Yankees' Josh Donaldson suffers setback in rehab game

Josh Donaldson, who as of the weekend believed he would be coming off the IL by mid-week, instead found himself in a holding pattern Wednesday.

The 37-year-old third baseman, out with right hamstring strain since April 6, appeared in a rehab game with Double-A Somerset Tuesday, with the plan being to activate Donaldson Wednesday if there were no setbacks.

But there was a setback.

Donaldson said he felt “a little bit of tightness pretty early” in Tuesday’s game while making a play on defense.

Donaldson did end up getting through five innings, his allotment going in, and went 1-for-3.

“I was able to manage it and kind of get through five,” Donaldson said Wednesday in the home clubhouse before the Yankees took on the Angels. “But I probably wasn't running as well as how I wanted to be able to run.”

Donaldson, scheduled to undergo treatment Wednesday and not participate in baseball activities, said the discomfort he felt Tuesday “wasn’t to the extent of when I came out of the game here,” a reference to the April 5 game against the Phillies when the injury occurred.

Still, he added: “I didn’t feel like I was 100% able to really do the things I wanted to do.”

Donaldson, off to a 2-for-16 start at the plate before getting hurt, said he couldn’t yet say how significant of a setback Tuesday was.

“We’re hopeful it’s nothing major,” Donaldson said. “At the end of the day, trying to stay with the mindset of it’s not anything major at this point, so let’s keep it that way. It was progressing really nice. Obviously, I’m bummed out. I felt like it was going to be any day now [to return], but like I said, just take it day by day and hopefully this gets ironed out.”