'Lucky' Beltran rests; MRI negative

ST. PETERSBURG -- Carlos Beltran had an MRI exam on his left shoulder and his right wrist after tumbling over a short wall in right field during Thursday's 10-2 Yankees victory over the Rays. The tests were negative, but the outfielder said that he is feeling sore.

Beltran was chasing Desmond Jennings' third-inning fly ball down the right-field line and never looked down to see the fence. He flipped over the wall and landed hard but was able to stay in the game.

"If I had the chance to do it again, I wish I would have looked," Beltran said. "When that ball was hit, I thought I had a chance to make a catch. I didn't want to take my eyes off the baseball because of the roof. Then all of a sudden, I was all over the place."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that Beltran was not available to play on Friday, but the team is hopeful that Beltran will be ready to play on Saturday.

"It's really encouraging," Girardi said. "We don't want him to be out for a long period of time. We've just got to get him to where he's feeling a little bit better."

Yankees second baseman Brian Roberts was concerned after Beltran went over the fence.

"I thought, 'What's he doing?'" Roberts said. "Obviously the effort's great, but we need him for the long run. Obviously he didn't mean to, but it was scary, for sure. To see him get up and come back over [was a relief]. I wasn't sure if he was going to get up or not."

Beltran said that he saw a video clip of his tumble after Thursday's game and that he considers himself fortunate not to have been more seriously injured.

"Honestly, I am lucky, yeah," Beltran said. "I laughed after, but I was like, 'Man, you know what? This could have been pretty bad.' Thank God I was able to walk and play the game."