PHOENIX — Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher were selected by MLB’s drug testers yesterday hours before the Yankees faced the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
Jeter was seen walking in the hallway outside the clubhouse with a member of the drug-testing unit. Later the same person prepared to take Swisher out of the clubhouse for a urine test.
Players are selected at random for drug testing.
Jeter and Swisher were in the lineup against right-hander Dan Haren and going in two different directions.
Jeter was in a 6-for-37 (.162) slide and Swisher, who is having an All-Star-caliber season, had six hits in 15 at-bats (.400) and coming off a two-RBI game Monday night.
“He isn’t getting hits right now,” Joe Girardi said of Jeter. “[Monday night) he just missed three balls. I thought he had good swings but he just popped it up.”
Jeter went 2-for-5 and scored two runs in the 9-3 win. Swisher went 2-for-5 and scored twice.
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Jorge Posada caught in consecutive games last night for the first time since coming off the DL June 2. Of the 18 games he appeared in, 14 were as the DH.
“After [Monday] I feel real good and it’s fine right now,” Posada said of the right foot that was fractured May 16.
Posada, who was 12-for-57 (.211) since returning from the DL, said his hitting stroke will surface.
“I am still working on that,” said Posada, who went 0-for-3 and drove in a run. “It’s just a matter of working.”
Girardi, who said the plan was for Posada to play two of three against the Diamondbacks, was anxious to see how Posada reacts to back-to-back catching assignments.
“It’s the one thing we haven’t done yet,” Girardi said.
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NBA star and future free agent Amare Stoudemire sat in the front row behind the plate wearing a Yankees cap.
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When the Yankees dropped $3 million on Gary Sanchez a year ago, they obviously had high hopes for the then 16-year-old catcher from the Dominican Republic.
Well, Sanchez has a long way to go before even being considered a bona fide prospect but his debut in the Gulf Coast League Monday was eventful because he went 2-for-4 and hit a grand slam for Tampa.
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Andy Pettitte, last night’s winner passed Lefty Gomez for fourth place on the on the Yankees’ all-time innings pitched list with 2,501. Whitey Ford (3,171), Red Ruffing (3,168) and Mel Stottlemyre (2,662) have more innings than Gomez.
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Mariano Rivera, who has retired 21 straight batters, needs one strikeout to tie Al Downing (1,028) for ninth place on the all-time Yankees list and one appearance to tie Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers (944) for 18th place on baseball’s all-time games pitched list.
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The Yankees will be represented at the Futures Game in Anaheim the Sunday before the July 13 All-Star Game by catcher Austin Romine and pitcher Hector Noesi. Romine will play for the USA club and Noesi for the World team.
They are teammates at Trenton (Double-A) where Romine is batting .283 with three homers and 34 RBIs and Noesi is 3-1 with a 2.31 ERA in five games (all starts). He was 5-2 with a 2.72 ERA in eight games for Tampa (Single-A).