The New York Yankees have lost two of their top starting pitchers in less than 24 hours. First, the Yankees placed ace C.C. Sabathia on the 15-Day DL due to a strained groin. Then in the this afternoon’s game against the Cleveland Indians, Andy Pettitte broke his left ankle after being hit with a line drive by Casey Kotchman and joined Sabathia on the DL. Sabathia is expected to miss at least two starts while Pettitte is expected to miss six weeks. Pettitte, of course, came out of retirement back in May and hadn’t missed a beat.

Earlier this season, closer Mariano Rivera tore his ACL. The Yankees looked doomed. But after a briefly handing the closer’s job to David Robertson, Rafael Soriano stepped in and the Yankees haven’t looked back. They have won 20 of their last 25 games and have a five game lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East.

But it’s going to be hard for the Yankees to stay at the top without Sabathia and Pettitte anchoring the rotation. There’s talk about obtaining Zack Greinke from the Milwaukee Brewers. But given Greinke’s history of social anxiety disorder, he might not be a good fit with the intense scrutiny of the New York media. The Yankees could look 90 minutes south of Milwaukee for a couple of Cubs namely Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza. The Cubs aren’t going anywhere this year. Of course, this could be said of the Cubs nearly every year.

In the meantime, the Yankees will give youngsters like David Phelps and Adam Warren a shot as well as veteran Freddy Garcia who got the win against the Tribe today following Pettitte’s injury. But if they don’t impress, the Yankees will be re-arming their rotation.