MINNESOTA – One day later, Randy Johnson said removing himself after five innings Thursday was the right move to make.
When Johnson factored in that it was his third start of the season, it’s only April, and the strength of the Yankees’ lineup and bullpen, he said he had no problem shutting it down after five frames against the Royals at Yankee Stadium.
“I think so,” Johnson said when asked if he believed it was smart to curtail his day after 87 pitches when, in his words, he hit a wall.
“I saw no reason to force the issue. Not with the offense we have and the bullpen we have. We had a [three-run] lead and it was halfway through the game. There was no sense.”
Because Johnson posted a complete-game, eight-inning effort in his previous start against the Angels in Anaheim when he threw 97 pitches, the site of him leaving with the Yankees ahead, 4-1, was odd. The Yankees went on to win, 9-3.
However, he said yesterday he was fine and he will take the ball Tuesday night against the Blue Jays in Toronto. Joe Torre reiterated Johnson was sound, and GM Brian Cashman said he had no concerns about the 42-year-old’s health.
“I feel good,” smiling Johnson said outside the Yankees’ clubhouse at the Metrodome before they opened a three-game series against the Twins. “Nothing is bothering me. I was tired. It’s the start of the season and I hit a wall like in spring training. It was halfway through the game and I let the bullpen take over. If it had been Game 1 or Game 7, I would have gone further.”
Torre, who sent pitching coach Ron Guidry into the clubhouse to check on Johnson after the fifth – when Johnson gave up three two-out singles and the only run he surrendered – said he initially was surprised Johnson was done.
“It surprised me with the way he was throwing,” Torre said of Johnson, who gave up one run, four hits and fanned five without giving up a walk. “But he did drop down in the first inning.”
Johnson and Torre spoke on the plane from New York on Thursday night and Torre was convinced fatigue, not injury, was the reason for the early departure.
“He had a complete game the game before and a lot of innings in spring training,” Torre said. “He may have hit a wall.”
Torre said he appreciated Johnson speaking up instead of trying to force it and injuring himself.
“I am glad he didn’t try and gut it out,” Torre said. “That’s when you push yourself and hurt something else.”
As for the staff Johnson fronts, it will get a fifth starter for the first time this season tonight when Jaret Wright comes out of the bullpen.
It’s Wright’s initial start of the season and first since Oct. 2. Asked if he could provide six or seven innings, Wright said he really wouldn’t know until he got into the flow of the game.
“There is no reason not to think I can’t,” said Wright, who is 0-1 after absorbing a 9-4 loss to the A’s in Oakland in the third game of the season when he went two-plus innings in relief, allowed four runs (one earned) and three hits. “I have done the bullpens and stuff, but obviously it’s not like a game.”
Considering how up and down Wright’s one-plus years in pinstripes have been, he was asked how he felt about his Yankees career.
“I tend to look on the positive side and it could be worse,” said Wright, who missed more than three months last year with a shoulder problem and was hit by a broken bat and a batted ball in two September starts. “It was frustrating last year, getting hurt and getting hit every time out there.”
george.king@nypost.com