New York Post

Yanks hope Tex is ‘baseball ready’ — in three weeks

- By DAN MARTIN dan.martin@nypost.com

Mark Teixeira isn’t coming back any time soon, but the Yankees hope the first baseman is back on the field — somewhere —in three weeks as he deals with torn cartilage in his right knee.

Teixeira had the knee examined on Monday and the team decided against surgery — at least for now.

“Our goal is to try to get him baseball-ready in three weeks [and] see where we’re at,” manager Joe Girardi said after the Yankees beat the Angels, 5-2, in The Bronx. “I can’t tell you it’s gonna be three weeks, but that’s our goal.”

He landed on the disabled list because of the injury, which could ultimately require surgery that would keep him out significan­tly longer.

Instead, he’ll get treatment and rest the joint, which locked up on him Sunday as he got out of a chair in Baltimore.

Girardi admitted there continues to be something of an unknown with how the knee will respond.

“When I say ‘baseball-ready,’ that means he would be ready to play in a game somewhere,” Girardi said. “I’m not sure [where]. Could it go faster? I guess. Could it go slower? I guess, but that’s our goal. We’ll try the conservati­ve approach and then we’ll go from there.”

Rob Refsnyder was back at first base in Teixeira’s place and went 0-for-2 before being pulled for pinch-hitter Aaron Hicks in the eighth.

He had another uneventful night defensivel­y before leaving.

It hasn’t all gone according to plan off the field, though, as Refsnyder woke up Monday to learn his Twit- ter account had been hacked and some lewd messages were sent out before he was able to regain control of his account.

“It’s unfortunat­e,” Refsnyder said. “I’m just trying to focus on playing first base tonight, but yeah, I’m sure I’ll have some people looking into that.”

Brian McCann snapped a 1for-28 slump with his seventh-inning homer.

“I’ve been working on some things,” McCann said. “I’ve been seeing the baseball, but when I go to make the pass at the ball, I just popped up and it’s not going where I think it should go.”

That changed Monday with a long fly ball to center in the second and then a foul ball that just missed being a homer in the seventh before he kept it fair on the next pitch.

“I’ve been feeling better,” McCann said. “Just stick to the process. I’ve been doing that my whole career and usually things go in my favor.”

“I thought the ball he hit in the second was a good sign,” Girardi said. “The one that went out was a better sign.”

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