Derek Jeter‘s season-long battle to stay healthy faltered once again during Saturday’s game against the Red Sox.
Jeter was taken out of the game during the sixth inning when he was lifted for a pinch runner. Joe Girardi made the move because he didn’t like the way he was running, the Yankees manager told reporters.
Jeter was then taken to get a precautionary CT scan on his surgically repaired left ankle, and the results came back negative, according to the team. The Yankees will also send the results to Dr. Robert Anderson — the physician who performed Jeter’s ankle surgery this past offseason — as an additional preventive measure.
Having played in only 17 games this season due to various injuries, Jeter is no stranger to being sidelined, but the Yankees don’t expect the 39-year-old to miss any time if Anderson confirms what the tests showed.
“We’re just going to take a look under the hood and make sure that everything’s OK,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “If it is, we’ll see him back here [on Sunday].”
After missing the majority of the first half of the season recovering from ankle surgery, Jeter has also dealt with a calf strain and a quad strain in the 2013 campaign. His latest injury marks his fourth of the year.
“It’s not what you want,” Girardi said of the possibility of losing Jeter again to injury. “It’s what we’ve had to deal with a lot this year. Hopefully he’s OK [Sunday] and he can play or somehow contribute.”
It remains unclear whether Jeter will suit up for the final game of the four-game series against Boston at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Yankees shortstop is hitting .190 on the season, adding one home run and 7 RBIs in 63 at-bats.
