AL East

Yankees reliever David Robertson left today’s game in the middle of the 7th inning with what they’re calling a mild lower back strain.

This injury is no doubt the result from a line drive that Twins catcher Joe Mauer hit Robertson in the back with last week. Initially Robertson said the Mauer’s line drive didn’t hurt him and that his belt had absorbed most of the impact, but in the middle of today’s game it must have tightened up on him.

Derek Sanderson Jeter made his major league debut 15 years ago today, May 29, 1995.

For any fan of the Yankees, and the game of baseball, it has been a great 15 years. We have all gone along for the ride with this great shortstop.

Jeter made his major league debut with the Yankees 15 years ago, when injuries to Tony Fernandez, and Pat Kelly, required the team to call up their young future star.

Phil Hughes and Robinson Cano lead the Yankees to a 8-2 victory over the Indians. Here are some notes:

According to Lia Eustachewich of the NY Daily News, Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher has gotten engaged to his girlfriend actress Joanna Garcia.

Here is more from the Daily News:

Nick Swisher told reporters Friday he’s been engaged to “Privileged” actress Joanna Garcia since May 19.

Last offseason, the Yankees were in the market for an outfielder that could hit lefties. The tricky thing was that Johnny Damon was a free agent.

The Yankees didn’t want Damon, though. They didn’t want to deal with the hassle of dealing with his agent Scott Boras and certainly didn’t want to give in to his multi-year contract demands.

Chad Jennings of the Journal News is reporting that the Yankees have designated outfielder Randy Winn for assignment to make room on the roster for Curtis Granderson who is returning from a groin injury.

“I was ready. I was prepared. … I played terrible,” Winn said after hearing he’d been cut. “That’s the bottom line.”

Photo by Reuter Images

I know last night’s loss to the Twins was a bit deflating, but let’s not overlook the fact that the Yankees took two of three on the road from a very good Twins team. 

Aaron Hill has been back playing every day for the Blue Jays for slightly over a month now. He landed on the disabled list from April 8 to 23 when he injured his right hamstring. Since returning the results have not been encouraging, especially coming off a career year in 2009. When a player has a career year in his thirties, that's one thing, but when a player has one at age 27 like Hill did, you'd hope he could replicate it for a few more seasons.

The Yankees won a pair of games yesterday, both by a single run, against the Minnesota Twins. It’s amazing how good the Twins have been over the years, but the Yankees never have a problem beating them.

The games are always close, but like yesterday, the Yankees always prevail.

Here are some notes:

In 2008, when the New York Yankees did the unthinkable and missed the postseason, team co-owner Hank Steinbrenner made an off-the-cuff comment about the best teams being shut out of the playoffs because of their tougher division, while a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers (with an paltry 84-78 record) made it in.

It was humorous because he was comparing his team to one in a different league, where his argument would have held a little more water had he complained about the Chicago White Sox making the postseason even though they finished a half-game worse than the Bronx Bombers.