Yankees News: Kuroda and Pettitte dodge bullets, Soriano blistered, All-Star updates

New York Yankees starting pitchers Hiroki Kuroda and Andy Pettitte each dodged bullets after leaving their most recent starts due to an injury. It looks promising that Kuroda and Pettitte will make their next starts on Wednesday and Saturday respectively.

Kuroda took a liner to the top of the left ankle in the Subway Series opener off the bat of New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy. According to Mark Feinsand and Christian Red of the New York Daily News, Kuroda ran on Sunday and threw his scheduled bullpen session. He will test the ankle further today with some sprints. Kuroda indicated some residual tightness but does not feel it will impede his delivery.

Pettitte, who tried to bare-hand a hard grounder up the middle in Sunday’s series finale against the Mets, experienced some swelling and obviously pain during the trip to Atlanta. By keeping the hand wrapped overnight he was able to keep the swelling down. There is plenty of time before Pettitte’s next start (Saturday) so the swelling should be gone well before he needs to pitch.

SORIANO HELD OUT OF GAME DUE TO BLISTER

Rafael Soriano sat still when a save situation arose in the ninth inning of last night’s game against the Atlanta Braves. Soriano suffered a blister on his right index finger during his blown save on Sunday. Soriano could have pitched if absolutely necessary but he had also pitched in two straight games, which made manager Joe Girardi’s decision easier. If a save chance arises tonight expect Soriano to have the ball in his hands.

ROBERTSON TO MAKE ONE MORE REHAB APPEARANCE

David Robertson is scheduled to pitch one last rehab assignment inning with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre today before being cleared to join the team in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Robertson, who has been out since May 12th due to a strained left oblique muscle, pitched a scoreless inning for SWB on Sunday.

ALL-STAR VOTE UPDATE

Derek Jeter maintains a huge lead in the All-Star Game fan vote for shortstops with close to one-million more votes than Elvis Andrus of the Texas Rangers. Curtis Granderson would start if the voting ended now and Robinson Cano is creeping up on Ian Kinsler also of the Rangers. Mark Teixeira remains third at first base and Alex Rodriguez is falling behind the rest of the third basemen in fourth place.

LATER TODAY

I’ll discuss the impact of Brett Gardner‘s setback on the Yankees going forward.