Mark Teixeira leaves with bruised thumb

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CHICAGO -- Mark Teixeira left U.S. Cellular Field on Saturday night with a thick wrap around his right hand and questions regarding when he would be able to play again.

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AP Photo/John SmierciakMark Teixeira hurt himself Friday and hung in there for two innings Saturday before exiting.

Teixeira removed himself from Saturday night's New York Yankees win over the Chicago White Sox after the top of the third inning with a sore and swollen right thumb that reduced him, he said, to a one-armed bandit at the plate. "I wasn't going to do the team any good tonight,'' he said. "We'll see how it feels [Sunday].''

From the looks of the wrapping, a heavy Ace bandage over a lighter gauze bandage that gave his entire hand the look of a boxer's fist ready to be inserted into the glove, it doesn't seem likely Teixeira will be able to go Sunday. Joe Girardi said Teixeira suffered a bruise to the fatty part of his thumb alongside the palm. Teixeira described the injury as a bone bruise on the outside of his lower thumb, which is potentially more serious injury.

"I've been lucky, I haven't missed a game all year because of injury,'' said Teixeira, who missed two games in mid-August to attend the birth of his son. Otherwise, he had played in every other game this year, 126 in all. He leads the team in home runs with 28 and is second in RBIs with 91.

"I'm going to come in early and get some treatment and see how it goes,'' he said. "I tried to play through it today but I had nothing. Swinging one-handed just wasn't going to work today.''

Teixeira suffered the injury diving for a ball off the bat of Mark Teahen in the eighth inning of Friday's 9-4 White Sox win. "They don't water the foul ground here and it's real hard,'' he said. "When I dove I braced myself with my right hand and that's when I jammed my thumb.''

Teixeira remained in the game, coming to bat once in the ninth and getting grazed by a pitch. But when he came to the park Saturday, he knew the chances were good he wouldn't be playing.

"I felt it in BP but I thought maybe adrenaline would kick in and I'd be all right for the game,'' he said. But after fouling out in the first inning, he told Girardi he would remain in the game just to play the field until his next at-bat. In the top of the third, Girardi sent Curtis Granderson up to hit for Teixeira and in the bottom of the inning, reshuffled his outfielders and moved Nick Swisher to first.

Girardi said no tests were scheduled and he hoped his first baseman would be good to go Sunday. "He's day-to-day, but obviously, we'd like him to play [Sunday]. It's possible.''

Wallace Matthews covers the Yankees for ESPNNewYork.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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Wallace Matthews

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Wallace Matthews has covered New York sports since 1983 as a reporter, columnist, radio host and TV commentator. He covers the Yankees for ESPNNewYork.com after working for Newsday, the New York Post, the New York Sun and ESPN New York 98.7 FM.
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