BOSTON — Brett Gardner reported s🅠light improvement in his strained left oblique Sunday, but acknowledged his season could be over.
“I hope I can get back, but I’ve got to be realistic,” said Gardner, who had an MRI exam in New York on F꧃riday after suffering the injury on a check swing in Baltimore on Thursday. “I feel a little better, but we’re running out of time.”
Oblique strains can be notoriously tough to get rid 𓃲of, and Gardner didn’t expect to be able to come back until he was fully healthy.
“The only way I🦩 come back is if I’m 100 percent,” Gardner said. “I haven’t had one of these injuries before. I’ve talked to other guys who have played through them in a week, and others have missed a month.ꩲ”
While manager Joe Girardi initially sounded as if he might be able to use Gardner as a 🅘pinch runner even when he was still feeling the effects of the injury, the center fielder didn’t sound as if that was the plan any longer.
“I think that would bother me,💮 too,” Gardner said. “I can’t run, hit or throw.”
Curtis Granderson has filled in at leadoff and in center field since the injury, and Girardi doesn’t think that will𝓀 change anytime soon.
“You’ve got to give [Gardner] a week to see where he is at,” Girardi said. “He is a ways from pic🥂king up a bat.’’
Though the Yankees have struggled, the other wild-card contenders have been unable to pu⛎t them away. That makes Gardner’s inability to 🌌get back on the field even more damaging.
“It’s frustrating, but the team is stillꦅ in𒁏 this thing,” he said.
Unlike with other injuries, it is difficult to put a time frame on how long Gardner will be out. He admitted the unknown is hard to deal with, but he was atဣ least pleased to know what the prob🔴lem was.
It will be up to Gardner to determine when that c💙han♎ges.
“It all depends on how I feel,” he said. “But I w🌸ould say it’s going to 🌱be at least a week before I can do anything.”
By then, it may be too late — altho𝐆ugh they will at least be done ꧟with the Red Sox, who have beaten them up recently.