The Yanks have a three-game series with the White Sox starting Monday night. Because of the late start time on Sunday night, they probably won't get into Chicago until early Monday morning.

Sometime in the afternoon, they'll start to prepare for their 17th game in 17 days.

Quite a grind.

In fact, the Yanks are in the midst of a 20-game-in-20-days stretch.

And for a team that has several stars in their mid- to late-30s, that kind of scheduling quirk presents unique challenges.

"It's substantially more challenging," Joe Girardi said. "You can talk about a veteran team and you can talk about a veteran team, and that's what we have. We're not talking (age) 29-30 for some of our guys. We're talking a little bit older than that.

"So it is somewhat challenging. Day games after night games, road trips ... but it's a schedule that teams have to go through. You just have to deal with it."

Entering play Sunday night, the Yanks had dealt with it quite well. They were 10-6 through the first 16 games of the stretch, which started Aug. 3.

X-RAYS FOR A-ROD, PETTITTE: Alex Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte will both have X-rays on Sunday evening. We will have more information on this after the game.

Pettitte has a fractured left fibula. He had a setback in his rehab in late July, when he experienced swelling in his leg. Pettitte estimated that it cost him about 10 rehab days. He recently expressed concern that another setback could cost him his season.

Rodriguez has been on the disabled list since July 25 with a broken left hand.

He has been taking one-handed swings, throwing a football and working out on a bike to rehab the injury. On Sunday night, he did some light fielding. He is not expected back on the field until next month.

If his X-ray on Sunday goes well, Rodriguez might be cleared to start hitting.