The New York Yankees have gotten strong production from rookie Greg Bird in the wake of Mark Teixeira's injury, but Joe Girardi points out that the club misses the veteran against left-handers.

Assuming the Yankees don't catch the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East, they could face a dominating lefty in the one-game Wild Card.

Teixeira was better against right-handers this season (an .958 OPS compared to .787), but the Yankees have still struggled to fill that void.

"We miss him, definitely," Girardi said. "Tex was a force against left-handers. That's another big bat in the middle of your lineup. We miss him."

Bird has only hit .211 in 38 at-bats against lefties, which has forced New York to tinker with their lineup.

"It is something we need to do a little bit better job against lefties," Girardi said. "We ran into a bunch of lefties this weekend. We ended up winning three out of four games, but we didn't score a ton of runs. They were close ballgames, but it is something we need to do a better job."