Girardi defends Nuñez's defense

BOSTON -- Indications to the contrary, Joe Girardi insisted that Eduardo Nuñez isn't headed for a repeat of 2011.

"You're taking a two-week period and saying it's going to last the rest of the year," he said before Friday's game. "I'm not going to make that assumption."

Nuñez, who had a team-high 20 errors last season, made his second error of 2012 while playing second base in Thursday night's 7-6 victory over the Twins. His poor throw to first led to four unearned first-inning runs off Phil Hughes.

"We just need to continue working with him," Girardi said. "We need him . . . Our job is to continually improve him and that's what we'll work on. I have seen improvements. He's made errors but he hasn't compounded those errors, and that's improvement. And our job is to clean up the rest of it."

Girardi said that with Brett Gardner on the DL, Nuñez could get some time in leftfield and possibly in centerfield. That would give Curtis Granderson the occasional break.

"We don't necessarily have a true centerfielder besides Curtis," Girardi said. "It could be Andruw [Jones], it could be Nuney. I told Nuney to take fly balls in centerfield."

Jones, 34, has won 10 Gold Gloves but has had physical issues over the years. "The concern for Andruw playing a lot of centerfield would be his knees," Girardi said.

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Again speaking of Nuñez, Girardi said: "This kid can help us anywhere. He is athletic enough to where he can play a lot of different positions for us."

Girardi said he's "comfortable" with the current roster configuration, carrying a 13th pitcher instead of a replacement outfielder.

Hole heap of troubleFor Friday's game, there was a hole at the bottom of the Green Monster for a television camera. Usually the space is closed, with a light indicating the number of balls in a given count. Girardi discussed it with the umpires a couple of times between innings.

"That's not normal," he said. "I said, if the ball bounces in there, you're probably going to call it a double, and there are a lot of balls hit off that wall that aren't doubles."

Girardi said he thought the camera likely was there because of the day's festivities and will get "more information" Saturday.

He added, "I just don't want to lose a game because there's a hole in the scoreboard."

Extra basesGirardi said Michael Pineda, on the DL since March 31 with right rotator cuff tendinitis, is scheduled to throw two innings in an extended spring training game Saturday . . . Derek Jeter moved into sole possession of 18th place on the career hits list with 3,111, breaking a tie with Dave Winfield.