Yankees put Ivan Nova on DL, see lead over Rays cut to 2 1/2 games

CLEVELAND -- Derek Jeter described Thursday's off day as "much needed."

That's because Wednesday night marked the end of 20 straight games. Even more significant, after being swept by the White Sox, the Yankees saw the Rays move within 21/2 games Thursday night by defeating the visiting Athletics, 5-0. The Yankees had led the Orioles by 10 games and the Rays by 101/2 on July 18.

Even the day off wasn't bereft of news. In a move that had been expected, the Yankees placed righthander Ivan Nova on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in his right rotator cuff.

Nova was sent home Wednesday night after feeling what Joe Girardi described as "tightness" in his right shoulder. Nova, who is 1-4 with a 7.28 ERA in eight starts since the All-Star break, was evaluated Thursday by team physician Christopher Ahmad, who prescribed "medicine and rest."

David Phelps, who was 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA against the Rangers and Red Sox while filling in for CC Sabathia -- who is scheduled to come off the disabled list and start Friday night against the Indians -- will take Nova's rotation spot.

The Yankees have mostly responded with indifference to the slew of injuries they've sustained this season -- "everyone goes through them" is the common refrain -- and that feeling permeated the clubhouse Wednesday regarding the suddenly tight race.

"That's baseball," said Girardi, whose postgame encounter with a heckling White Sox fan Wednesday night went viral. "It's what you go through. And you know that the season's not over at 120 games, it's not over after 140. You have to play 162, and we're going to play the teams we need to win against, that's the bottom line. And we still have the lead."

Regardless, it's important to note that an extended period of poor play from the Yankees is what allowed Tampa Bay to get back in the race. The Yankees had won nine of 12 before losing three straight to the White Sox, but they have gone 15-18 since July 18. The Rays are 23-10 in the same span and are 16-5 in August.

As Girardi pointed out, the Rays "have played exceptional, that's the bottom line."

He added, "We went through a period like that too," referencing his team's 20-7 record in June after going 27-23 in April and May. "You're going to go through your highs, you're going to go through your lows and you just have to manage both of them."

Jeter expressed indifference when the Yankees held a 10-game lead over the Orioles July 18, and his feeling haven't changed.

"You don't look at the scoreboard or the standings in April, May, June, July, August. I just don't," said Jeter, whose sixth-inning blast Wednesday night gave him a home run in three straight games for the first time in his career. "I think it's too early. We still have [38] games left. It would concern you if you were chasing somebody and you didn't have the opportunity to play them; then you don't control what happens. It's going to be tough, but all the teams that are close to us, we play."

Of the Yankees' remaining games, 29 are against division teams. They have six games left against the Rays and seven against the third-place Orioles, who trail the Yankees by five games.

Mark Teixeira differs from Jeter in that he does look at the standings; after all, they're usually posted in every stadium. But that's not to say he's concerned. The AL East, he said, is playing out the way just about everyone thought it would in spring training.

"We probably didn't deserve to have a 10-game lead. No one ever thought we were going to run away with this thing," he said. "We always knew it was going to be a battle. This is probably where we're supposed to be. It's a tough division and we know we're going to have to keep fighting."