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Good question, and manager Joe Girardi did not have an answer on Friday afternoon.

"No, not that I know of," said Girardi, when asked if a surgery date has been scheduled for Mariano Rivera's injured knee. "I know they want to make sure that [the knee's] strong and it's flexible. My assumption is that he'll continue to see the doctors, and when they say it's time, it's time."

Rivera suffered the torn ACL just over two weeks ago, on May 3 in Kansas City.

No matter when he undergoes knee surgery, we'll almost certainly have to wait until 2013 to see the Yankees closer in action again.

In the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine, Howard Bryant penned a piece on Rivera, writing that the future Hall of Famer revealed his true character by refusing to walk away from the game following the freak injury:

"In injury, the least known of the great Yankees offered the clearest blueprint of his true self. He is pure competition. He does not fear the end of his dominance, being drilled into retirement by guys who wouldn't have been able to touch him when he was beautiful, at his best. Those fears are for the people who love him, who love watching him, who hurt when he fails. They are not for the fighter. Humiliation to Rivera is not stepping onto the mound and being beaten, for losing is a part of competition. Humiliation is ending your career with a freak accident in the outfield at 5:30 p.m. instead of on the mound."

Click here to read the full article.

Mariano Rivera joined the "The Michael Kay Show" Thursday. He talked about retirement, who could replace him, missing Michael Pineda and Derek Jeter's hot start.

 

Buster Olney sits down with Mariano Rivera to discuss the immaculate conception of his cut fastball, and how it became the ultimate pitch.

Only one player in the majors still wears No. 42, Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. The number was retired in 1997 in honor of Jackie Robinson, but all players wearing that number at the time were allowed continue wearing it.

Fifteen years later, Rivera is the only one still playing and the Robinson family is proud of the Yankees closer.

"We love him. He's done some work with the Jackie Robinson Foundation and he's a really good guy," said Sharon Robinson, Jackie's daughter. "If you have one last person wearing it, I'm very happy it's Mo. He's wearing it proudly. He's a really positive person."

Sunday marked the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, and his family was honored before the Yankees battled the Angels.

In the top shelf of Curtis Granderson's locker, there's a figurine of Jackie Robinson in a slide, a miniature version of his iconic steal of home against the Yankees in 1955.

At his parents' home, there are side-by-side photos of Robinson's steal and one of Granderson sliding into home in similar fashion against Toronto on Jackie Robinson Day in 2009, as well as the jersey he wore that day.

For the Yankees outfielder, as well his teammates, honoring the first player to break the color barrier on Jackie Robinson Day is always a special moment. Sunday is the 65-year anniversary of Robinson debuting with the Brooklyn Dodgers and all teams wear Robinson's No. 42.

"This day is the reason why I get the chance to play this great game of baseball," Granderson said before the Yankees faced the Angels. "Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier 65 years ago and doing a lot of things not only for baseball but the Civil Rights movement, allowing African Americans like myself, other minorities (to play).

"As you look around this clubhouse, there's Latin America, Asian America, Europe and everywhere else get a chance to play this great game all because of one person and that was Jackie Robinson."

The center fielder appreciates that players are allowed to wear Robinson's jersey once a year on the date of Robison's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The jersey has been retired across baseball except for those who were wearing the jersey when it was retired in 1997, with only Yankees closer Mariano Rivera still donning it.

Rivera, who was given the number by the Yankees, said it's a privilege to be the last one to wear Robinson's number. Being a minority wearing that number also carries special significance to Rivera, and he added that it's an honor and challenge to carry the legacy of the number.

The all-time saves leader complimented baseball on its efforts on Jackie Robinson Day, including the recent expansion to let all players wear the number.

"He got lost a little but I think Major League baseball is doing a tremendous job of trying to get it back," Rivera said. "I think Major League baseball is doing a tremendous job to put in the minds of the fans who Jackie Robinson is."

Granderson will be wearing high socks as well as customized shoes that honor Robinson. The shoes are designed by New Balance and have 42 written on the top of the heel as well as the flap, and are black and white. He's going to auction them, as well as a game-worn jersey, and give all the proceeds to the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

He added that there's a different feeling when he puts on that No. 42 jersey each year and likes looking around the field and seeing all his teammates with that number. This is the fourth year in which all players across baseball wear Robinson's famous number.

"Guys are enjoying it," Granderson said. "I think it's a great thing for baseball and a great thing for life in general and continuing to promote his legacy. I don't think it's been forgotten by anyone."

Ivan Nova Matchups to Watch
Orioles rightfielder Nick Markakis is off to a nice start, with five hits, including two home runs, in nine at-bats. He’s 4-for-9 with four walks in his career against Nova, about whom Yankees fans seem a little skittish, given his 8.06 spring ERA.

Markakis also has decent numbers against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, with six hit in 17 at-bats against him. It’s a streaky 6-for-17 though, one that included a stretch of four straight hits, and his current stretch of hits in his last two at-bats against the Yankees closer.

Nova had an 8.06 ERA in 22 1/3 spring-training innings.

Brian Matusz Matchups to Watch
The question is: Which Matusz will the Yankees see?

Will it be the one who allowed nine runs in 31 2/3 innings over five starts against the Yankees in 2009 and 2010, or the one who got clubbed for 11 runs and four home runs in 6 2/3 innings in two starts against the Yankees last season.

The Orioles are hoping for a return to the former version, who had a 22-to-3 strikeout-to-walk rate and allowed no home runs in 24 2/3 spring training innings.

Three Yankees enter with career batting averages of .400 or better against Matusz –- Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano are each 8-for-19 against him (.421). Mark Teixeira is 6-for-15 against him (.400).

Curtis Granderson
The Rays did a very good job against Granderson, both with their pitching strategy and their defensive shifting.

Last season, Granderson hit at a rate of nearly two balls in the air (flies and line drives) for every ball he hit on the ground.

He did so against a pitchers who threw two-thirds of their pitches over the middle-third of the plate height wise and above.

But Tampa Bay’s pitchers threw 27 of 51 pitches to Granderson in the lower-third of the strike zone or below and thrived. That approach induced five ground balls, two fly balls and only one line drive.

Granderson was 0-for-5 when hitting the ball on the ground in the series. He also struck out four times.

It will be interesting to see if the Orioles pitchers and defenders take a similar approach.

Potential domination
Since 1998, the Yankees are 160-79 against the Orioles, and have not lost a full-season series to them in any year. That.669 winning percentage is the Yankees third-best against any AL opponent in that span. They have a .722 winning percentage against the Royals and a .670 against the Twins.

How’s this for symmetry?

The Yankees have won the season series, 13-5, and won the series in Baltimore, 6-3, in each of the last three seasons.

Happy birthday David Robertson
Robertson turns 27 today.

Robertson celebrated his 26th birthday with a relief win last season against the Red Sox.

Trivia buffs (the kind who read Yankeemetrics) might know that the last Yankees pitcher to win on his birthday in consecutive years was Ron Guidry, who did so on his 30th and 31st birthdays in 1980 and 1981.

Endgame
File this one away if the Orioles have a late-game lead. Jeter is 2-for-14 with nine ground outs against Baltimore’s closer, Jim Johnson.

Johnson has pitched well against the Yankees the last two seasons. He’s shut down their left-handed hitters, holding them to nine hits -- all singles -- in 42 at-bats.

Stat of the Day
Is 0-3 a big deal?

The Yankees had seven regular-season losing streaks of at least three games in 2009. They won the World Series that season. They also had seven such streaks in 2010 and six in 2011, and made the postseason each time.

Elias tells us that since 1995, nine teams have made the postseason after an 0-3 starts.

Elias also notes that four teams have gone on to win the World Series after an 0-3 start -- the 1911 Athletics, 1914 Braves, 1973 Athletics, and 1998 Yankees.

Matchup to Watch vs David Price Nick Swisher is 10-for-22 with seven walks vs the Rays lefty , including 5-for-8 against Price last season, having reached base in each of his last four plate appearances.

Swisher has seen an average of 4.4 pitches per plate appearance against Price, which falls right in line with his ability to work counts.

When Swisher makes the decision to swing early in the at-bat, he’s effective. He’s 5-for-5 in the last two seasons against Price in the first two pitches of an at-bat.

This will also be the first meeting between Price and Mark Teixeria since Teixeria hit two home runs against Price in the final game of the regular season.

Prior to that, Teixeira was just 7-for-32 against Price, but that was likely due to being well defended. He’s only fanned against Price once.

Price does do a good job against the Yankees lefties. Robinson Cano is homerless in 31 at-bats against him. Cano, Curtis Granderson, and Brett Gardner are a combined 15-for-72 (.208) vs Price.

With a lefty going, Joe Girardi could work Andruw Jones into the lineup, but keep in mind that Jones was just 1-for-11 vs Price last season.

Matchups to Watch vs Hiroki Kuroda
Kuroda will be facing the Rays and pitching at Tropicana Field for the first time in his career.

He’ll likely face a lefty-loaded lineup, which makes sense given that lefties slugged .451 (nearly 40 points above league average) with 12 home runs against Kuroda last season.

Kuroda is a little bit prone to the wild pitch. He ranked second in the NL with 12 last season. But he’ll be working with a familiar backstop in Russell Martin, who caught him in 60 different games during their time as Dodgers teammates.

Kuroda’s career ERA with Martin was 3.76. With other catchers, it is 3.13.

The Granderson Shift
My Stats & Information colleague Will Cohen did a few lookups related to the Rays shifting their infield defense against s Granderson, which paid off twice on Thursday. Twice, Granderson grounded out on balls into the shift, including once into a double play.

Will noted via Baseball Info Solutions' defensive data that the Rays led the majors in shifts last season with 216, 46 more than the team with the next-most, the Brewers.

Their decision to do so was likely based on this piece of information –- 83 percent of Granderson’s grounders last season were hit between first base and second base. Granderson totaled only three groundouts to third base in 2011.

Jeter Watch
This may sound a bit geeky, but Derek Jeter has a very good history when playing in the Yankees second game of the season. In 14 “Game 2s” Jeter is a .393 hitter (22-for-56) with 15 runs scored. In his last five “Game 2s,” Jeter has four multi-hit games.

Another chance for Mo
Only once in his time as a full-time reliever (since 1996) has Mariano Rivera allowed a run in his first two appearances of the season. That came in 2005, with both games against the Red Sox.

The Not-So-Dreaded 0-2 Start
Fear not: If the Yankees lose, it would be their third 0-2 start since 1986. The other two were in seasons that ended with World Series titles -- 1998 and 2009.

The Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins 6-4 on Friday afternoon in Tampa, one of two split-squad games the Yankees were playing on Friday.

Here are your stars of this game:

* Eduardo Nunez, who went 3-for-3 on the day, the only Yankee in this game with multiple hits. Nunez had two doubles and a single, scoring one run and driving in a pair. He's now hitting .412 this spring, with seven hits in 17 at-bats.

* Derek Jeter, who played in his first game since March 14 after nursing a sore left calf. Jeter only played three innings for precautionary reasons, but went 1-for-2, with a single in the first inning. He came through the outing fine, and manager Joe Girardi said Jeter will play five innings on Sunday against the Tigers.

* Mariano Rivera, who pitched another easy 1-2-3 inning, this time in the eighth, and left to a standing ovation. Rivera has not given up a hit in five innings pitched this spring, and has not given up an earned run in spring training since March 15, 2008 -- a streak of 26 innings.

A half-star goes to starting pitcher Ivan Nova, who gave up four runs on seven hits, but did go seven innings and picked up the win. Nova was perfect through four innings, got into some trouble in the fifth and sixth (including a two-run home run by Josh Willingham), but was pleased with his outing after the game.

"I like the way I threw the ball today," Nova said. Everything was working fine. ... I made a couple of mistakes, with one, two, three pitches, that’s when I got hit. But otherwise it was very good."

"he lost his fastball a couple innings," said Girardi. "But I thought seven innings, five of them were really, really excellent. And he had the two that he struggled a little bit, but I was happy with what he did."

He is now 1-2 this spring, with a 6.86 ERA.

Ivan Nova ended up going seven innings today, giving up four runs on seven hits.

The Yankees were trailing 4-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth, but then Ramiro Pena hit a rare home run, and the Yanks tacked on four more runs in the seventh.

Mariano Rivera entered in the top of the eighth, with the Yankees leading 5-4. He retired the side in order, and received a standing ovation afterward.

Our three (and a half) stars today go to:

-- Robinson Cano, for launching a moon shot in the second inning of the Yankees 6-3 win over the Astros that is still being tracked by NASA, his first home run of the spring;

-- Hiroki Kuroda, , who allowed one run and three hits and needed just 59 pitches to get through a solid four innings;

-- and Brett Gardner, who saved a run for Kuroda with a charging, sliding catch of a pop fly to short left that would have scored a runner from second.

Also, a half-star to Mariano Rivera, who hit his first batter with a pitch but then got a strikeout and double play, needing just eight pitches in what amounted to a cameo appearance.

The instances of a pitcher coming back to perform well after a self-enforced (not injury-related) one-year absence are few and far between, but the Yankees seem to believe that Andy Pettitte will pick up in 2012 where he left off in the middle of 2010, at or near the top of his came.

"Yeah, why not?,'' Derek Jeter shrugged when asked if he thought Pettitte could still pitch the way he was pitching in July 2010, when he was 11-2 with a 2.88 ERA before going down with a groin pull that sidelined him for two months.

Mariano Rivera, while more reserved than Jeter, also expressed confidence that Pettitte could return to be an effective pitcher for the Yankees.

"It’s not easy, pitching is not easy,'' Mo said. "When you take a year off, plus, and you're expecting you’re going to be ready as you used to, it ain't gonna happen like that. But you know Andy will do the right thing before he goes north to help the team. It's all about being a fighter and being a player that don’t give up, and that’s what Andy is.''

I asked Joe Girardi if he could think of any examples of pitchers who had retired, sat out a year, and then came back to pitch the way they had before.

"There’s no one that really comes to mind for me,'' Girardi said. "But it's like I told people about Derek when he was struggling, I wouldn’t bet against him. I wouldn’t bet against Andy Pettitte. Our expectation is he's going to be the pitcher he was before. That's why we signed him.''

I actually came up with one pitcher who attempted to do what Pettitte is trying to do, with less than spectacular results: David Cone, who in 2003 attempted a comeback with the Mets at age 40 after sitting out the 2002 season. Coney gave it up a little more than a month into the season, after four starts, 18 innings, a 1-3 record and 6.50 ERA.

Upon catching Mariano Rivera last year for the first time, Russell Martin called Rivera "Picasso." After Rivera's scoreless spring debut on Sunday, Martin used another artist to describe Rivera's greatness.

"He's a Latin Andy Warhol," Martin said.

Martin added, "He is the same guy as last year."

Rivera did his thing on Sunday, going three up and three down. It was a good first step, though, Rivera said, belying how it may have looked, he is not in mid-season form yet.

"It will be there," Rivera said.

Rivera, who doesn't want to give any hints about if he is retiring not, good-naturedly tried to avoid any hints that he felt a sense of sentimentality about the standing ovation that preceded his arrival to the mound for the fourth inning.

"I always appreciate [the fans,]" Rivera said. "No matter the situation."

When asked if he felt the crowd came to its feet because they sensed this could be it, Rivera smiled and cut short the interview.

"Guys, I've got to go," Rivera said.

There was never a chance to ask if there were deeper meaning in those words.

In what could be the beginning of the end of Mariano Rivera's career, Mo did what he almost always seemingly has done -- he retired the side in order.

In his initial outing of the spring, the 42-year-old Rivera threw 14 pitches, 10 of which were strikes, retiring Ty Wigginton and Luis Montanez on flyouts and ending the inning on a Hector Luna groundout.

When Rivera entered in the top of the fourth in a 3-0 win over the Phillies, "Enter Sandman" blared over the loudspeakers and the sellout crowd at George Steinbrenner Field gave him a standing ovation, possibly sensing this could be his final season.

"I always appreciate [the fans]," Rivera said. "No matter the situation."

When asked if he felt the crowd came to its feet because they sensed this could be it, Rivera smiled and cut short the interview.

"Guys, I've got to go," Rivera said.

Last spring, Rivera didn't make his spring debut until a month into camp. He did it by striking out the side in which he threw strikes on nine of his 12 pitches.

"He was Picasso out there today," Russell Martin had said afterward.

This year, Martin first compared Rivera to Greg Maddux and then when pressed changed up the artist comparison.

"He's the Latin Andy Warhol," Martin said.

Rivera made his 2012 debut a week earlier but the results were typical Mo.

The only thing atypical was that Rivera showed up in the fourth inning after CC Sabathia pitched his three scoreless. It is just how Sabathia wants to see it in the regular season as he passes the ball to Rivera for the ninth.

"Of course," said Sabathia, who was a "3 Stars" award-winner on Sunday. "We have a lot of good guys in-between there. [David] Robertson and [Rafael] Soriano, Boone [Logan], Cory Wade, anytime you can get the ball to Mo you feel good about that."

There are almost no more words to describe Rivera. Sabathia even said he doesn't marvel at Rivera anymore. Sabathia is past feeling mere awe.

"I'm beyond that point," Sabathia said. "I think you just expect it. He has been so good for so long. It is Mo. There really is nothing more to say."

Except goodbye, and no one --especially the 10,000 fans on their feet Sunday -- wants to hear that from Rivera.

Mariano Rivera told ESPNNewYork.com today that he has not changed his mind about when he would announce his decision regarding his plans for next season.

A published report on Thursday suggested Rivera would make an announcement about his future around the All-Star break -- a report he vehemently denied.

"Nothing's changed," Rivera said. "I'll tell everybody what my plans are at the same time after the season."

Everyone breathe a big sigh of relief. Mariano Rivera threw his first live batting practice this morning, and although both Chris Dickerson and Francisco Cervelli had some good hacks -- Cervelli, in fact ripped what would have been two doubles down the left-field line, half his output of doubles for all of 2011 -- all of Mo's 42-year-old body parts remained intact and the closer extraordinaire said he "felt good.''

"Just trying to work, make sure my arm speed his there, my release, all that stuff,'' he said after throwing 28 pitches and two pitchouts. "And it was good, it was good. The ball was moving and going where I wanted it to. It was great.''

Rivera said he will throw one more live BP, probably Thursday, before possibly pitching in his first game this weekend. Asked if he was ready to face hitters in a game, Rivera had the perfect answer: "I'll be ready. I was born ready.''

Anyone care to dispute that?