Didi Gregorious bruises heel; Austin Romine OK after taking foul ball off mask

Austin Romine back, Didi Gregorius out?

Romine walked into the clubhouse Sunday and said he was ready to play, one day after absorbing a foul tip off his facemask.

But shortly after the game against the Blue Jays started, attention shifted to Gregorius, who bruised his left heel after colliding with first baseman Kendry Morales after an infield hit. Gregorius left the game in the third inning, with Gleyber Torres moving from second to short and Ronald Torreyes coming in to play second.  Gregorius’s status was to be updated after the game.

The Yankees scored six runs in the first, four on Greg Bird’s grand slam.

Romine said, ``I feel great, I feel like I could play today,’’ hours before the game. Romine was not in the starting lineup, but Aaron Boone said he could be available if needed, pending additional pre-game tests. ``We’ll get his heart rate up today,’’ the manager said. ``We’ll get him on the bike and then  kind of ruin him through the tests again, make sure that helps symptom-free and if that's the case then he would be a reserve player for us today.’’

Romine was struck in the fifth inning Saturday after Blue Jays batter Richard Urena found off a 98-mph fastball from Luis Severino. Romine reeled backward and might have fallen until he was steadied by plate umpire David Rackley.

``I’m happy he came, ‘’ Romine said of the umpire. ``If I see  him out there today I'm going to have to shoot him a `thank you.’ There's kind of like a brotherhood out there I guess you could say. Because when they get hit, you want to turn around quick so that they don't fall You don't want anybody going down.’’

Romine wasn’t sure if the injury was serious. ``You gotta take that initial time to access yourself, what’s going on,’’ he said. ``I felt alright, I felt like I got buzzed.’’

Romine wanted to remain in the game--he was removed after the sixth inning--but stopped persisting, he said, when told ``you’re not playing anymore.

Romine saw the replay. ``I watched it once or something like that,’’ he said. ``I don't tend to like to watch that stuff.’’

Sanchez headed to Tampa

Gary Sanchez’s return to the lineup after two stints on the disabled list with a strained groin, finally appears in sight as he’s on the verge of beginning a rehabilitation assignment in the minor leagues. ``He’s headed to Tampa, he’s doing great and I would expect a rehab to start probably Wednesday or Thursday,’’ Boone said. ``Hopefully (he’ll) be on the fast track at that point. But he's doing really well. I think running really well, his conditioning’s  really good.’’

As for Aaron Judge, Boone repeated what he’s been saying about the player’s wrist fracture: ``It’s all about now getting to where we get to that that pain out of there completely and then bat in hand and off we go.’’