NEW YORK (AP) -- Yankees lefty Randy Johnson has a herniated disc in his lower back, an injury that could prevent him from pitching in the playoffs next week. The injury was discovered during an MRI exam this week and Johnson received an epidural injection Friday. ADVERTISEMENT FNL Phase 2 "Hopefully that will ease the discomfort," New York manager Joe Torre said. "If it doesn't ease the discomfort, I'm not sure he's going to be able to pitch. But we don't expect that to be the case." Torre's announcement came one day after the crosstown Mets said Pedro Martinez will miss the postseason because of a torn tendon in his left calf muscle. Johnson, who turned 43 on Sept. 10, is expected to play catch Saturday and throw a side session Sunday at Yankee Stadium. Johnson has a 7.64 ERA over his last three starts, giving up five runs each outing and failing to last longer than six innings. He is 17-11 this season with a career-high 5.00 ERA. Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina will pitch the opening two games of the best-of-five series against Detroit or Minnesota. Johnson is scheduled to pitch Game 3 on the road next Friday. "If he says he's ready to go or will be ready to go on Friday, we'll write him in. If things change, then we'll do something else," Torre said. "I certainly want Randy Johnson, bad back and all. His capabilities are very, very high. He's pitched for as long as he's pitched, and we know darn well he wasn't 100 percent every single step along the way." If after watching the weekend sessions the Yankees don't think Johnson can pitch next Friday, Torre said he probably would omit the Big Unit from his first-round roster. If that happens, the Yankees would use Jaret Wright and Corey Lidle in Game 3 and, if necessary, Game 4. Johnson has been bothered by back spasms over his last few starts -- beginning a day after his birthday -- but didn't tell the team until after he allowed five runs and seven hits over six innings in an 8-0 loss last weekend at Tampa Bay. The Yankees then decided he would skip his final regular-season start. "You don't know what you're going to get when he pitches," Torre said earlier this week. "The one thing I'm hoping for is that he feels better, and then we'll deal with the command at that time. But you can't have both. You can't have him stay sharp and throw and be able to rest something." Johnson missed over four months of the 1996 season with a herniated disc in his lower back that required surgery. Torre said he was unsure if this injury would also require surgery during the offseason.
Sure, Johnson had a pretty decent year, but the Yankees had to score a ton of runs behind him to get him those wins. He also blew the post-season for the Yanks last year. Yanks are not missing as much w/o Unit as the Mets are w/o Pedro. I just don't want Wright to get a start.
Big Unit could miss playoffs... http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASA...t_id=1689617&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy
I feel the exact opposite. While Lidle is not exactly this year's Chacon, I think he is much more capable of giving us a quality start than Randy is. Plus, with Wang and Moose pitching the first two games, the pen should be good and rested when they are called on after a Lidle appearance in the 5th or 6th, than if Randy were to shut down by the third. RJ and Pavano are just the latest Kenny Rogers and Kevin Brown for us. It really is starting to get on my nerves. We spend buckets of cash to field one of the most dominating lineups in the history of the game, and we have almost nothing to put on the mound. What the hell ever happened to Small? He fell off the face of the Earth.
This isn't as big as pedro since Randy was at best our 3rd best pticher but it's still big. iof we could have ahd randy pitching the way he was midseason it would have been near impossible to beat us this postseason but this gives other teams more hope. We still should win but we'll see what happens.
Relax. If not for that Johan guy, Wang and Moose would both be in Cy talks. Randy might have a bit greater propensity to get blown up than Lidle, but he's also going to have that dominant start about three times as often.
I did say "almost" :wink:. Seriously though, after Wang, Moose (but then again this is the postseason coming so it's still a question mark with him,) Mo, and Proctor, who else is more reliable than shaky? It just seems like we have all the scouting talent in the world when it comes to positional players, but we only get lucky with pitchers. With all the money we spend, and are still willing to spend above that, we should have a five man rotation that has an ERA of 2.00, and 1000 Ks. We have one rising star (Wang,) one guys approaching the very end of his road (Moose) (who has also traditionally been shaky in key starts,) Randy (a total has been,) Wright (who could be good, but throws too many deep counts,) and Lidle (who has been a welcome addition, but not this year's Chacon or Small.) We also have an overpaid jackass who hits the 15-day DL every time he gets a papercut. (I won't mention his name, but it starts with a P, and rhymes with Avano.) That's the thing. We don't need a dominant pitcher at this point. We need steady pitching. 3 or 4 runs given up during a game is something this playoff lineup should be able to handle with ease. It's that risk of a 5 run 3rd that scares the hell out of me.
