Two days off for A-Rod

Citing "fatigue," Yankee skipper Joe Girardi and GM Brian Cashman decided to give third baseman Alex Rodriguez two days of rest, per Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News.

A-Rod sat Friday and will sit Saturday as well.

"We just feel that he's fatigued and that he could use a little blow," Girardi said. "We talked about giving him one day off and we were thinking about doing it tomorrow, but after we slept on it, talked about it and discussed it, we're going to give him two days off."

Not surprisingly, A-Rod called it "a great disappointment." Rodriguez, who grew up in Miami, has never played a regular-season game in Miami.

Rodriguez, who was going to leave around 100 tickets, told his mother to stay home and "save on gas money."

He has gone hitless in his last 15 at bats and has only two hits in his last 21 at bats.

Hughes refused to shake Girardi's hand

Today the Yankees beat the Rangers 11-1 as Phil Hughes pitched eight scoreless innings on 101 pitches.

When we made our earlier post about the game, one note we didn't mention was that Hughes refused to shake manager Joe Girardi's hand when he was taken out.

"He didn't want to shake my hand," Girardi said. "He wanted to go back out. I said, 'You know what? You're going to have plenty of time to get complete games in your career. It's a hot day, you've thrown a hundred pitches, and we don't want to send you back out there for the ninth.'"

It's not a huge deal, but I like his competitiveness.

Girardi blames Hughes' poor outing on mechanics

Yankees "can't-miss" pitching prospect Phil Hughes couldn't get anyone out last night. While that's an exaggeration (he got five hitters out), he allowed eight earned runs in the process.

Why did Hughes pitch so poorly?

Yankees manager Joe Girardi says it was due to poor mechanics (dropping his arm slot and pushing the ball).

"The talent is there," Girardi said. "We just have to make an adjustment."

"For some reason or another, it just popped up tonight," Hughes said. "You've gotta find a way to get through it," he said.

"You still have to figure he'll put it all together eventually," said one AL scout at Saturday night's game. "But he's had enough things happen that maybe you have to wonder if it's more than the normal bumps in the road."

In three starts since getting called back up, Hughes has pitched six innings, four innings and now 1 2/3 innings. After allowing no runs in his first outing, he has allowed 11 runs in his past two.

A-Rod slides for first time

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will be back on Friday. Unless he won't.

Initially, it was expected that A-Rod would make a return this Friday at Baltimore. But it's not "100 percent" certain.

Manager Joe Girardi said: "I'm not going to say 100 percent he's not going to be here -- or he is going to be here."

For the first time, Rodriguez slid during an extended spring training game. And he says "the slide was good...I feel good."

Rodriguez is scheduled to play six innings tomorrow.