Sheffield returns with three innings of work
TRENTON » Justus Sheffield is back just in time for the playoffs.
The Yankees’ No. 5 prospect, Sheffield had been shelved since July 5 with a strained oblique and returned with three innings of work in the first game of a doubleheader against Reading on Sunday night.
Sheffield allowed two runs on five hits and struck out five. He threw 54 pitches, two shy of his 56-pitch limit.
The left-hander’s fastball velocity was in the mid-90s and he snapped off his slider, the pitch he suffered the injury throwing.
Although Sheffield ended up with the loss — the Thunder (9147) couldn’t get anything going off the Fightin Phils’ Jacob Waguespack and fell 3-1 — the important thing is he came away healthy and is in line to start Game 2 of the ELDS against Binghamton on Thursday.
Reading’s Mitch Walding hit his 24th home run — an opposite field shot to left — off Sheffield in the first inning.
Malquin Castillo hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning for a 2-0 Reading lead.
Thairo Estrada cut the deficit in half with a run-scoring single in third, but the Fightin Phils tacked on an insurance run in the sixth when Drew Stankiewicz wrapped an RBI triple into the right-field corner.
Estrada was 2-for-2 and upped his batting average to .301 before he was removed from the game in the fifth inning.
Frazier update
Mitchell said Clint Frazier is on schedule to rehab with the Thunder during their playoff series against Binghamton.
Frazier (oblique) has been working out with the team since Friday, but hasn’t appeared in a game yet.
“Just going by the schedule, he’s going to play with us in the playoffs,” Mitchell said. “Nothing’s changed on that. It could, but we haven’t heard anything.”