• Alex Rodriguez is with the team in Detroit, wearing a bandage on his broken left hand under a removable splint. A-Rod said he can do almost everything but hit two-handed -- in fact, he has been working in the cage swinging with his right hand only at a ball on a tee, an exercise he said was "for muscle memory."

• With the team on Day 4 of an unbroken 20-day stretch of games, Joe Girardi chose to give 38-year-old Ichiro Suzuki his first DH day as a Yankee (he DH'ed twice this year for the Mariners). "I just thought today was a good day to DH him," Girardi said. "We're going to go on turf for a few days (in Toronto on Friday, Saturday and Sunday) as well so we've got to be careful."

• Girardi said the decision to shut down Manny Banuelos for the next four weeks, effectively finishing him for the Triple-A season, was a significant setback for the 21-year-old lefty, who is considered the top pitching prospect in the Yankees farm system. "It hurts," Girardi said. "I don't want to say it's a wasted year, but obviously he didn't pitch as much as we wanted him to."

Banuelos appeared in just six games for Triple-A Scranton, working a total of 24 innings (0-2, 4.50) before going down with what the Yankees are calling a bone bruise in his left elbow. Andrew Marchand has the whole story here.

"Can he make that up? Yeah, you can make that up," Girardi said. "But who knows where he would have been if he had 150 innings this year?"

Girardi said it was possible Banuelos could pitch in a fall instructional league. GM Brian Cashman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

• As great as Justin Verlander is, he has been decidedly mediocre against the Yankees (4-4, 4.17 in 12 career starts). Derek Jeter, for one, never seems to mind seeing him on the mound. The Yankees captain is a .344 lifetime hitter against Verlander (11-for-32). On the other hand, Raul Ibanez (.115), Robinson Cano (.185) and Mark Teixeira (.111) have had their problems with the defending AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner.