As the Yankees get closer to the end of the regular season, they are hoping to return two essential arms to the fold.
Before the start of a crucial four-game series against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, manager Aaron Boone delivered updates on Fernando Cruz and Ryan Yarbrough, who have pitched in rehab starts the last couple of weeks, and both are heading in the right direction.
The Yankees skipper said Cruz will have at least one more rehab appearance, which is set for Friday. And although that will keep him from this weekend's series, the hard-throwing right-hander should be ready by next week.
"We want him to go two ups, a four-out scenario just to have that built in with missing enough time," Boone explained. "The temptation will be to lean on him with how good he’s been all year. I want to have a little bit of volume built so when he gets here, he’s able to jump into any role we need him. We’ll give him one more. That’ll put him in play for the start of the Washington series, hopefully."
After the four-game set with the Red Sox, the Yankees will host the Nationals for a three-game series starting Monday.
Cruz has made three minor league starts over the last week. His last appearance came on Aug. 19 with Double-A, where he struck out three batters and allowed one hit in his one inning of work. In his three minor league starts, he's allowed four runs on five hits and one walk across 2.1 innings while striking out four batters.
In 32 major league appearances this year, Cruz pitched to a 3.00 ERA with 54 strikeouts across 33 innings pitched in his first season in pinstripes. He also closed two games.
As for Yarbrough, the southpaw made his second rehab start on Wednesday, throwing 50 pitches in 3.1 innings with Triple-A. He allowed two runs on three hits while striking out three batters.
"We want him to go another one to continue to build up a little bit," Boone said. "With the lack of starting depth down the stretch, it’s important to build it out if we can a little bit. It’ll be at least one more for him and then we’ll see from there."
In 16 games (eight starts), Yarbrough has pitched to a 3.90 ERA with a 1.17 WHIP this year with the Yankees.
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