ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — While injuries have been a pain in the rear for the Yankees, they're hopeful a tight muscle in James Paxton's buttocks won't be an issue in the playoffs.
The left-hander was removed from his final start before the postseason after one inning, overshadowing six home runs by New York in a 14-7 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night that gave the Yankees 103 wins for the first time in a decade.
Paxton had won 10 consecutive starts, a career best. He allowed Danny Santana's two-run homer in a 21-pitch first. At the end of the inning Yankees manager Aaron Boone, pitching coach Larry Rothschild and head athletic trainer Steve Donahue conferred in the dugout, and Ben Heller relieved in the second.
"Just when I was warming up, felt a little bit of tightness there, a little discomfort," Paxton said. "I think I could have kept going, but they wanted to play it safe and have me completely rested for what comes next."
New York's plans for the Division Series against Minnesota include a rotation with Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and Luis Severino, scheduled to make his third start Saturday after recovering from a lat injury that had sidelined him since spring training.
"I'm not worried about that," Boone said when asked where Paxton slot in. "I would expect him to kind of prepare depending on when we slot him, have his normal sides and everything, and I don't think this will really alter that too much."
Catcher Gary Sánchez returned after missing 10 games with left groin tightness. Sánchez struck out in all three plate appearances and came out after five innings, as planned.
"I feel good, healthy," Sanchez said through a translator. "I feel like I was able to block, move around, have the flexibility I wanted. It felt good."
New York held off on slugger Edwin Encarnación's return from a left oblique injury. Boone said the concern was a tweak of the injury that could sideline the 36-year-old for the playoffs, and Encarnación missed his 12th straight game.
"He hit before again on the field really good, but I just think mentally he's probably not quite over that hump where he needs to be," Boone said. "Ideally, we'd love to get some at-bats this weekend, but it's not the most important thing."
Giancarlo Stanton, Cameron Maybin, Brett Gardner, Gio Urshela, Mike Ford and Austin Romine homered in the opener of the final series in the Rangers' 25-year-old ballpark. The Yankees lost out on home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs to Houston, but raised their major league record total to 305, two more than Minnesota.