Sunday, July 6, 2008

Yankees OF Johnny Damon was careful as he got dressed to leave the ballpark yesterday, wincing from the pain in his left shoulder as he pulled a shirt over his head.

One day after he crashed into the left field wall, Damon was still holding out hope that he won't have to go on the disabled list for the first time in his 14-season major league career.

"I think we'll know more tomorrow," he said after the Yankees' 2-1 victory over the Red Sox yesterday. "If I wake up and I'm feeling the same, then I think they're going to DL me. But if I'm improving, they'll try to keep getting me ready."

Damon got treatment and did some exercises yesterday but said it could be 10 days or more before he throws again.

Damon sprained and bruised his shoulder trying to track down Kevin Youkilis's line drive in the third inning of New York's 6-4 loss to Boston on Friday.

Damon raced back, jumped and gloved the ball but lost it when he crashed into the fence. It popped out of the webbing of his glove, bounced up off the top of the wall and came to rest briefly on the fence before rolling back onto the field. Damon threw the ball to the infield before leaving the game.

Damon got an X-ray and an MRI exam, which revealed a sprain in the joint.

"We'll see how he is tomorrow morning," Manager Joe Girardi said. "If he's pretty much the same as today, then we'll have to see."

· ROYALS: Volatile José Guillén got into a heated clubhouse exchange with pitching coach Bob McClure before last night's game against the Rays, knocking over chairs before several Royals stepped in to separate them.

Guillén and McClure argued face-to-face, but no punches were thrown. Guillén declined to comment on the incident.

Guillén was sitting at a table by his locker when he toppled over a chair and made a comment in Spanish.

After a teammate attempted to calm him down, Guillén appeared to get more agitated, tossed over another chair and said, "Coaches don't need to be all up in our . . . business."

McClure, who was sitting at his locker, turned around and said, "José, if you're talking about me, then you need to shut . . . up."

· INDIANS: Cleveland signed free agent RHP Jeff Weaver to a minor league contract, giving him a shot at making his sixth big league team.

Weaver, 31, will report to Class AAA Buffalo.

-- From News Services