Nyjer Morgan may or may not have flipped off Giants fans Friday

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Tired of getting the business from the Giants fans in center field on Friday night, Nyjer Morgan definitely made some sort of gesture following his catch in the seventh inning.  And that gesture, for all of the world, looked like he was flipping the fans the bird.

The pictures, though, suggest otherwise.  He certainly had the windup and the delivery down, but either he came to his senses at the last minute or he was just hoping to get a rise out of people by going through the motions and then not actually following through with the one-finger salute.

Either way, he was out of line; whether he truly flipped anyone off or not, the hundreds of people watching him at that moment certainly thought that was his intention.

But that’s as far as I’ll go with it.  CSNBayArea.com’s Mychael Urban has a much more in-depth take on the whole sordid affair.

Also, it you want to see it from another angle, FOXSports Wisconsin’s Chris Withers has a picture of the gesture from behind.

Yanks place Nestor Cortes on 15-day injured list with left rotator cuff strain

Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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The Yankees placed Nestor Cortes on the 15-day injured list Thursday 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.