Yanks Continue To Shuffle The Rotation

Today is the Yankees' first scheduled off-day in over 2 weeks.  They've played 16 games in 16 days and get a chance to catch their breath before a weekend series in Tampa that kicks off another stretch of 17 games in as many days.  With that extra day to play with and an open spot in the rotation, Joe has decided to juggle the order again for the next turn through.

David Phelps will get the start on Friday night against the Rays, with Vidal Nuno slotting into Andy Pettitte's spot on Saturday.  This pushes CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes, and Hiroki Kuroda all back and gives each an extra day of rest before their next starts.  For Sabathia and Kuroda this is a safe move and a smart move, especially for Kuroda, who sounded determined to make his next start after leaving last night's game early.  For Hughes, who's been struggling with his fastball command lately, who knows what kind of impact the extra day will have?

There's still no word on when Pettitte will be ready to return to the rotation.  Per Chad Jennings, he's scheduled to throw either today or tomorrow and is eligible to come off the DL on July 1st.  The Yankees will wait to see how he comes through the throwing session before making any plans, but in the meantime it's a wise move on their part to give their other 2 veteran starters a little extra rest when they can.

Game 46 Wrap-Up: BAL 6 NYY 3

(Whew.  False alarm again.  Courtesy of the AP)

If you didn't catch much of last night's game, you didn't miss much.  It was over early, not the kind of night the Yankees wanted to have with their best starter on the mound.  Hiroki Kuroda was off his game from the start, and he ended up out of the game early although once again it appears he avoided serious injury.  That's the best news that came out of last night, that and Curtis Granderson possibly starting to break out.

Game Notes:

- Kuroda only made it through 2+ innings and he gave up 5 ER on 8 hits in that span.  In the top of the 1st Kuroda gave up 2 HR, a clear sign he was off, and he was out after taking a comebacker off the leg in the 2nd inning that didn't get any better in the 3rd.

- The Yanks got on the board with a C-Grand double and a Robinson Cano RBI single in the top of the 3rd, but the bottom half was when Kuroda left and Preston Claiborne entered.  He gave up a 3-run HR, his first Major League run allowed, to make it 6-1 and that was basically that.

- Solo HR for Granderson in the 5th and another one for David Adams in the 9th were the other Yankee runs.

- Another good appearance for Adam Warren, who came in after Claiborne and pitched 4 shutout innings.  He gave up 5 hits, walked none, and struck out 2.