YANKEE NOTES
BOSTON – Lost in the Yankees’ 12-4 win over the Red Sox in the first game of yesterday’s Fenway Park twinbill was Scott Proctor’s latest bullpen gem.
When Mark Loretta opened the seventh inning with a double off Chien-Ming Wang and the Yankees leading, 8-3, Joe Torre called for lefty Mike Myers to face David Ortiz. After Myers retired Ortiz on a grounder to the right side, Torre summoned Proctor to work against Manny Ramirez, who had homered off Proctor in consecutive games in May at Fenway and caused a stir by standing at the plate and watching the first one.
This time, Ramirez was fooled by Proctor’s first pitch and hit a stress-free fly to left for the second out.
“I love it, facing one of the best hitters in the game,” said Proctor, who retired Kevin Youkilis to end the seventh and pitched out of a second-and-third, one-out jam in the eighth. “He was sitting on a fastball and got out in front of it.”
Proctor, whose 61 appearances lead the AL, has a 1.23 ERA in 22 innings over his last 18 games.
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If the Yankees didn’t have two games yesterday and five in four days, Andy Phillips would have been replaced by a position player when he went on the 15-day DL with a left rib muscle injury.
Instead, the Yankees expanded their pitching staff to 13 by promoting righty reliever T.J. Beam from Triple-A Columbus. He worked the final inning of the first game, allowing a run in his third big league stint this season.
As for the injury, which Phillips suffered swinging in the seventh inning of Thursday’s 12-2 loss to the Orioles, Torre said the full extent won’t be known until tomorrow.
“It’s not as bad as [trainer] Gino [Monahan] thought,” Torre said. “It will still require five days to a week before he will be allowed to do anything.”
Phillips isn’t eligible to come off the shelf until the rosters expand in September.
“Hopefully in a couple of days I can resume activity,” Phillips said. “Obviously it was a tough call, but I understand the situation.”
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Hideki Matsui took fly balls and ground balls in left field during batting practice but, as with right fielder Gary Sheffield, Torre doesn’t have a timetable for the left fielder’s return from wrist surgery.
“They want to be ready by Sept. 1, but I’m not sure,” Torre said.
Matsui is slated to be examined Monday in New York. Sheffield has been cleared to start swinging a bat underwater.
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Jason Giambi scored his 1,000th run in the seventh inning reaching base with an RBI single . . . Cory Lidle, Monday night’s Yankee starter, is expected to rejoin the club Sunday after attending the funeral of his grandmother. Lidle will throw a bullpen session on his own, according to Torre.