YANKEE NOTES
Derek Jeter’s heretofore-injured left groin feels fine; his sitting out last night was more about Joe Torre’s comfort than his.
“He’s fine. For my own comfort, I want to give it one more day. I’m 95 percent sure he’ll play [tonight],” Torre said. “I just didn’t want to kick myself if something had gone wrong. My basic reasoning is he spent two days getting treatment and this was the first day he’s been on the field. I just thought let’s go one more day, so he’ll go [tonight].”
Gary Sheffield and Enrique Wilson were back in the lineup last night. Sheffield, who’d missed Sunday with a stomach virus, was the DH. Wilson, fighting his own groin injury, started at short for Jeter.
“He said he would feel better if I waited until [today]. That was the extent of our conversation. I’m not going to play,” Jeter said. “Yeah, I want to play, but you know it’s probably best. [Torre] said he feels better if I wait until [tonight].”
Alex Rodriguez reached base in his 45th straight game, the longest streak in the majors and the longest of his career. It is also the longest by a Bomber since Jeter’s 57-game run from Sept. 24, 1998 through June 5, 1999.
Torre said he limited Sheffield to DH because “My feeling was he’s got to be a little washed out. The weather was warm and it was probably safer to do it this way.” Sheffield went 0-for-2 and had his 11-game hitting streak snapped.
With the Yanks facing Colorado for the first time ever, C Jorge Posada was spotted in the dugout scanning a Rockies media guide.
“Just trying to see where these guys were coming from,” he said. “There wasn’t much there. It didn’t say much.”
CF Kenny Lofton (strained left hamstring) is due to come off the DL Saturday. Torre said Lofton will head out today and play several rehab games in Florida before rejoining the big club.