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Yankees' Jeter Leads American League Shortstops In All-Star Game Voting

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Surprise, surprise ... or not.

Barring something unforeseen, Derek Jeter will be starting at shortstop for the American League at this summer's All-Star Game.

The Yankees' captain, who will retire at season's end, owned a significant advantage among the voters during the first update provided to the media on Tuesday, registering a little more than 602,000 votes. His nearest challenger, Alexei Ramirez of the Chicago White Sox, was approximately 130,000 votes behind.

The All-Star Game will be held on July 15 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

Jeter, who will turn 40 in June, upped his average to .273 through Monday with a 5-for-10 stretch. He has a homer and 10 RBI so far for the Yankees, who have won three straight and sit 2 games behind first-place Toronto in the AL East.

The Yankees continue their three-game series in St. Louis on Tuesday.

BELTRAN CLEARS A FEW HURDLES

Carlos Beltran, who is trying to battle his way through a bone spur on his right elbow, took swings with a bat on Tuesday and felt no pain, manager Joe Girardi said.

The workout followed an equally successful session with a fungo bat from both sides of the plate on Monday at Yankee Stadium.

Sidelined since May 13, the 37-year-old outfielder received a cortisone shot and sought a second opinion on his ailing elbow last week and was told by Dr. James Andrews that surgery to shave down the bone spur would be necessary if Beltran found the pain too much to play through.

If Beltran eventually is forced to have surgery he could miss up to 12 weeks, general manager Brian Cashman said last week.

Beltran, who was hitting .243 with 5 homers and 15 RBI at the time of his shutdown, will not swing Wednesday, but will do some tee-and-toss swinging on Thursday, WFAN's Murti reported.

"(I) talked to him Saturday and said we'll keep our fingers crossed and hopefully we get through this," Girardi said.

The Yankees have battled injuries all season. They are currently down three starting pitchers, a key reliever and first baseman Mark Teixeira, who sat out Monday's game and was not in the lineup for Tuesday's game against the Cardinals due to a sore surgically repaired wrist

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