Chad Jennings

cjennings@lohud.com

Just like yesterday, Rob Refsnyder was pulled today's game after a bad hop at third base struck him in the face.

Today's was worse that yesterday's. Today's bad hop seemed to be a relatively routine grounder until it popped up at the last moment that struck Refsnyder in the right cheek. His face was red and swollen in the clubhouse, and Refsnyder said he was going to see a doctor. He seemed to be moving around fine, but trainer Steve Donohue was clearly keeping an eye on him.

“It’s what happens," Joe Girardi said. "It gets hot and it gets late and the infields get hard and fast, and you get some bad hops. It’s unfortunate.”

Refsnyder is learning third base on the fly and looked comfortable at the position earlier this spring, but he's now made three third base errors in the past two days. Yesterday he was charged with a throwing error and fielding error (on another bad hop that glanced off his glove before leaving him with a cut on his face). Today, he made a nice sliding stop in the third inning, but had to rush the throw and sent the ball into the dirt just past Mark Teixeira.

Today's bad hop came in the eighth inning.

Girardi said he did not think either ball to the face was a product of Refsnyder's inexperience. He attributed each one to unpredictably bad hops on hard, late-inning infields.