Rogers Is Hoping He’s Not Lost in Shuffle

This is how bad it’s gotten for Kenny Rogers. He’s now getting punched around by a team he used to own.

Until May 28, the Yankees’ $20-million man had won eight consecutive games against the Angels, including a perfect game (the first by an American League left-hander) he threw when he was with Texas in 1994.

But since that time Rogers--who was expected to be one of the keys to New York winning the AL East--has lost his last three starts against the Angels, the most recent Sunday’s 4-0 decision at Anaheim Stadium.

A victory Sunday would have strengthened Rogers’ standing with the Yankees and their bombastic owner, George Steinbrenner, who ripped the 10-game winner in the New York press last week for lasting only three-plus innings in a 10-3 loss to Seattle.

Rogers insisted he wasn’t bothered by Steinbrenner’s outburst. “I never read what he said.”

But Rogers won’t have trouble reading between the lines of Manager Joe Torre’s remarks after Sunday’s game.

If star right-hander David Cone, who has been disabled since May after surgery to remove an aneurysm from his right shoulder, has a successful outing in his scheduled rehabilitation assignment Monday, he will be quickly inserted into the Yankees’ rotation.

“There’s nothing complicated about it,” Torre said. “If Cone can pitch, Cone will pitch.”

But Cone’s return will swell the Yankees’ starting rotation to six. Someone will have to go, especially with New York having two scheduled off days in the next eight that will allow Torre to shuffle his pitchers.

No matter how Torre tried to cloak the feelings about Rogers--”Kenny is a winner, has always been a winner”--he made it clear a team with only a four-game lead is not in a position to keep propping up pitchers who are struggling.

“As a team I think we’re all right, but Kenny is a puzzle right now,” Torre said. “We need to get to whatever it is and fix it.

“Kenny has been hot and cold, and he’s usually had that one bad inning that’s all that’s been needed to decide the game. Down the stretch we’re going to go with whomever is hot. I still believe in him; but he needs to get a couple of quality starts, and win at those starts.”

Sunday would have been perfect for Rogers, who was 9-3 lifetime against the Angels before the game. Except he had that one bad inning--all four Angel runs came in the fourth, three courtesy of Tim Salmon’s 29th home run--and he was up against Chuck Finley, who owns the Yankees (14-8 lifetime, 9-3 at Anaheim Stadium) the way Rogers once owned the Angels.

“When our pitchers give up four runs or less that’s usually not enough to stop our hitters,” Yankee catcher Jim Leyritz said. “Except when it comes to ‘Cy Young’ Finley. I’ve faced him for three years and it seems he always pitches like that against us.”

For his part, Rogers said he will not worry about the future. He doesn’t believe he’s that far away from the form that won 17 games in Texas last year.

“Sometimes the least little thing will put you back in the groove,” Rogers said. “I lost the game today but I got through six innings without a lot of stuff out there.

“I still expect to get the ball [his next scheduled start]. I plan to be ready whenever they call on me. I’m not going to worry about things I can’t control.”