While the New York Yankees are anticipating Miguel Andujar’s return from a right shoulder strain, they are holding their breath about James Paxton’s sore left knee.
Andujar is expected to be activated from the injured list for Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium, but the Yankees will be awaiting MRI results on Paxton’s knee.
When Andujar returns, the Yankees are hoping their IL total shrinks to 12 players, though it is possible Paxton could be placed on the IL. The left-hander exited his Friday start after the third inning. Paxton did not seem to think the injury was anything more than some lingering soreness.
Andujar is returning from missing 28 games due to a right shoulder injury. The Yankees initially thought he’d need surgery on a torn labrum, but he showed enough in rehab activities to come back.
Andujar probably will start at designated hitter as the Yankees like how fill-in third baseman Gio Urshela has played on defense and offense. Andujar will look to build on a stellar rookie season that saw him hit .297 with 27 homers and 92 RBIs in 149 games.
“Miggy’s a really good player,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “So, especially with so many guys out right now, to get a guy that swings the bat the way Miguel does back in the flow, I think it will obviously add some length to our lineup.”
Andujar will return to a team that is 12-4 since April 16, including a series-opening 6-3 victory over the Twins on Friday, when Gary Sanchez homered twice.
The Twins will be hope to rebound from a mostly quiet night at the plate Friday. Though Nelson Cruz homered late, the Twins were held to four hits, lost their eighth straight regular-season game in New York and fell to 1-13 in the regular season in Yankee Stadium since the start of the 2015 season.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s anything that’s a mental block for us right now,” Minnesota starter Kyle Gibson said. “Over the past four years, they’ve had some pretty good teams, obviously. And other than 2017, we hadn’t played our best baseball, so we’ll see how the rest of this series plays out. I think we’ve got a chance to win the next two games and turn that around.”
J.A. Happ (1-2, 4.68 ERA) will pitch for the Yankees on Saturday, and he is coming off of his best outing of the season. In a 6-4 win at San Francisco on April 27, he allowed five hits in seven scoreless innings to record his first win of the season.
Happ is 3-4 with a 4.85 ERA in eight career outings (seven starts) against Minnesota.
Jake Odorizzi (3-2, 3.34 ERA) starts for the Twins coming off an outing nearly identical to Happ’s most recent appearance. Odorizzi allowed four hits in seven scoreless innings during a 1-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday.
Odorizzi is 6-8 with a 4.33 ERA in 16 career appearances (15 starts) against the Yankees. He last faced the Yankees on Sept. 12, 2018, in Minneapolis when he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and allowed a run and one hit in 7 1/3 innings of a 3-1 win.