YANKEE NOTES
The Yankees are hoping to get back their ace and their closer this week. Six-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens (8-3, 4.02 ERA) is expected to come off the DL and start tonight, and Mariano Rivera could be ready to rejoin the team within days.
Clemens left his last start on July 12 with tightness in his right groin and has been on the DL since then. Clemens will start tonight after two rehab starts and a cortisone shot for a mild sprain in his right foot last Friday. When he last went on the DL in 2000, he came back to win his next nine decisions.
Rivera pitched two innings yesterday for Tampa in the Gulf Coast League. He’s been on the 15-day DL since July 26 with a strained right shoulder, but allowed two hits, no walks and no runs in a 31-pitch outing yesterday. The Bombers will decide today whether he’ll pitch again in Tampa or rejoin the club.
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Starter Mike Mussina gave up a career-worst 14 hits last night, topping the 13 hits he allowed against Seattle on May 19, 1996, when he was with the Orioles.
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In his first return to the Bronx since signing with the Royals in the offseason, Chuck Knoblauch got a nice ovation from the 48,275 at the Stadium, an improvement over the rude response he endured when he made his return to Minnesota. “That was Minnesota – those people are a little off,” Knoblauch said. “I give New Yorkers more credit than that.”
Knoblauch was not the most popular player during his four years in pinstripes. During Game 2 of the 1998 ALCS against the Indians, Knoblauch argued a call at first while Enrique Wilson came around to score the eventual winning run. Later, he developed throwing problems that necessitated his move from second base to left field.
“He let that one thing happen, and he never lived that down. But that’s a shame,” said manager Joe Torre. “He did a lot of great things here, got a lot of clutch hits, always played hard. We went to the World Series every year he was here, and that’s a great thing to have on a resume.”
Now Knoblauch is on an abysmal Kansas City team (45-67) and is trying to shake off an elbow injury that has cost him most of the season. After missing 45 days earlier in the year, he got hit in the elbow Friday by a Rick Reed pitch, and missed two more. He’s hitting only .194 with 16 RBIs.
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Yankee players’ representative Mike Stanton summarized yesterday’s conference call regarding a possible strike: “The simple fact we have not set a date yet shows how we’ve thought about how a strike would affect the industry and the fans,” he said. “But the fact we haven’t set a date yet shouldn’t be taken as a sign of weakness. No doubt, there’s a deal there to be made; when we’ll make it is the question.”
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OF Shane Spencer (elbow) should be ready to play tonight.