"Mark Teixeira took six at-bats of what Joe Girardi called "live BP" today in Tampa, and is scheduled to play five innings of an Instructional League game tomorrow, but as expected, is unlikely to rejoin the Yankees until the final series of the year, which begins Monday in the Bronx against the Boston Red Sox.

"Everything looks pretty good right now," Joe Girardi said. "He ran better today, said he felt better today. He took a ton of ground balls and he's going to play in a game tomorrow. Then we’ll go from there. He's passed every test he was supposed to up to this point. He's on schedule for what was scheduled, so that’s a good thing."

The manager pretty much slammed the door, however, on the possibility of Teixeira joining the team in Toronto for the final game of this series on Sunday.

"I think it will probably be at home. I don't necessarily think it will be here," Girardi said, meaning Tex will have three games at most to prepare himself for the postseason.