Today is April 17 and 60 years ago, Bob Sheppard worked his first game as a Yankee Stadium PA announcer when the Yankees knocked off the Red Sox 6-1. That game happened to also be Mickey Mantle's debut and he had one hit in four at-bats during a Tuesday afternoon game that was completed in two hours, 12 minutes.

One name that will not be mentioned by the PA announcer is Alex Rodriguez, who is day-to-day with the famous oblique injury that seems to be trending throughout baseball.

"We’ll take it day by day," said manager Joe Girardi, while not totally ruling out having him for one at-bat tonight if he feels able. “We’ll shoot for Tuesday. If he can’t go Tuesday, we’ll shoot for Wednesday."

Rodriguez is still sore and said he hopes it feels better in a day or two. He also said it was might have been caused when he felt tight on a swing and that he has done nothing but get treatment (ice and ultrasound). He also won't swing a bat unless Girardi calls on him to pinch hit tonight.

In Rodriguez's place at third is Eric Chavez, who starts at third base for the first time in two years with the A's. Chavez is off to a .455 start in his limited action and Texas manager Ron Washington is well aware of his talent, mostly from his years on the Athletics' coaching staff.

"Eric Chavez is no slouch," Washington said. "It might not be the Eric Chavez that people remember from his first five or six years of baseball, but he can still hurt you. They do miss Alex in there, but Eric can hurt you also."

Chavez will bat sixth in a lineup that includes Brett Gardner batting ninth for the first time this year against a right-handed pitcher. Gardner returns after not playing against lefties Derek Holland and Matt Harrison and following a video session with hitting coach Kevin Long it was discovered that his lower half was not being used properly.

"Some swings I was taking, I was not using my lower half," Gardner said. "Not only was I getting behind in the count in most of my at-bats but when I was taking a swing, it wasn’t always my A swing and that’s something that’s very, very important."

Very important is getting Phil Hughes back on track after three bad starts and a dead arm period. That is why Hughes was doing some longtoss work with pitching coach Larry Rothchild.

Bartolo Colon will start Wednesday if that doesn't go well maybe the Yankees get to show everyone Kevin Millwood.

Millwood took a no-hitter into the fifth inning today for Trenton and though anything is possible, Alexi Ogando could do the same considering the way he has pitched so far.

You might remember Ogando from being a relief pitcher during Texas' run to the AL pennant and now he is being converted to a starting pitcher and based on the big items in the Ranger game notes, the conversion is going well. How well you might ask, well consider these tidibts:

Ogando has pitched 13 scoreless innings in his first two starts and is the second Ranger to pitch scoreless baseball in his first two starts as a member of the season-opening rotation. The other was ex-Met Jon Matlack, who began 1980 with eight scoreless innings.

According to baseball-reference, Ogando is the fifth pitcher of the live ball era, which began in 1920 to win his first two starts while going at least six innings and allowing two hits or less. The others were Lon Warneke (18 innings in 1934), Floyd Bannister (13 innings in 1988), Runelvys Hernandez (13 innings in 2003) and Roger Clemens 13 2/3 innings in 2004).

And of course Ogando's showing is part of Texas' overall mound sharpness. During the 14 games, their 2.71 ERA is the third lowest. Only the 1989 and 1983 teams were better at that point but those editions won 77 and 83 games respectively.