Jeter Eager to Be Back, and to Stay, In Yanks’ Lineup For the first time all season, Manager Joe Girardi wrote the names Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez on the same lineup card. An infield combination that he had written down hundreds of times in previous years finally came together, 131 games into this strange season. Jeter was batting second and playing his customary shortstop position. Rodriguez was batting sixth and playing third base. Mark Teixeira will not be rejoining the club this year after wrist surgery, but with Jeter, Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson back, Girardi’s lineup card Monday was as representative a Yankee lineup as he has had in 2013. “This is probably as whole as we’ve been all year long,” he said. Jeter, saying he was “excited, looking forward to it, anxious, happy,” returned to the team after his third trip to the disabled list. He had played in only five games before Monday. Rodriguez made his season debut Aug. 5, two days after Jeter’s departure to the D.L. Jeter strained his right calf in his first game back after a quadriceps strain he sustained in his first game back from a twice-broken ankle. With a short-term track record like that, it would not be surprising if the 39-year-old Jeter felt some trepidation about running full speed again. But the Yankees had only 31 regular-season games remaining after Monday night’s matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays, and Jeter’s goal is to be available to play in all of them, and then some. “Look, I’m hoping I have no other problems, I really am,” he said. “I can’t tell you what I’m going to do. I’ll try to be smart. I guess the game will dictate it. I don’t think you can play not to get hurt — that’s when you get hurt. I’ll try to be smart with what I’m doing.” During his three-game rehabilitation assignment with Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Jeter went 3 for 9 with a double and two runs scored. Girardi said Jeter was running “under control,” suggesting he was not running at a full sprint. So how hard can he run? “I ran at 93.7 percent,” Jeter said, jokingly. “I ran. I don’t know if you can put a percent. Everywhere I ran, I made it. How about that? As long as you make it, that’s the point.” Whether he can make it to the end of the season remains unclear. Jeter pointed out that because of the broken ankle, first injured Oct. 13 in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, he was not able to do his usual off-season conditioning. That, he said, led to the muscle injuries this year. “I will try to do as much as I can to keep them strong this last month,” he said. “But all I can do is go out and play this last month and hope that everything is fine. I can’t change anything that’s happened. I wish I had more time to do things, but I didn’t and we are where we are. So let’s move forward and hopefully there’s no more issues.”
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 00:04:39 +0000