Baseball: New York Yankees pitchers CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte sidelined by injuries

Baseball: New York Yankees pitchers CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte sidelined by injuries

Andy Pettitte's left ankle was fractured after being hit by a ground ball in the fifth inning. The Yankees announced that Pettitte would miss at least six weeks.

Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a strained groin before New York's rotation took another hit when fellow lefty Andy Pettitte suffered a broken left ankle on a line drive.

Sabathia is expected to miss his next two starts after suffering the injury Sunday against the Mets, and Pettitte will be gone for at least six weeks with an injury that the team said will not require surgery. Pettitte was hit by a ball off the bat of Cleveland's Casey Kotchman in the fifth inning Wednesday.

"Been a bad day for left-handers today," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after the Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4.

Sabathia has been durable throughout his 12 seasons -- this is only his third trip to the D.L., following two with Cleveland. The most recent one was six years ago, when he missed the first month of the season because of a right oblique strain.

Girardi says the Yankees expect to have Sabathia, who is 9-3 with a 3.45 ERA, back shortly after the All-Star break. Longtime starter Freddy Garcia was expected to return to the rotation in place of the Sabathia, though he had to come in to pitch Wednesday after Pettitte left in the top of the fifth inning.

A woman charged with stalking and shaking down New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has said he got her phony identification to use in getting an abortion after she became pregnant with his child. Cashman spokesman Chris

Giglio said that the allegations amount to "more fiction" from a woman already facing stalking, perjury and other charges.

Louise Neathway made the claim in papers she filed Monday in a Manhattan civil court as a prelude to a possible lawsuit, although it's yet not clear whom she might sue. Meanwhile, she is facing criminal charges of stalking Cashman and extorting thousands of dollars from him, harassing her ex-husband and another man and lying to a grand jury. She has pleaded not guilty and is jailed on $300,000 bond.

Phillies: Ryan Howard will begin a rehab stint Thursday night, a day after Chase Utley returned to the Phillies' lineup. Howard, the 2006 N.L. MVP, hasn't played since tearing his left Achilles tendon on the final swing of the 2011 season in Game 5 of the N.L. division series against St. Louis.

Howard will serve as the designated hitter for Class-A Lakewood. He could return to the Phillies within three weeks.

Utley homered in his first at-bat of the season after he missed the first 76 games because of a chronic problem in both knees.

Utley connected on a 2-2 pitch from Pittsburgh right-hander James McDonald in the first inning of the Pirates' 11-7 win.

Diamondbacks: Arizona placed Daniel Hudson on the 15-day disabled list with a right elbow injury that could lead to season-ending surgery. Manager Kirk Gibson said an MRI on Wednesday in Phoenix showed a tear in Hudson's ulnar collateral ligament. Tommy John ligament-replacement surgery is a possibility, but Gibson said Hudson could seek a second opinion.

Hudson left Tuesday night's game with the injury and revealed for the first time he had discomfort in the elbow earlier this season.

AP