Game 56: Robbie’s Back, Again

The Mariners are back in town for one night and one night only, as these two teams have to make up a rained out game from late-April. That means Robinson Cano is back in the Bronx for the second time, and of course he’s in the lineup tonight. He missed the last four games with a bruised hand after being jammed by a pitch. Robbie hadn’t missed four games in a full season with the Yankees since 2006. You didn’t think he was not going to play, did you?

Anyway, Cano or no Cano, the Yankees need their offense to wake up tonight. That won’t be easy because Felix Hernandez is on the mound, but still. It has to happen sometime. They scored six runs total in the three games against the Twins over the weekend and Minnesota started two guys who went into the series with literally the two worst ERAs in baseball. The Yankees have hit .230/.298/.304 with an average of 3.5 runs scored in their last 14 games, which is awful. That’s NL team in a big ballpark production. Yuck. Here is the Mariners lineup and here is the Yankees lineup:

1. LF Brett Gardner
2. SS Derek Jeter
3. CF Jacoby Ellsbury
4. C Brian McCann
5. 3B Yangervis Solarte
6. DH Alfonso Soriano
7. RF Ichiro Suzuki
8. 2B Brian Roberts
9. 1B Kelly Johnson
   RHP David Phelps

It is nice and sunny in New York today. Kinda hot too. No clouds and no chance of rain during the game, so it’s a lovely night for baseball. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm ET and can be seen on YES. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: CC Sabathia (knee) has been running on a special treadmill that reduces impact and hopes to begin playing catch later this week. He spoke to Amare Stoudemire about rehabbing from the stem cell treatment, which I guess is good … Shawn Kelley (back) is likely to throw a simulated game on Wednesday and pitch in a minor league game on Friday before rejoining the team either over the weekend or early next week … in case you missed it earlier, both Carlos Beltran (elbow) and Frankie Cervelli (hamstring) played in Extended Spring Training games today. Beltran said he plans to rejoin the team for their road trip at the end of the week.

All-Star Voting Update: MLB released another All-Star Game fan voting update this afternoon, and Jeter remains the leading vote-getter at shortstop by a mile. Melky Cabrera jumped over Ellsbury for the final outfield spot, however. Mark Teixeira (fifth), Soriano (fifth), McCann (second), Beltran (fifth), and Gardner (13th) are among those getting votes at their respective positions. Here is the full update.