Watching James Paxton slowly negotiate the dugout stairs on the way to the clubhouse after three innings was a snapshot of the Yankees’ season.
High-end talent exiting a game with a physical problem has become common place for the Yankees, who had 13 players on the injured list when Paxton’s first pitch was delivered against the bumbling Twins at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.
Three innings, an unearned run and 64 pitches made up Paxton’s evening, and his exit came 4¹/u2082 hours after Aaron Boone painted a positive picture about the injury front.
Then Paxton was finished and a faced a date with the Carl Pavano Memorial MRI tube to see how serious his cranky left knee is.