Following last night’s rain out and in anticipation of the start of the Yankees’ two-game series in Tampa, here’s a quick status report on the team:

• Joe Torre has declined the opportunity presented by last night’s rainout to skip Jaret Wright’s start tonight. His reasoning is that Wright had already flown ahead to Tampa before yesterday’s game whereas Shawn Chacon, who will now be pushed back to Saturday (an odd decision that puts him one day short of his originally scheduled next start on Sunday while giving Chien-Ming Wang an extra day of rest), had to be dressed and ready to pitch in Boston until the game was officially cancelled around 8:00 last night. Torre also wants to see if Wright can build on the four scoreless innings that concluded his last start against the Blue Jays. What I took away from that start was not the fact that Wright appeared to settle down after a rough first inning, but that he pitched five innings without striking out a single batter, walked four while throwing just 52 percent of his pitches for strikes, and benefited from three double plays in those four scoreless innings. One could blame the balls and walks on rust, and the ground balls just might be a good sign, but the lack of strikeouts for a pitcher who throws in the mid-90s and has supposedly discovered a nasty new curveball is alarming. Wright’s next turn falls on Monday’s off day and is followed by a three-game series with the Red Sox. I imagine he’ll be skipped then and, depending on his performance tonight as well as how well Aaron Small (who replaced Matt Smith on the roster on Monday, for those who missed it) does out of the bullpen in the interim, could find himself out of the rotation when that spot comes due again a week from Saturday against Oakland.
• Speaking of rotation rumblings, Carl Pavano is expected to make his first rehab start with single-A Tampa on Sunday. If nothing else, that starts his rehab clock, which means that he will have 30 days before the Yankees will have to activate him, shut him back down, or otherwise dispose of him. Pavano pitched well in an extended spring training game yesterday needing just 59 pitches to get through five innings, allowing one run on five hits and striking out three (no word on his walk total, though walks have never been Pavano’s problem).
• The Yankees other rehabing pitcher, Octavio Dotel, who’s progress was recently derailed by tendinitis in his surgically repaired elbow, threw 35 pitches in a bullpen session yesterday. He’s expected to throw another bullpen later in the week and could get back into extended spring training games next week if he can avoid further complications.
• Speaking of injuries, Gary Sheffield has yet to swing a bat due to his swollen wrist. Until he can take some swings, he won’t see any game action. The Yanks are hoping they won’t need to disable him, but for the moment he’s not a consideration, and the Yankees are operating with a three-man bench.
• With Sheffield on the mend, last night’s line-up was to include Bubba Crosby in right field and Bernie Williams at DH. Ouch. Hopefully Andy Phillips, who hit a game-tying home run in his last start on Sunday, will take Bernie’s spot tonight against the left-handed Casey Fossum. Fossum, for his part, has a dreadful season line due largely to a pair of awful outings in Toronto and Texas in which he gave up a total of six home runs in 8 2/3 innings. He’s allowed just one dinger in his other three starts, one against the O’s and two against the Red Sox, posting this combined line: 19 1/3 IP, 13 H, 5 R, 1 HR, 11 BB, 6 K. Looks great until you get to those walks and strikeouts. The Cherry Hill, NJ native was surprisingly successful against the Yanks last year, posting a 2.66 ERA in four games (three starts). Makes you wonder if tonight will be a repeat of the Yankees’ odds-defying 14-walk, 2-run performance against Seth McClung and company from last week.
• Finally, I’ve been ranting at anyone who will listen about Hideki Matsui’s current slump. Every year, Matsui’s swing falls apart as he starts opening up too early and pulling off the ball. In his first year with the Yankees, Jorge Posada noticed it and told him to keep his hands back as a reminder, setting Godzila off on a tear when interleague play began in June. Last year, Matsui was doing the same thing when he hurt his right ankle playing right field in St. Louis on June 12. The injury forced him to keep his weight back in the batters box and again he went off on a tear. It’s the same thing every year, he starts with a flourish, starts pulling off the ball and falls into a slump, and then hits the cover off the ball once he corrects his swing. One would think that he’d be conscious of it now, but he’s been doing the same thing this season. Fortunately, his manager and hitting coach have been paying attention. From Tyler Kepner:
  

  The hitting coach Don Mattingly has shown Matsui video of his at-bats this year and last, and Matsui agreed with Joe Torre that he was opening his front shoulder too soon.

  “He’s probably right,” Matsui said through an interpreter. “Usually when I get into bad slumps, the bad habit that comes specifically is that I come off the ball and open up a little bit. It’s something you go through during a season.”

  Matsui’s a month ahead of schedule in recognizing the problem. If he fixes it as easily as he has in the past, he could be well on his way to replicating his outstanding 2004 season, which was easily his best in pinstripes. Indeed, Matsui’s swing could be one of the more compelling aspects of what promises to be an ugly game at the Trop tonight.

Update: A monster headache wiped out my afternoon and, having just come to, I just realized that I forgot to rest the D-Rays roster for you all. There’s not much different. The only actual roster move they’ve made since putting Jorge Cantu on the DL and calling up Greg Norton during last week’s Yankee series was trading non-roster minor league reliever Carlos Hines to the Giants for righty set-up man Tyler Walker and designating Scott Dunn for assignment to make room for Walker. They have, however, shuffled their line-up, moving the surprising Ty Wigginton to second in Cantu’s absence and giving Sean Burroughs the third base job for the time being (bouncing Russell Braynan from right field, to third base to the bench). They’ve also moved Joey Gathright from ninth to lead off and promoted Toby Hall, resulting in something that looks like this:

L – Joey Gathright (L)
L – Carl Crawford (L)
R – Jonny Gomes (R)
R – Ty Wigginton (R)
R – Toby Hall (R)
R – Damon Holins (R)
L – Travis Lee (L)
L – Sean Burroughs (L)
S – Tomas Perez (S)