Smoke signals

• Youkilis was a key part of Francona's teams during their days with the Boston Red Sox. Francona said on Wednesday that it is strange to see Youkilis wearing a Yankees uniform.

"He does look funny in that uniform still to me," Francona said. "It's hard to picture him in that. The one thing he does is he never gives away an at-bat. He certainly wears his emotions on his sleeve. He plays every inning like it's his last. I mean this all in a positive way. I don't know what team he'd be bad for."

Francona said the Red Sox learned to live with Youkilis' emotional style of play.

"It was to the point where he was a young player, he was throwing a lot of helmets and we were trying to get him to calm down," Francona said. "We kind of realized we were taking away what made him good. So we just learned to get out of the way."

• Through eight games this season, Indians All-Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera has hit just .133 (4-for-30) with two home runs and three RBIs. Francona said it was good to see Cabrera, who dealt with a back issue at the end of Spring Training, launch a home run in Tuesday's loss to the Yankees.

"The season started and he's played every inning -- until [Monday] -- of every game," Francona said, "and he's racking up some at-bats quickly and making some outs, because he's hitting in the middle of the order. He just hasn't felt real comfortable swinging yet. It was nice to see him hit that home run, because he's such a vital part of what we're doing."

• Indians catcher Carlos Santana, who is currently sidelined with a bruised left hand suffered in Monday's game, was scheduled to be re-evaluated on Wednesday. Cleveland wants to take a cautious approach before having Santana start a gradual progression through baseball activities. There is no current timetable for his return to games.

• Entering Wednesday, Indians first baseman Nick Swisher had hit safely in 18 consecutive games at Progressive Field. Michael Young owns the record for longest hitting streak (20 games for the Rangers from June 1, 2004-May 25, 2008) at the ballpark, which opened in 1994.