Swisher still not ready to play

Nick Swisher tried to take batting practice Monday but cut the session short. "Not quite there yet," he said, according to a Yankees spokesman.

Swisher, held out a second straight game because of the left quad contusion he suffered Saturday against Washington in a collision at the plate, was not available to the media before Monday night's game. Swisher, injured when he took a knee from Nationals catcher Jesus Flores, received treatment during the game.

Joe Girardi has said Swisher is day-to-day, but he has seen improvement in the rightfielder's condition the last two days.

"It's a bone bruise. It's going to go away," Girardi said. "Is it another day after today? Possible. Do I expect to have him in the next couple of days? I do. Big improvement from yesterday."

Martin at DH

Girardi said that had Swisher not been hurt, his intent was to have Russell Martin catch CC Sabathia for the first time since April 10. But Swisher's unavailability changed that; Girardi started Chris Stewart at catcher and had Martin at DH.

"If Swish could play today, I might have caught Russell," Girardi said. "But when I couldn't play Swish today, I decided just to DH Russell. And CC and Stew were together against Atlanta [June 12] and he knows where things went right, where things went wrong. But I do want to get Russell and [Sabathia] back together."

Pen is mightier

Despite losing Mariano Rivera and David Robertson, who returned Friday, within two weeks of each other in early May, the Yankees' bullpen brought the third-lowest ERA in the majors (2.63) into the game. The unit has allowed 18.7 percent of inherited runners to score, the lowest mark in the majors.

"The fact that we lost Mo and Robertson, those are two pretty key ingredients when you look at our bullpen on paper," Girardi said. "Yeah, I am a little bit amazed. You can go one through seven down there and they have all done their job."