Yankees News: Girardi says not so fast to Mo, Gardner gets another MRI and Joba excelling

Mariano Rivera, who ran the bell at the New York Stock Exchange earlier this morning, gave New York Yankees fans something to look forward to in September while being interviewed Monday on the Michael Kay Show. Rivera stated that he was working toward getting back on the mound at Yankee Stadium in September. He didn’t exactly promise anything, but he maintained that was his goal.

Yesterday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi had another notion. He said that while he understood and respected Rivera’s desire to get back on the field as soon as possible, the stance from the organization was not changing. The Yankees do not expect Rivera back any earlier than Spring Training 2013. Girardi sounded less than optimistic Rivera would be back any sooner in his comments.

"“He’s trying,” Girardi said, “and my anticipation is it’s going to be very difficult because it’s a short period of time [to recover], but we’ll see what happens.”"

Gardner undergoes another MRI

Brett Gardner is becoming all too familiar with the MRI machine. After suffering his third setback in his bid to recover from a right elbow strain, Gardner was being examined one more time yesterday. Each time Gardner has tried to return to baseball activities, it was his swing that impeded his recovery and produced pain. To that end, if doctors feel that he will not be able to swing a bat this season, the Yankees may still wish to use him as a defensive replacement or as a base-runner.

Joba excelling in rehab appearances

In five innings of work with the Gulf Coast League Yankees, Joba Chamberlain has struck out eight batters. While this is a rookie league, Chamberlain has been working up stamina and redeveloping control. That seems to be working as well as Chamberlain has yet to walk a batter. Girardi mentioned that he would consider using Joba on back-to-back days but would try to limit anything more than pitching three out of four days. Girardi also mentioned that he would not hesitate to use Chamberlain in late-inning relief if David Robertson and/or Rafael Soriano were deemed off limits.

Today’s Lineups

Via the Yankees official twitter account here are the starting lineups for this afternoon’s game.