Brett Gardner exits game with left oblique strain - MLB

UPDATE: Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News passes along word that Gardner indeed left the game with a left oblique strain. That’s not good.

8:55 p.m. ET: This isn’t what the Yankees need. According to Jack Curry of YES Network, Brett Gardner left tonight’s game against the Orioles in the first inning with an apparent injury.

Gardner led off the game and struck out looking before being replaced by Curtis Granderson in center field in the bottom half of the inning. Curry notes that the speedy outfielder grabbed at his left side after the check-swing strike three, which raises the possibility of an oblique injury. That would obviously be a tough injury at this point of the season, but we should know more soon.

Gardner, 30, is batting .273/.344/.416 with eight home runs, 52 RBI and 24 stolen bases in 145 games this season.

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Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN when the defending World Series champion Houston Astros host the Chicago White Sox on opening day.

Clemens made four appearances on last year’s KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez. He will be stepping in on March 30 for David Cone, who will be doing the New York Yankees opener against the San Francisco Giants on YES Network.

“Roger has been sort of a friend of ours for the last year, so to speak, he’s in. He’s been engaged, knowledgeable and really present,” said ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins. “You know, whatever past may be, he’s still tremendously engaged and he really brought that every time he was with us.”

Clemens was a seven-time Cy Young winner but his career after baseball has been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. He is a Houston native and pitched for the Astros for three seasons.

Orlins said that with the rules changes and pitch clock, it is important to have a pitcher in the booth with Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez.

“We don’t feel like we have to have the dynamic of Eduardo with a pitcher, but we certainly think that works. Throw in the added factor of rule changes and it is better to have a batter-pitcher perspective,” Orlins said.

Orlins did not say if this would open the door for future opportunities for Clemens as an ESPN analyst.