DETROIT -- Derek Jeter left Wednesday night's New York Yankees-Detroit Tigers game after 7½ innings and it is not sure whether he will be able to play in Thursday afternoon's series finale.
And yet, Jeter insists he is not injured, can't -- or won't -- say when whatever it is that happened to him actually happened, and couldn't even explain how his manager knew he needed to come out of the game.
"You'll have to ask him," Jeter said.
But when it was pointed out to Jeter that manager Joe Girardi apparently was not wrong when he sent Eduardo Nunez out to play shortstop in his place for the bottom of the eighth, Jeter agreed. "No," he said. "He wasn't wrong."
According to Girardi, Jeter's right hip "was grabbing at him a little bit," something the manager noticed as the 36-year-old shortstop ran out a flyout in the top of the eighth of the Yankees 4-0 loss.
"It happened at some point tonight, and I saw it when he ran to first, so I took him out," Girardi said. "He told me it was bothering him."
"It's not hurt," Jeter said. "I mean, seriously, it's not that big of an issue. I played with it. I didn't say anything about it. It's just stiff."
Jeter lined a single in his first at-bat of the game but went hitless in his next three at-bats, and did not appear to be impeded in the field. Still, Girardi had seen enough to take him out of the game after his final at-bat.
"I didn't tell him anything," Jeter said. "I don't know how he found out."
Found out what? "I don't know," Jeter said. "It's not an injury. I didn't do it on a particular play. It's just something that happens over the course of a season. It really is not a big deal."
With the quick turnaround between the end of Wednesday night's game and the beginning of Thursday's matinee, Girardi would not commit to playing Jeter in the series finale.
"He'll be day to day," Girardi said. "I'll make up my lineup tomorrow."
Asked if he was playing on Thursday, Jeter -- who missed only five games last season and has played all but one so far this season -- said, simply, "Yes."
Then he walked out of the clubhouse. Without a limp.
