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Joe Girardi won't come out and say it. It is not the manager's style to anoint anyone until he has to, but it is clear David Phelps is putting a tight grasp on a starting spot in the rotation.

"We have always envisioned him as a starter," Girardi said after Phelps' latest strong outing, a seven-inning, one-run, seven-hit, three-walk and eight-strikeout win over the Jays. "From time he came up that is what we have envisioned him as. It is not just that he is able to locate and change speeds. He does all the other little things right, too. ... We like what he is doing."

How could they not? Phelps said he came out a little too geeked up in the first and he got into trouble. After a strikeout, he walked two straight batters. He went on to strike out J.P. Arencibia. With Adam Lind up, Phelps did one of those little things Girardi spoke about by picking off Jose Bautista at second.

When Andy Pettitte comes back, he will return to the rotation, but Ivan Nova is in serious jeopardy of ending up in Triple-A again or, at best, the bullpen.

NOT HAF BAD: Travis Hafner, after missing five games, hit an eighth-inning homer. Girardi thought rest did Hafner's shoulder some good.

"The first ball, he hit a bullet up the middle," Girardi said of Hafner, who finished 1-for-4. "He hit a homer foul. I think you could see there is a difference. The last couple of weeks, he has been playing with a little bit of soreness. There didn't just seem to be the same whip, but it is back."

GRANDY IN RIGHT: Curtis Granderson, playing right field for the first time, had no issues. He caught two balls, including the final out of the game.

With Hal Steinbrenner on hand for the Robinson Cano Show, No. 24 moved into a tie for the American League home run lead. When a reporter asked if Cano was putting on a display for the owner, Cano laughed and talked about just trying to win games.

Cano is going to let his bat do his negotiating, not his mouth. But his manager gave him a pretty good endorsement after the 7-2 win over the Blue Jays.

Joe Girardi has watched the Yankees win without Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and many others, but the one guy that you can't just pull a replacement for off the street and still be fighting for the best record in baseball is Cano.

"Robbie is so important to us," Girardi said. "Offensively, defensively, his presence in the lineup, he is not someone you can replace."

Nope, you can't replace him now or the next five years. Steinbrenner understandably is worried about any contract that goes six to eight years, but fully realizes the cost of doing business might necessitate giving a contract a little longer than the owner is comfortable doling out.

Cano is stepping up to the free-agent challenge, if he has to go that way. With all the injuries and age, it was clear this is Cano's team. That means he is the guy that needed to lead on the field with so many parts missing. The Yankees have had many incredible contributions from the Lyle Overbays of the world, but Cano is the rock.

He leads the Yankees in average (.295), home runs (12), RBIs (31) and doubles (11). When he is hitting like he has thus far, he is hard to defend consistently.

"I think his ability to hit the ball to all fields allows him to be successful and you are not going to see very many prolonged slumps from him, just because he can hit a ball out to left," Girardi said. "He can hit line drives to left if they want to shift him, he'll hit ground balls where the shortstop would normally be. He'll pull balls. He is just a really good hitter, who uses the whole field."

WHAT IT MEANS: The Yankees are on the verge of sweeping the Blue Jays. Robinson Cano is working on his MVP credentials. And David Phelps is making his case to stay in the rotation.

By the way, the Yankees own the Jays. They are now 8-1 against them this season after a 7-2 victory.

LEAGUE LEADER: Cano was at it again. He knocked two two-run homers and continues to show why he is one of the top 5 hitters in baseball. With Mark Reynolds and Edwin Encarnacion going deep on Saturday, Cano, Encarnacion and Reynolds are tied for the American League lead with 12.

Word is, Cano may stay in the Bronx past this season. At least, Hal Steinbrenner is optimistic about it.

IVAN WHO: Phelps is beginning to take a firm grasp on a spot in the rotation. With Ivan Nova hurt, Phelps has now had three straights strong starts. He pitched out of trouble in the first and the third, but for the most part had his way with the Blue Jays, allowing just one run on six hits, striking out eight and walking three in his seven innings of work.

Meanwhile, Ivan Nova is still rehabbing in Tampa, leaving Phelps and Vidal Nuno -- who should get another crack at starting on Tuesday in Baltimore -- in fine position to take hold as major league starters. Plus, Michael Pineda is upping his rehab and could return in June.

The story, at the moment, is the emergence of Phelps, who has a 2.84 ERA in his last four starts. Not bad, not bad at all.

ON THE BOARD: In the third, the Yankees broke through, scoring three runs. Brett Gardner picked up an RBI single. For Gardner, it is important to start hitting a little bit more because playing time is not guaranteed to anyone.

With DH Travis Hafner healthy after missing five games, the Yankees have four outfielders for three spots.

It is clear that Ichiro Suzuki is the one who should sit the most. Saturday was the first time that Joe Girardi began to reveal his plan and he had Ichiro on the pines. Still, even though Gardner is a teacher's pet of Girardi and Brian Cashman, he still has to perform to stay in center most days.

Later in the third, Cano hit his first two-run homer of the day.

HAFNER GOES YARD: For good measure in the eighth, Hafner hit a two-run jack, his seventh of the season. It cost Mariano Rivera another save opportunity. Boone Logan, instead, handled the ninth.

ANNOUNCED ATTENDANCE: 45,577. Most of them seemed to show up, too. There are a lot of affordable seats, according to the owner.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: When everyone is healthy, what would your starting rotation be?

Hal Steinbrenner was on hand at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, standing next to his players on the warning track as they shook hands with season ticket holders prior to his team’s game with the Blue Jays.

Before taking the field, Steinbrenner, 43, took part in a Q&A with ESPN New York. Later, he spoke with a group of reporters.

Below is the edited version of the two conversations, delving into his optimism about signing Robinson Cano. He believes an agreement could be completed before free agency.

Steinbrenner spoke about how he thinks there are affordable Yankees tickets and addressed the drop in attendance thus far. Through the first 23 home dates, the average attendance was down from 41,115 in 2012 to 37,461 in 2013.

Plus, Hal discussed what it was like to grow up the son of George Steinbrenner and the responsibility he feels owning the team.

Is the goal with Cano to get that done by a certain time?

The goal is to continue to work on it. That’s what we are going to do. I haven’t set a time frame, to be honest with you. We are going to continue to plug away and work hard on it, both sides, I’m sure, and we’ll see what happens.

Are you optimistic to get it done before free agency?

I would be optimistic to get it done by then, yes, but I haven’t really set a timetable up here. It is a fluid situation.

Do you have a position on how long contracts should be? Do you go beyond on six years?

I think anyone would get a little nervous when you start getting out on a six, seven, eight, nine-year deal, but the market is the market and you really have to go on what the market is. It is the way it is in any business, really. Supply and demand.

Do the stars in baseball need to be overpaid to keep them on a team or to get them from another team?

I haven’t even thought about it. That’s a good question. It depends on the age of the player, too. With an eight-year contract to a 34-year-old, I probably wouldn’t do that. To a 25, 26-year-old [maybe].

Has there been progress with Cano’s agent?

I’m not going to really get into that. I’m not going to be reading about this in the paper every day. The meetings we have had with Brodie [Wagenen] have been meetings face-to-face. 'I’m Hal. I’m Brodie. Good to meet you.' Very procedural thing that you would expect for the first couple of times.

In terms of the stadium, what is your take on where the attendance is so far?

We just had MLB meetings and we are definitely not the only team that is down. I think it is obvious by watching other games on TV. I think there are a lot of factors involved. I still think the economy is a big part of it. People are struggling out there -- and we understand.

Summer is coming around, warmer weather, and we have a lot of half-price ticket days and $5 ticket days. Things we have done for years. I think the fans are going to take advantage of that. There are affordable good seats in the stadium every game. This team really deserves to be supported. I’m looking forward to summer when the weather is better. April was terrible, weather-wise. I think the fans are going to come out and are going to support these guys because they have earned it.

What do you say about the ticket prices?

You hear about that in the media. You don’t hear that there are thousands and thousands of affordable seats in the $25 range for every game, not to mention the specials that we do, that we used to do at the old stadium. We have done every year. It is nothing new. We want to make sure that everyone that comes out here to see a Yankee game can get here and see one. There are plenty opportunities.

In terms of owning this team, the transition from watching your dad for so many years and then being in charge?

I’ve learned you can’t push a transition. It kind of has a life of its own. You can steer it. You can guide it, but you can’t push it. It was a process, without a doubt. My dad did things differently than I did. Similar that I did in certain ways, but different in a lot of ways. It took everyone a little bit of time to get used to what decisions I want to be involved in and ones I expect them to make.

What’s the biggest thing you learned from your dad?

The biggest thing I learned from my dad is that this job is a blessing, it is a gift, and you treat it with respect. It is being the managing general partner of the greatest team in the world of any sport. It is a blessing. So you treat it with respect every day.

In terms of your early years, what are your kind of earliest memories when you knew this was important?

My favorite Yankee memory is the '77 Series when [Mike] Torrez caught that pop up there. We won. It was my dad’s first World Series. I remember it well. I remember being down in the clubhouse with Billy and everybody. It was pretty special for an 8-year-old.

What type of player were you?

I couldn’t hit a curveball at all. I was a decent fielder, but I couldn’t hit a curveball. I was definitely not a great baseball player by any stretch of the imagination. But I loved playing it.

Was there a sport you were best at?

I played tennis for a lot of years. I played baseball and I played tennis and I ran some hurdles as well. But I was nowhere as good as my dad was in that either. So I’m a mediocre athlete at best.

In terms of the day-to-day, how much do you enjoy it?

I like it. It is challenging. It is not just baseball operations. It is not just what is going down here on the field. It is marketing. There are stadium operations. There is finance. There is a lot of stuff going on on on a daily basis that keeps you busy and keeps you challenged.

The Yankees have acquired Reid Brignac.

Brignac, who was designated for assignment by the Colorado Rockies, is a utility man who will add to the Yankees' infield depth. The Yankees will send Colorado cash. Buster Olney reported it will be $75,000.

The Yankees have designated Alberto Gonzalez for assignment.

Cashman liked Brignac over Gonzalez because he is a left-handed bat who plays all the infield positions other than first base.

"He is a fly ball hitter, so we will see if we can take advantage of the left-handed bat with Yankee Stadium here a little bit," Cashman said. "He is a very good fielder, more so than a bat."

Brignac, 27, hit .250 with one homer and six RBIs for the Rockies.

He will not be able to make it for Saturday's game.

"It is not the way we wanted it to work out," Cashman said. "When I hung the phone up last night, we thought we would have this player here today."

Cashman has heard the calls for Ben Francisco to be let go, but it is not forthcoming -- at least, not yet.

"In terms of your fans' comments section, just say, 'I'm holding on to him to piss everyone off,'" Cashman said. "If you are dealing with the feedback, 'Why is this guy here?' Just tell them that, just to shut them up."

CBS Sports first reported the Brignac acquisition.

Travis Hafner is back in the lineup after missing five games because of his shoulder issue, while Curtis Granderson is in right field for the first time. Ichiro Suzuki is on the bench.

Brett Gardner, CF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Vernon Wells, LF
Travis Hafner, DH
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Curtis Granderson, RF
Jayson Nix, SS
David Adams, 3B
Austin Romine, C

David Phelps, P

"E:60" reporter Tom Rinaldi accompanies Mariano Rivera to the small fishing village in Panama where he grew up and gets the future Hall of Famer to open up about his final season, the injury that almost ended his career, and his place in baseball history.

The New York Yankees are now 26-16, owners of the second-best record in the American League -- especially impressive when you consider how many players are injured at the moment, many of them stars.

Several major league veterans have seemingly been revitalized by donning the pinstripes for the first time, including Travis Hafner, Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells.

But the Yankees have also gotten contributions from several unsung players, who were either backups to start the year or called up from the minors. In fact, New York has already had five players make their major league debuts in 2013. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last year in which as many as five Yankees made their major league debuts within the first 40 games of a season was 1995.

Who were the five back in '95? Well, you'll certainly recognize some of these names. Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera -- three members of the "Core Four -- all arrived on the scene that year. The other two were right-handed pitchers Brian Boehringer and Jeff Patterson.

The lucky five so far in '13? David Adams, Preston Claiborne, Corban Joseph, Brett Marshall and Vidal Nuno. And all have made positive contributions:

• Adams was just called up this week, and has four hits in 11 at-bats -- including two Friday night. He's the first Yankee to hit safely in his first three major league games since Shelley Duncan in 2007.

• Claiborne threw a scoreless ninth inning Friday night, and has thrown eight shutout innings out of the bullpen thus far.

• Joseph started both games of a doubleheader in Cleveland on Monday, at two different positions (first base and second base), and had a hit, too.

• Marshall took one for the team Wednesday, throwing 5 2/3 innings of relief after Phil Hughes couldn't get out of the first inning.

• Nuno threw five scoreless innings and won his first major league start on Monday, in the second game of the doubleheader.

Adams and Claiborne are still with the big club. Nuno's on his way back to New York, to replace the injured Pettitte in the rotation. Joseph and Marshall have returned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. But whatever happens the rest of the summer, they've played a part in this promising Yankees season.

The question is, how much more of an impact will they have, if any? Only time will tell.

Just look at that '95 group. Jeter and Rivera are headed for the Hall of Fame. And Pettitte could join them in Cooperstown, too.

Boehringer had a very respectable 10-year career with the Yankees, Padres, Giants and Pirates, pitching in 356 career games, mostly out of the bullpen.

But Patterson? He made his major league debut on April 30, 1995, made three appearances in eight days, gave up one run on three hits in 3 1/3 innings -- and never pitched in the majors again.

Baseball can warm your heart. But it can break your heart, too.

Up now: Hiroki Kuroda was brilliant again Friday night, as the Yankees won the series opener over the Blue Jays, 5-0.

On deck: They'll be back at it this afternoon, first pitch at 1:05 p.m. David Phelps (1-2, 4.33) will start for the Yankees, opposed by Brandon Morrow (1-2, 4.69). Andrew Marchand will be on duty for ESPNNewYork.com.

You're up: Which of the five newcomers looks the most promising to you?

Hiroki Kuroda isn’t just the best pitcher on the Yankees right now. He might be the best pitcher in the American League.

The 38-year-old came through for the Yankees yet again Friday night, hurling eight shutout innings in a 5-0 victory over the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

Melky Cabrera led off the game with a sharp double to right field, but Kuroda didn’t surrender another hit until Edwin Encarnacion’s one-out single in the seventh. He allowed just those two hits, struck out five, walked only one, and improved to 6-2 with a 1.99 ERA on the season.

"It’s a night where I think he had all three [pitches]," said manager Joe Girardi. "He had a very good fastball, a very good slider and a very good split. ... He was just really, really good."

The Blue Jays (17-25) might be in last place in the AL East, but they arrived in the Bronx having won four in a row, and having scored 10 or more runs in three straight games.

But they looked baffled by Kuroda, despite the fact that they had already faced him twice this season. And the first-place Yankees (26-16) did more than enough at the plate, with two-hit nights from three rather unlikely sources: Brett Gardner, David Adams and Austin Romine.

"All of my pitches were pretty good today," Kuroda said. "And that led to a good outing."

That’s the kind of answer you usually get from Kuroda -- short, understated. Sure, part of it is because of the language barrier -- everything we get from him comes through a translator. But you get the sense that’s his style anyway. Body language can reveal plenty about a person, too.

Girardi was asked what he has learned about Kuroda since he joined the Yankees last season.

"He’s pretty calm," Girardi said. "He does smile a lot, and he does laugh a lot. And that’s the one thing that you really don’t know about a player is his personality.

"I can do all the preparation that I do and understand what a guy’s got. I’ve not been surprised by his stuff, because we looked at him, and when we played against him I was prepared with what he had. But his personality, he’s easy to be around."

He’s easy to root for, too. When asked to evaluate his season thus far, Kuroda offered even fewer words than usual.

"It’s been good, so far," he said.

The truth is, it’s been much better than that. Kuroda has made nine starts, and allowed three runs or less in each and every one. He was a hard-luck loser on May 7, giving up two runs over seven innings in a 2-0 loss to the Rockies. His only other loss came in his first start of the year, when he exited after just 1⅓ innings after being hit on his pitching hand by a line drive.

In his other seven starts, Kuroda has six wins and a no-decision -- a no-decision after giving up one run in 7⅓ innings against these same Blue Jays.

"He’s been so good for us," Girardi said. "Just the innings that he’s giving you, and he’s giving your bullpen a lot of times the night off to where you can use them in the other games. The quality starts that he’s given us -- he has been outstanding. The way he left us last year, he’s just picked right up and continued to impress."

On the same day that 40-year-old Andy Pettitte landed on the disabled list yet again, the 38-year-old Kuroda again lifted his team -- seemingly getting better with age.

The only three starters with better ERAs in the American League -- Felix Hernandez, Clay Buchholz and Hisashi Iwakuma -- are all in the prime of their careers, age-wise. But Kuroda is defying Father Time, and having his best season in the big leagues.

It does make you wonder, can he keep getting better? How many more seasons might he be able to pitch?

Kuroda chuckled when asked about his future. “I don’t really have the luxury to think ahead," Kuroda said. "All I think about is, treat the next outing as my last."

Odds are, it’ll be a good one.

What it means: A quarter of the way through the season, Hiroki Kuroda is pitching like a Cy Young Award contender.

On the same day that 40-year-old Andy Pettitte landed on the disabled list again, the 38-year-old Kuroda was nearly perfect against the Blue Jays, pitching the Yankees to a 5-0 win in the Bronx.

The Yankees avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season and improve to 26-16. They remain in first place in the American League East, 1½ games ahead of the Red Sox.

The Blue Jays, who had won four in a row, drop to 17-25, remaining in last place in the division.

On the mound: Kuroda entered the game with great numbers -- a 5-2 record and a 2.31 ERA. But he has struggled in the early innings at times, and when Melky Cabrera led off the game with a sharp double to right field, you wondered if that would be the case again.

Instead, Kuroda retired 18 of the next 19 batters he faced, not allowing another hit until Edwin Encarnacion's one-out single in the seventh. The only Toronto baserunner in between was Munenori Kawasaki, who walked with one out in the third but was then picked off.

Kuroda hurled eight shutout innings, allowing just those two hits, with five strikeouts and the one walk. He's now 6-2, and his ERA has dropped to 1.99 -- fourth-best in the American League.

Preston Claiborne finished the game off with a scoreless ninth.

At the plate: The Yankees had just eight hits, but that was plenty, thanks to Kuroda.

Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the first with a triple, and scored on a Robinson Cano groundout, giving the Yankees an early 1-0 lead.

The Yanks' second run came in the fifth. David Adams led off with a single, went to second on an Austin Romine single, advanced to third on a Gardner walk, and came home on a Jayson Nix sacrifice fly.

Adams scored the Yankees' third run as well. He doubled to lead off the seventh, went to third on a bunt single by Ichiro Suzuki, and scored on a double by Romine -- which knocked Toronto starter Mark Buehrle out of the game. The Yanks tacked on two more runs in the frame, on a single by Gardner and another sac fly by Nix.

Adams now has four hits in his first three games since being called up from Triple-A. He's the first Yankee to hit safely in each of his first three major league games since Shelley Duncan in 2007.

Romine, catching for the injured Chris Stewart, had been just 1-for-13 on the season, but was 2-for-3 on the night.

What's next: The middle game of this three-game series. David Phelps (1-2, 4.33) will start for the Yankees, opposed by Brandon Morrow (1-2, 4.69), first pitch at 1:05 p.m.

Here are the lineups for Friday's series opener between the Yankees and Blue Jays, first pitch at 7:05 p.m.:

Curtis Granderson sits, after playing three days in a row since coming off the DL.

Brett Gardner, CF
Jayson Nix, SS
Robinson Cano, 2B
Vernon Wells, LF
Ben Francisco, DH
Lyle Overbay, 1B
David Adams, 3B
Ichiro Suzuki, RF
Austin Romine, C

Hiroki Kuroda, P

And here's the Blue Jays' lineup:

Melky Cabrera, LF
Jose Bautista, RF
Edwin Encarnacion, 1B
J.P. Arencibia, C
Adam Lind, DH
Brett Lawrie, 3B
Colby Rasmus, CF
Emilio Bonifacio, 2B
Munenori Kawasaki, SS

Mark Buehrle, P

The Ben Francisco era might be coming to an end.

After catcher Chris Stewart suffered a left groin injury Thursday, which means he could potentially miss time, the Yankees are likely going to have to make a move to get another catcher on the 40-man roster for Friday's game.

The Yankees currently only have three catchers on the 40-man roster in Stewart, backup Austin Romine, and Francisco Cervelli, who is currently on the disabled list. To add another catcher, they will either have to release a player or move an injured player to the 60-day disabled list.

The Yankees currently have four players on the 15-day disabled list: reliever Joba Chamberlain (oblique), starter Ivan Nova (biceps), infielder Eduardo Nunez (oblique) and third baseman Kevin Youkilis (back). There has been no indication that any of these players will be sidelined for several more months, so there likely wouldn't be a need to move any of them to the 60-day list.

That leaves releasing a player as the likely option, and leaves Francisco as the top choice. The Yankees currently have five outfielders on the roster, and the other four of Curtis Granderson, Vernon Wells, Ichiro Suzuki and Brett Gardner aren't going anywhere. That leaves Francisco, who has five hits in 40 at-bats this season with just one homer and RBI, as the man likely to be released.

Even if Stewart only needs a day or two, the team can't afford to be without a true backup catcher for those games he's out. If Stewart goes on the 15-day disabled list, the team still needs to get a catcher on the 40-man to promote.

If Stewart were placed on the 60-day disabled list, which doesn't seem likely at this point, that would eliminate the need to release a player, but Stewart's loss would create a much deeper effect than any potential release.

The likely call-up for any move would be Bobby Wilson, who was hitting .174 with two homers and 13 RBIs for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as of Thursday.

UP NOW: The Yankees lost 3-2 as Pettitte and Stewart were injured. Chamberlain didn't get called up and Brett Gardner had two steals in the ninth. There were updates about the injured stars.

ON DECK: The Yankees face the Blue Jays on Friday. Mark Buehrle (1-2, 6.19 ERA) will be opposed by the Yankees' best starter this year, Hiroki Kuroda (5-2, 2.31). Kieran Darcy will have the coverage in the Bronx.

YOU'RE UP: How concerned are you about Andy Pettitte and Chris Stewart?

One of the knocks on Brett Gardner in the first quarter of this season is that the Yankees' fastest runner has been a bit slow pulling the trigger in steal situations.

And yet, in the bottom of the ninth inning of Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners, Gardner single-handedly put himself 90 feet from tying the game, and put the Yankees in the favorable position of having their best hitter, Robinson Cano, at the plate to drive him in.

The fact that it didn't get done? Don't blame Gardner.

The Yankees center fielder had a tough night at the plate, going hitless in his first four at-bats, including two strikeouts -- he now has 40 Ks in his first 157 at-bats and is on pace to strike out a career-high 160 times -- but he singled sharply with one out in the ninth off Mariners closer Tom Wilhelmsen, and with Jayson Nix batting, stole second and third to run his total for the season to nine steals in 12 attempts.

Nix struck out but Cano came to the plate needing just to dump the ball into the outfield to tie the game. However, after fouling off four straight pitches form Wilhelmsen, Cano rapped out to shortstop to end the game.

Afterward, Gardner was asked if he considered trying to steal home. "No, I wasn't able to do that tonight," he said, explaining that had Wilhelmsen, a right-hander, been a lefty and working from the windup, he might have given it a try, but with Cano at bat, there was no point in attempting something that was likely to fail.

"I just tried to get over in scoring position for those guys and we came up a little bit short," he said.

Gardner said he had stolen home a couple of times in his baseball life, although not since college. "Under the right circumstances, I might try it," he said. "But not tonight."

New York Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain (oblique) said he's focusing on making sure he strengthens his obliques after not getting activated off the disabled list for Thursday's 3-2 loss to Seattle.

There had been speculation that Chamberlain could have been called up, but Yankees manager Joe Girardi said prior to the game that Chamberlain "isn't quite there yet." The team instead promoted Dellin Betances.

"This is one of the things where you have to make sure it's done and taken care of, you don't want to let it linger on throughout the rest of the season," Chamberlain said. "Continuing to get it stronger, play catch and throw another side, and go from there."

Chamberlain said he plans to play catch on Friday and is not sure when his next outing will be, although he assumes it's going to be in Triple-A. He last pitched Tuesday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, allowing two hits but no runs over 12 pitches. Chamberlain went on the disabled list on May 3 retroactive to April 28. He has a 3.86 ERA spanning 9 1/3 innings.

"Just to be able to trust it and know when you want to go get it, it's there and you don't have to hold anything back. Whether subconsciously you're doing that or not, or whether you are getting ready to jump on it, you want to know it's there," Chamberlain said. "One of those things where I want to make sure it's strong and we've done some exercises to keep strengthening it the last couple of days."

Andy Pettitte said he is pretty sure the tightness in his left trapezius that caused him to leave Thursday's game with two out in the fifth inning was nothing more serious than a muscle spasm.

But Pettitte said he is not at all sure that he will be able to make his next start, scheduled for Tuesday against the Orioles in Baltimore.

"Obviously, I’m realistic," he said after taking the loss in the New York Yankees' 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Seattle Mariners. "I know how these guys are. I asked them if I could stay out there and try to get through it out there. So I’m hoping it's a spasm and it settles down. I can’t tell you I’ve had this before. I haven’t, so I don’t know, but I don’t feel like it’s tight right now. I feel like it’s loosened up and relaxed, so that's a good sign."

Pettitte left the game after striking out Kyle Seager for the second out of the fifth inning and the Mariners leading, 2-1. According to Joe Girardi, he noticed that Pettitte's velocity had dropped and that his arm speed was noticeably slower in the inning. Pettitte's cutter had clocked as high as 92 mph in the second inning but was down to around 87 mph in the fifth.

"He wanted to stay," Girardi said. "He said, 'I just got two outs (Pettitte fanned Jason Bay with a 77 mph slider to start the inning), let me try to get one more.' I said, 'No, because if you really hurt yourself you might be out for a long, long time as opposed to maybe missing a start.' It might not be anything."

Pettitte said he originally felt the pain in the fourth inning -- "It just completely locked up on me" -- and between innings went down to the clubhouse for a massage and heat treatment from trainer Steve Donohue, which provided temporary relief.

"But on my first pitch to Bay it just completely locked up again," Pettitte said. "It was just really tight. I couldn’t get extended at all. I really just felt like I was kinda cutting everything off, and just really trying to throw it in there, almost slower than slow to tell you the truth."

Pettitte said there were no tests scheduled and a lot would depend on how he felt Friday morning, and when it comes time for him to throw his between-starts bullpen session on Saturday. But he acknowledged that he was beginning to feel his age (he will turn 41 on June 15), and after missing nearly three months of last season after suffering a broken leg after being hit by a line drive, he has already missed a turn once this season with lower back pain.

"There's no doubt I'm getting old, but I don't want to sit here and tell you that that's the exact reason why," Pettitte said. "I guess anybody can jump to conclusions and say that, but then I look around the league and I see all kinds of people on the DL with all kinds of problems that are a lot younger than me, too. It's baseball and it's tough on the body, and it's an unnatural movement to throw that thing."

After pitching well in his last start, a win over the Royals in Kansas City, Pettitte was dissatisfied with his stuff even before he began experiencing the upper back pain. He allowed a run in the second inning on a walk, a single and an RBI double to Dustin Ackley, and barely escaped major damage in the fourth when he loaded the bases on a single and two walks, allowing one run on an infield hit by Brendan Ryan. Although he struck out five, Pettitte walked three batters in the first four innings, an inordinately high number for him.

"It’s been a battle, no doubt, it’s been a battle the past four starts," he said. "My command hasn’t been what I expected it to be, or what it’s been. I don’t know if something is causing that. But it is frustrating when you go out there and I’m not able to command the strike zone quite like I usually do."

With Ivan Nova still on the disabled list, now with an oblique injury, and Vidal Nuno ineligible to be recalled until next Thursday, the Yankees' only option if Pettitte can't go appears to be Adam Warren.

QUESTION: With the Yankees nine games over .500 and still atop the AL East by a game, do you think it is wise to skip Pettitte's next start, even if he says he feels good to go?