Yankees 5 Blue Jays 2
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said he felt no ill effects Thursday from a bruised elbow that kept him out of two games.
Teixeira, hit by a pitch Monday facing Baltimore, wore a protective pad against the Blue Jays. It didn’t hinder his swing. He doubled, singled and scored a run off Toronto starter Brian Tallet in the Yankees’ 5-2 victory.
New York starter A.J. Burnett limited the Blue Jays to two runs on five hits, one of them Jose Bautista’s home run on his second pitch. He struck out two and walked two.
Teixeira said it is “tough to get too rusty in two days, but you’re not in mid-season form yet, no matter what. Two days off right now isn’t going to kill me.
“I was blessed to not have anything worse. It feels really good now. Actually, (Wednesday) it felt really good by the end of the day, and I woke up this morning and it got better. I knew I was going to be fine.”
Teixeira said manager Joe Girardi wants him to wear the elbow armour until the soreness is completely gone, so he’ll keep it on for a a few more games.
“I really don’t like those things. I never have,” Teixeira said. “You can put armour all over your body and you’re going to get hit. That’s just part of the game.”
Burnett, who spent 2006-08 with Toronto before signing with the Yankees, said he has “more of an idea when to use certain pitches instead of just going hard,” as he did last year.
“There’s other ways to get you out. We threw changeups, got a double play, sinkers down and got ground balls. It’s a little different but I’m buying into it.”
He is scheduled to pitch Tuesday night at Boston.
“I’ll probably watch ’08 video instead of last year’s,” Burnett said with a laugh, comparing his 0-2 record and 8.85 earned run average against the Red Sox in 2009 with his 2-0, 2.60 ERA against them the year before.
NOTES: Toronto optioned LHP Brett Cecil and RHP Josh Roenicke to Triple-A Las Vegas . . . Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said the team’s rotation will open with Shaun Marcum, followed in order by Brian Tallet, Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow and Dana Eveland.