YANKEE NOTES
CHICAGO – As long as he doesn’t feel pain in his right shoulder, Yankee reliever Tom Gordon isn’t concerned. Not even when it took him as long as it did to get loose last night.
“Today it took longer to get loose,” said Gordon, who explained he is going through the dreaded dead-arm period some pitchers experience a couple of times a season. “It’s been like that since the All-Star break. It’s no pain.”
Gordon gave up a leadoff single to Tadahito Iguchi to start the eighth last night, then fanned Carl Everett and A.J. Pierzynski before Jermaine Dye fouled out.
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Torre juggled his lineup last night against White Sox righty Jon Garland. Robinson Cano was dropped from second to ninth, and Bernie Williams was inserted behind leadoff man Derek Jeter and in front of Gary Sheffield.
“He isn’t swinging the bat well,” Torre said of Cano, who was in a 2-for-19 (.105) slump but went 2-for-4. “And Bernie is swinging well.”
Williams, who went 2-for-4, has 12 hits in the last 40 (.300).
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Al Leiter is scheduled to start Tuesday against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. Torre had said Wednesday he wasn’t sure about Leiter’s start.
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Yanks left Ruben Sierra in Tampa when they came to Chicago, hoping he would start playing minor-league rehab games. But foul weather had the Yanks scrambling to get Sierra to Columbus so he could play and test his left hamstring . . .
Outfielder Ruben Rivera, a resident of Panama, can’t work out at the Yankees’ complex without securing a work visa. According to GM Brian Cashman, that could get done soon.