Marcus Stroman Injury: Effective in first rehab start

Stroman (knee) covered 3.1 innings and struck out four batters while allowing one earned run on one hit and two walks in his first rehab start Wednesday with Double-A Somerset.

Considering Stroman hadn't pitched in a game since April 11 after being shut down due to left knee inflammation, his performance in Wednesday's outing with Somerset was about as good as the Yankees could have expected following a lengthy layoff. The right-hander faced 13 batters in the start and pumped in 27 of his 46 pitches for strikes. The Yankees are letting Stroman build back up as a starter, but he'll likely need to continue to find success over his subsequent rehab outings in order to unseat Ryan Yarbrough in the rotation once he's activated from the 15-day injured list. Since stepping in as the Yankees' No. 5 starter May 3, Yarbrough owns a respectable 4.20 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in 30 innings over his six starts.