SPORTS

Yankees notebook: Michael Pineda feeling down

Brian Heyman
bheyman@lohud.com

The Mariners' Robinson Cano follows through on an RBI single during the third inning of  Thursday night's 4-2 victory over the Yankees.

NEW YORK – First the suspension, now the injury.

After a promising start to a comeback season after shoulder surgery ruined his first two years with the Yankees, Michael Pineda has headed the wrong way down a one-way street.

His 10-game suspension for using pine tar was going to come to an end with a return Monday night against the Angels in Anaheim, but the 25-year-old righty strained an upper back muscle near that right shoulder Tuesday during a simulated game.

"He's down," Joe Girardi said before Thursday night's series finale against the Mariners at Yankee Stadium. "He's frustrated.

"But the good part of it is, if you're going to have an injury as a pitcher, a lot of times it's your elbow or your shoulder. It's really neither. This will heal and he'll get back out there."

Pineda spoke briefly about the injury for the first time and said: "I'm coming back soon."

But he has been shut down for 10 days. Girardi said three or four weeks was a fair estimate of when he should be back pitching for this team.

"When I threw it ... it was tight," Pineda said. "I threw two more pitches. I felt a little tight."

David Phelps will take Pineda's place in the rotation. Phelps was skipped after his start Wednesday night was rained out, leading him to instead throw a simulated game of about 80 pitches. He said he's now due to start Monday night.

Girardi milestone: This is a tough place to work as a manager, but when the Yankees take the field for Friday night's game against the Rays, it will mark Girardi's 1,000th as their manager.

"It just tells me I've been fortunate in my life to have this opportunity to be here for that long," Girardi said, "to be around an organization that does everything in its power to win and be around players that give you effort every day."

Girardi will be only the seventh active manager to work at least 1,000 games with his current team and the sixth in Yankees history.

Extra bases: Jacoby Ellsbury was back in the lineup after sitting out Tuesday night with a sore left hand, then getting a night off due to the rain. "I was ready to go the day before," Ellsbury said. "... I'm not really concerned about it." … Bob Wolff, the 93-year-old sports broadcaster and South Nyack resident, was honored before the game by the Guinness Book of World Records for "Longest Career as a Broadcaster." He already had the status of "Longest Career as a Sportscaster." Wolff began Oct. 23, 1939, with WDNC radio in Durham, N.C., and is still working, now with News 12 Long Island.

Twitter: @bheyman99