Jeter returns to Yankees’ lineup

Derek Jeter was dealing with plenty of emotions as he prepared for his latest return to the New York Yankees’ lineup Monday.

“Excited, looking forward to it, anxious, happy,” Jeter said. “What else could you have?”

Jeter, activated off the disabled list before New York’s game at Toronto, started at shortstop and batted second. He went hitless in his return, finishing 0 for 3 with a walk, grounding into a double play in the third.

Jeter broke his left ankle in the A.L. Championship Series last October and missed the first 91 games this year. Since then, the 13-time All-Star has twice been forced back on the D.L., first with a strained right quadriceps and more recently with a strained right calf.

“Hopefully we can keep him this time,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We haven’t been so fortunate the last two times.”

Indeed, neither of Jeter’s previous comebacks have lasted very long. He was healthy for just three at-bats as a designated hitter before suffering his quadriceps strain, then made it through a mere four games before being shelved by the calf injury.

Girardi said he’ll monitor Jeter’s status on a daily basis, particularly over three games on Toronto’s artificial turf, and conceded that the 39-year-old may need the occasional day off over the final few weeks of the season.

Jeterhas been absent for 125 games this season, more than the 82 total games he missed in five previous career trips to the D.L.

Mets’ Harvey out with torn ligament

New York Mets ace Matt Harvey, a top contender for this year’s Cy Young award, has a partially torn ligament in his right elbow.

For now, the 24-year-old Harvey and the Mets hope that he will be able to avoid reconstruction surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament. A full prognosis will not be made until swelling in the elbow goes down in about two weeks.

Harvey allowed a career-high 13 hits against Detroit on Saturday.

Clearing the bases

The weekly Trabajadores, an official Cuban newspaper, says star first baseman Jose Dariel Abreu has defected “illegally and silently” for a Caribbean nation, most likely Haiti or the Dominican Republic to try to play in MLB. … The Philadelphia Phillies placed outfielder Casper Wells on the D.L. because of vision problems two days after he took the loss as an emergency pitcher in an 18-inning game.