Yankees Standing By Burnett For Game 4

NEW YORK (AP) -- Yankees manager Joe Girardi reiterated that A.J. Burnett is slated to start Game 4 against Texas on Tuesday night, despite his struggles.

Burnett, in the second season of an $82.5 million, five-year contract, went 10-15 with a 5.26 ERA this season and was left out of the first-round rotation against Minnesota.

Though the Yankees announced their plans to pitch Burnett before the AL championship series, there has been plenty of speculation that they'll instead turn to CC Sabathia on three days' rest in Game 4 - especially if they're trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven set.

"Maybe other people have talked about it, but my message has been clear that we're on rotation," Girardi said. "We set up our rotation for a number of reasons. We're just staying with it. Phil Hughes has never thrown on short rest. We have Andy Pettitte, who is coming off an injury. There's a lot of things that go into making up your rotation. We believe in A.J. I know it's been a tough year for him at times this year, but we believe in A.J."

Girardi said Sabathia was still scheduled to throw his bullpen session Sunday.

"I know there's some weather in the forecast (this week), but our rotation is the same," the manager said.