diego when the Yankees needed a starter because Domingo Germán was serving a 10-game suspension for using sticky substances.