O’Day goes on the IL with ‘cranky’ shoulder

NEW YORK — Darren O’Day was placed on the injured list with a right rotator cuff strain on Saturday. The Yankees’ side-armer has been dealing with a “cranky” shoulder all season. He will be shut down for a few weeks, Aaron Boone said.

“He’s kind of been cranky in the shoulder really all month,” the Yankees manager said before Saturday’s game against the Tigers at Yankee Stadium. “Started out a little bit early, but he was able obviously to pitch through it. Actually, the middle of the month was starting to feel pretty good and was kind of a non-issue and then over the last few days it still was just kind of in there cranky.”

“So decided to get it looked at and found that there was a strain in there,” Boone continued. “So obviously he’s got to be shut down now for a few weeks.”

The Yankees brought back Michael King to take O’Day’s spot in the bullpen. In three appearances this season, King has given the Yankees 11 scoreless innings.

O’Day last pitched Thursday, allowing a run in an inning’s work. In nine innings, over 10 appearances, O’Day has pitched to a 3.00

ERA.

Power outage no issue: No homers? No problem. The Yankees offense is built to win on power; they are supposed to bang home runs. Saturday, however, they played station-to-station baseball and still managed to beat the struggling Tigers 6-4 at Yankee Stadium.

Saturday was the first time this season they won a game in which they did not hit a home run. It was the first time since Sept. 22, 2020.

Instead, they got three big hits and three RBI from Aaron Judge and three RBI and two hits from Gleyber Torres. Judge tied his season high in hits and has driven in eight runs over the first two games of this series.

Dots all folks: Aroldis Chapman struck out two for his fifth save of the season. He has not allowed a run in nine appearances this season and has struck out 22 of the 35 batters he has faced this year. … Mike Ford left the game late Saturday, but it was just to tighten up the defense, Boone said.

Zack Britton, who had bone chips removed from his left elbow, got back on the mound for the first time since surgery on Friday. “He threw 15 pitches yesterday and everything went well,” Boone said. “Britt’s doing really well ... Zack’s well on his way..”