Yankees Notes - 8/29

Tigers in Town; Pavano injures himself yet again;

The Yankees open a 3 game series tonight with the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers. No, it doesn't get any easier for the Pinstripes, even though they're finally sleeping in their own beds. Coming off a stretch of 21 games in 20 days, in which they went 11-10, the Yankees finally got a much needed day off yesterday. Scott Proctor and Ron Villone probably pitched anyway.

The Yankees got more bizarre news on the Carl Pavano front. After last Friday's rehab assignment for Columbus, Pavano complained of some discomfort in his oblique area. Nice try there Carl. Turns out that Pavano was in a car accident 2 weeks ago and hadn't bothered to inform the team. The truth finally came out on Saturday. Pavano is being evaluated to determine if he can continue to pitch. Maybe they should evaluate his mental state instead, It's hard to imagine, but this has been a bigger disaster than signing Jose Contreras. You can see the Yankees eating salary to deal Pavano and then he'll win 20 somewhere else.

Weather permitting, Chien-Ming Wang takes the hill tonight looking for his 16th win. That would match Roy Halladay for the AL lead. Lefty Nate Robertson gets the nod for the Tigers. The two teams met back in late May/early June with the Yankees taking 3 of 4 on the road. The Tigers have struggled in August, going 12-14, and lost their starting 2nd baseman Placido Polanco for the remainder of the season with a separated shoulder. Polanco led the AL in hitting with runners in scoring position. The Tigers have still managed to maintain a 5 game lead over Minnesota and 5.5 games ahead of Chicago.