Masahiro Tanaka completed a bullpen session and thinks he's past the arm fatigue; Gardner's been having lower abdominal pain.
There is some good news on the injury front: Masahiro Tanakasuccessfully completed a bullpen session yesterday. He was temporarily shut down with arm fatigue last week, but he believes that he's moved past it. After throwing 34 pitches yesterday, Tanaka said that his arm felt stronger. The Yankees also continue to sound optimistic that we will see him pitch in a few games before the season ends. Obviously they want to see if the plasma injection and rehab have healed his arm enough to avoid surgery, and the sooner the better. Yet, when asked about the idea of creating games in October for Tanaka to pitch in, Joe Girardi said "I guess that would be possible...but our belief is that he'll be in games with us." Considering that Tanaka was the ace of the pitching staff prior to the injury (and hopefully will remain so next season), it would be great to see him return and help the team, even though the Yankees main problem hasn't been pitching.
During Friday night's game, the Yankees' booth discussed whether Brett Gardner seemed injured when he was running to second base after his double. As it turns out, Gardner was held out of yesterday's lineup because of an injury. He's been experiencing lower abdominal pain, which is a flare up of the same thing that he experienced several months ago when he was sidelined during the series against Cleveland. After receiving treatment yesterday, Gardner sounded hopeful that he would be able to play today. The team isn't planning on running any tests on him, which hopefully means that it's a minor issue. They can't afford to lose Gardner if they're going to make a serious push for the playoffs.