New York Yankees starting center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was removed from Saturday’s 8-2 loss to the New York Mets in the eight-inning because he was experiencing some sort of tightness in his right hip.
According to Jamal Collier of MLB.com, skipper Joe Girardi was unaware of when Ellsbury first started feeling the discomfort, but as soon as he was alerted about it, he decided to remove his star out-fielder from the game.
"“With the score the way it was, I just said, ‘I’m going to take you out,'” Girardi said. “‘We’ll see how you feel tomorrow, and hopefully you’ll be a player for us.'”"
Ellsbury, who’s bat was quieted by Matt Harvey like many of his other teammates, ended his day 0-for-3 with a strikeout. On the defensive side of the ball he put on quite the display, making a sliding highlight reel snag in the fourth inning, robbing Eric Capmbell of an extra-base hit in the left-center-field gap. Ellsbury landed on his right hip after the catch, but it was unclear if that was the play that tweaked it.
Ellsbury sat out the final two weeks of spring training in March with a lower body injury, but bounced back fine and has played in 17 of the Yankees’ 18 games this season.
The Yankees certainly would like to have Ellsbury’s bat in tonight’s lineup during the rubber match of the Subway Series. He’s batting .282 on the season with 14 runs, nine walks, four stolen bases and a pair of doubles.
We’ll have to wait and see what the status of Ellsbury will be later in the evening when Girardi announces the teams lineup.
The Yankees will play at 8:05 pm on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.
5:23 Update: Ellsbury is out tonight
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