Saturday, March 31, 2012
NYDN: With injury on top of insult, Yankees’ Michael Pineda losing grip on job
TAMPA — As he stood in the corner of the clubhouse, surrounded by reporters, a despondent Michael Pineda seemed to be doing everything he could not to cry. He was that upset.
“I tried to throw hard today,” he said softly.
He wanted to end the talk about his unexpectedly low velocity on this night. He wanted to throw 95, 96, 97 mph. Instead the radar gun again showed his fastball to be mostly about 91 mph, and at least partly as a result, the Phillies roughed him up, knocking him out in the third inning.
So Pineda seems to know now that something isn’t right. He admitted to feeling some soreness in the back of his right shoulder while he was pitching, and though he called it “normal sore,’’ it’s the first time he mentioned anything like this.
That alone has to be alarming to the Yankees, who had been publicly downplaying concern about his lack of velocity but worrying about it privately.
You get the sense that a lot of the media have been champing at the bit to write this article, or some variation of it. Let’s hope the tests reveal nothing serious.
Update: Bombers Beat: Pineda headed for DL with shoulder tendinitis
The MRI taken on Yankees right-hander Michael Pineda showed right shoulder tendinitis, manager Joe Girardi told reporters in Kissimmee, Fla. this morning. Pineda will be placed on the 15-day disabled list and the Yankees figure to treat him conservatively, but all things considered this is good news, considering the worst-case scenarios.
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