>CHICAGO (AP) – Injured Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez missed his first game of the season, out for Tuesday night’s matchup with the Chicago White Sox.

Rodriguez, batting .308 with four homers and 10 RBIs, strained his right quadriceps Sunday at Baltimore. Morgan Ensberg was listed as the starting third baseman against Chicago.

Rodriguez will rejoin the team on Thursday. He will be re-evaluated then to see how well his quadriceps have responded to treatment. It was unknown when he would play again.

The third baseman was in Miami, where his wife gave birth to their second daughter Monday night.

“Everyone is going well. A new baby girl, so that’s exciting,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Tuesday.

“Obviously he has his little quad problem. He’ll rejoin us Thursday. I don’t know if he’ll be able to play Thursday, we’ll just how he how the treatments go and how he responds to it.”

The Yankees want to make sure they don’t hurry him back too soon.

“We’ll make that evaluation on Thursday, where we think he’s at,” Girardi said. “One thing you can’t do is rush him and then lose him for a long period of time.”

But then again, the Yankees need him back whenever he’s ready.

“We don’t want to DL him if he could be back four or five, six, seven days,” Girardi said.

Girardi said Rodriguez was planning to get treatment Tuesday.

“Alex is such a great conditioned athlete that hopefully … maybe he responds quicker to treatment than a normal being,” Girardi said. “He said he was going to shoot for Friday, maybe Thursday, but he didn’t think he’d be able to play before that.”