By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com | 6/10/2014 10:30 P.M. ET
SEATTLE -- It was the evening of May 29, 1995, and Derek Jeter was a near-anonymous rookie with one Major League game under his belt. He wandered the streets of Seattle with his father, Dr. Charles Jeter, and facing big league pitching was not the day's only challenge.
"I was 0-for-5, and after the game my dad was in town and we tried to get something to eat, and everything was closed," Jeter recalled on Tuesday. "We ended up walking into a McDonald's after the game. He's here again today, both my parents, so maybe we'll go to McDonald's after the game."
Jeter was joking about a trip to the Golden Arches, but coming back to Seattle always sparks memories of that first big league series for Jeter, who notched his first two hits the next night -- the first, a fifth-inning ground ball through the left side of the infield off veteran hurler Tim Belcher.
"You're extremely nervous when you come up," Jeter said. "It's the old Kingdome, and I'd never played in a dome. It's sort of a weight off your shoulders to get that first one, because a lot of times the first of anything is the most difficult."
Jeter is one of only 12 active MLB players to have played at both the Kingdome and Safeco Field. With the Yankees making their only trip to the Emerald City this year, the Mariners honored Jeter's career in a ceremony before Tuesday's game. The Mariners presented Jeter with a chair from the Kingdome, a base, a watch with a personal inscription from former teammate Robinson Cano and a $5,000 donation to the Turn 2 Foundation.
"The fans have been awesome everywhere we've gone," Jeter said. "I don't expect people to give me gifts. I don't expect anything. I'm just trying to come out and help us win games. It's been overwhelming at times at how positive the fan reaction has been."
Girardi surprised by Yanks' offensive struggles
SEATTLE -- The ice-cold Yankees bats, ranked 13th in the American League in runs scored entering Tuesday, have not shaken Joe Girardi's optimism that a fresh hit of firepower must be around the corner.
"These guys have track records and they're going to work at it, and I know they will," Girardi said. "You look at it today, they're working on it right now. So I believe it's going to change."
The Yankees entered play on Tuesday with a 31-31 record. They held an identical record after 62 games in Girardi's first season as manager in 2008, won their next game and finished the year 89-73 -- good for third place in the American League East.
Girardi acknowledged that he has been surprised by how much this Yankees lineup has struggled.
"I thought we would score more runs," Girardi said. "Yeah, we've had some injuries at times where we've missed some key parts in the middle of the order, and times when key parts in the middle of the order were struggling and made it more difficult to score runs.
"I don't think, for a period of time -- which every club has -- we've had six or seven guys hot at the same time. We haven't had that. We're due for that, and I'm looking forward to it."
One possible move to shake up the lineup is to dislodge Derek Jeter, currently in a 3-for-26 skid, from the No. 2 spot. Girardi said that is not a button that he wants to push at this time.
"He's always been a guy that has responded during the course of time," Girardi said. "People have been ready to say that you should move him, and one year he ended up with 200-plus hits and that sort of thing. You can look at Derek in the No. 2 spot, but we've had a lot of guys who have struggled. Maybe because of his name, he's going to be the focus a little bit, sometimes maybe more than other guys, but we've had a lot of guys struggle."
Kelley on the verge of rejoining Yankees' bullpen
SEATTLE -- Shawn Kelley is expected to rejoin the Yankees' bullpen on Wednesday for the second game of a three-game series against the Mariners at Safeco Field.
Kelley made his second rehab appearance on Monday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against Toledo, facing four batters and pitching a scoreless inning around a hit.
"He could very well be with us tomorrow," manager Joe Girardi said. "Everything was fine, so we're expecting him tomorrow."
Kelley has not appeared in a big league game since May 6 due to a strained lumbar spine. He also has pitched for Double-A Trenton on his rehab assignment.
Bombers bits
• Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli has played in four Minor League rehab games, two with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and two with Class A Advanced Tampa, going 1-for-13 with a single and a walk.
• Jacoby Ellsbury carried a 13-game hitting streak into Tuesday's game, the longest by a Yankee since Derek Jeter hit in 19 straight games from Sept. 4-25, 2012. Ellsbury's streak is the second-longest active streak in the Majors, trailing Nick Markakis (14) of the Orioles.
• On this date in 2002, Marcus Thames homered off the D-backs' Randy Johnson on the first pitch he saw as a Major Leaguer in the third inning of a 7-5 Yankees win at Yankee Stadium.
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @bryanhoch and read his MLBlog, Bombers Beat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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