Swisher takes a seat again

Yankees manager Joe Girardi sat Nick Swisher for the second straight game last night and said he was giving him time off to work on his hitting and clear his head.

The switch-hitting Swisher was hitting .214 with two home runs and 19 RBIs in 42 games. His average also is significantly lower against righthanded pitchers (.170, 18-for-106) than lefthanders (.333, 13-for-39), and the Blue Jays pitched righthander Carlos Villanueva Monday night.

"I'm trying to get him going,'' said Girardi, who gave lefthanded-hitting Chris Dickerson his second consecutive start in rightfield. "I told him to take a couple days, work on this and see if we can get his lefthanded swing going. I thought it would be a time to give him a couple days to just take a deep breath."

Swisher said it wasn't his call but that he stands behind his manager. "Sometimes other people know what's best other than you,'' he said.

Swisher acknowledged some frustration but said he otherwise feels "pretty good."

"I don't feel like I'm striking out there every time,'' he said before the game. "I feel like I'm making good contact. Like Yogi said, it's not a slump, I just ain't getting no hits."

Swisher is coming off a 2010 season in which he had a career-high .288 average along with 29 home runs and 89 RBIs. Asked if he has any idea how to explain his lack of production this season, he offered little.

"This game will beat you up,'' he said. "Sometimes it'll put you on top of the mountain and it puts you in the gutters. I'm a competitor. I'm a fighter. I want to be in there every day, so obviously, when you're not going to be, you are a little disappointed, but sometimes it's going to happen."

Swisher said he'll continue to work with hitting coach Kevin Long and support his teammates from the bench, adding: "I'll be the best cheerleader I can be."

According to Swisher, Girardi told him he'll return to the lineup later in the series.

"Sometimes you can just take a deep breath and clear your head and maybe put the last 50 at-bats behind you," Girardi said. "Sometimes guys just need a break, a mental break. We've went the whole year and put him out there every day and I thought I'm going to try something different now."