ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Gio Urshela was on his way to Tropicana Field and available to play on Thursday night after an MRI on his upper left leg came back clean.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that Urshela was kept back in New York to receive the MRI on a holiday morning, with the idea of putting him on a plane immediately if everything checked out. He entered Thursday's game in the bottom of the seventh to play third.
After hitting a sixth-inning home run in the Yankees' 5-1 win against the Mets at Citi Field on Wednesday night, Urshela labored around the bases.
"We thought we were going to have to make a change for him," Boone said of the tightness Urshela experience in his left glute.
Urshela received treatment and ran inside the batting cage and stayed in the game, making a second highlight reel defensive play at third base _ sprawling toward his left and throwing a strike to first base from the seat of his pants.
"He felt pretty good after the game but we wanted to make sure that there was not any muscle strains or anything like that possibly in there," Boone said.
