Granderson forced from game with tight hammy

The injuries keep piling up for the Yankees at a most inopportune time. On the day the calendar turned to September, baseball’s stretch month, Curtis Granderson had to come out of Saturday’s game against the Orioles in the third inning due to a tight right hamstring. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test was scheduled for the center fielder who leads the club in home runs with 34 and is second only to Mark Teixeira in runs batted in, 81-79.

Teixeira has been out of the lineup since Monday because of a left calf strain. He is not expected to play in Sunday’s homestand finale and will also likely be kept off the turf at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., early next week at the start of an 11-day, 10-game trip that will also take the Yankees to Baltimore and Boston.

The Yankees remain hopeful that Alex Rodriguez, who has been on the disabled list since July 25 because of a broken bone in his left hand, will be able to rejoin the team at St. Pete. A-Rod is at nearby Tampa with the Yankees’ Class A affiliate on an injury rehabilitation assignment.

Granderson struck out in his only at-bat, in the second inning, and looked uncomfortable doing so. It was the 159th strikeout this season for Granderson in 494 at-bats. That is 10 Ks shy of his 2011 strikeout total, which is the franchise record. Granderson’s career high in strikeouts is 174 in 2006 with the Tigers.

With Granderson out, Ichiro Suzuki took over his spot in center field.