The LoHud Yankees Blog

Joba Chamberlain popped a blood vessel in his right thumb during BP. The trainers think he should be able to start tomorrow. But that is why Alfredo Aceves was held out.

UPDATE, 10:39 p.m.: Information is a little sketchy on this as Joba had already left the clubhouse by the time the media had been allowed in. It came up at the end of Joe Girardi’s postgame interview when he was asked why Aceves didn’t relieve Hughes.

According to Girardi, Chamberlain was flipping a ball underhanded during BP when a blood vessel burst in his right thumb. There is no pain, Girardi said. But it’s black and blue. Chamberlain had treatment during the game and trainer Gene Monahan said he should be able to pitch.

With the Yankees, “should be able to pitch” has a funny way of turing into “see you in two weeks.” We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

“I’m ready if they need me,” Aceves said.

The Yankees lead the league in ERA (5.88) and screwy injuries.

YANKEES (14-15)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Cervelli C

Pitching: RHP Phil Hughes (1-1, 2.70).

Hughes vs. the Baltimore hitters.

ORIOLES (12-18)
Roberts 2B
Jones RF
Markakis RF
Huff 1B
Mora 3B
Scott DH
Montanez LF
Zaun C
Izturis C

Pitching: RHP Adam Eaton (1-3, 7.18).

Eaton vs. the New York hitters.

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., YES.

STATE OF THE PINSTRIPES: The Yankees beat the Orioles 4-0 last night as A-Rod made his season debut with a three-run homer and CC Sabathia threw a four-hitter with eight strikeouts. The Yankees have lost five of their last six games and nine of their last 14. They are 4.5 games out of first place.

STAT OF THE DAY: The Yankees are hitting .24548 with RISP. That is 21st in baseball. Only Cleveland (.24496) and Oakland (.226) are worse in the AL. And because that’s the way it always seems to work, only five teams have had more ABs with RISP. The Yankees are 8 of 52 (.154) with RISP in their last five games.

Assuming this all starts to even out, they’re going to start scoring runs in bunches. Even with all this mess, they’re fifth in the game in scoring.

OTHER STATS OF NOTE: The Yankees are 4-10 vs. the Al East, 8-8 on the road and 2-11 when the make an error.

WHO’S HOT: Johnny Damon is 9 of 17 with six extra-base hits and eight RBI. … Hideki Matsui has a 16-game hit streak as a starter. … Since he became a starter, Melky is .346/.433/.500.

WHO’S NOT: Nick Swisher has struck out in eight of his last 17 ABs. … Mark Teixeira is 3 for 17 and has four extra-base hits in his last 17 games (68 AB). … Robbie Cano is 3 of 26 but had two of those hits in his final two ABs last night.

WATCH OUT: Nick Markakis is 4 for 8 with two doubles against Hughes.

GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN: Teixeira is 5 for 8 with a homer against Eaton. A-Rod is 2 for 3 with a homer and Swisher is 2 for 4 with two homers.

WELCOME BACK: The Yankees are 33-38 without A-Rod since he joined the team in 2004.

ON HIS HEELS: A-Rod has 554 home runs. He needs nine more to tie one Reginald Martinez Jackson for 11th place in baseball history. It’ll be interesting to hear what Mr. October thinks about that when the time comes.

UPDATE, 3:47 p.m: Brett Tomko is here. No word on who is out yet.

UPDATE, 3:57 p.m.: Dave Robertson optioned down.

UPDATE, 5:42 p.m.: Girardi said he could use Tomko in any role as he would be able to throw as many as 45 pitches. Tomko was terrific down in Scranton (10 games, 14 innings, 8 hits, 1 run, 4 walks, 17 strikeouts). But let’s remember that this is a guy who hasn’t had an ERA under 4.61 in the big leagues since 2004 when he was a starter. … Brian Bruney played catch again today and didn’t seem to have any issues. He’s at least two weeks off.

Girardi indicated that CMW’s next start would be in an actual minor-league game. But he didn’t know where that would be. He last pitched on Thursday. So presumably that start will come on Tuesday.

UPDATE, 6:12 p.m.: I hate to say this. I really do. But the grounds crew is hurrying to put the tarp down like there’s the worst storm ever coming.

UPDATE, 6:16 p.m.: Right on cue, a cloud is moving over the stadium likes look like one of the spaceships on Independence Day. It’ll be pouring here in minutes looks like.

UPDATE, 6:18 p.m.: Yep, it’s raining. Nice job by the people here getting the field covered so fast.

UPDATE, 6:25 p.m.: RHP Eric Hacker was designated for assignment. How is it that Angel Berroa has more value to the Yankees than Hacker? Hacker’s bad numbers this season (1-2, 6.03) doomed him, apparently.

In case you were wondering, they could not put Kennedy on the 60-day DL as he was not on the major league roster.

Brian Bruney played catch today and felt fine. He’ll play catch from 90 feet on Monday to test his arm and then they’ll decide what the next step is.

UPDATE, 6:31 p.m.: Storm has passed, tarp coming off.

UPDATE, 7:11 p.m.: We’re underway here in the Charm City. 81 degrees and clear at game time. The Baltimore scribes expect the Yankees to rock Eaton. We’ll see what happens.

Enjoy the game, everybody.

UPDATE, 7:42 p.m.: Phil Hughes can’t catch a break. After a clean single by Luke Scott, Montanez gets a single that slips past Cano. Then Zaun singles between Tex and the bag. Then for reasons unclear, Swisher air mails a throw to the backstop despite the runner staying at third. That gave Baltimore a run.

(Which, by the way, was dreadful coaching at third base by Juan Samuel. Scott could have walked home).

Anyway, 1-0 Orioles. Bases loaded and no outs. Get well soon, Chien-Ming Wang.

UPDATE, 7:51 p.m.: Well, this is brutal.

A wild pitch that ticks off Cervelli’s glove scored a run. The Jones doubles in another. 4-0 Baltimore and still only one out.

The Yankees are making mistakes all over the field.

UPDATE, 7:54 p.m.: Three-run homer by Huff. Now it’s 7-0. Thanks for coming, fans. Hughes has allowed seven hits.

UPDATE, 8:01 p.m.: That’s that for Hughes. 1.2 innings, eight hits and two runners still on. If Zaun sits on the changeup, it’ll be 10-0.

UPDATE, 8:05 p.m.: Zaun just missed it and had to settle for a line drive RBI single off the wall.

8-0 Orioles as the Yankees allow yet another big inning.

UPDATE, 8:22 p.m.: The Yankees are playing their 30th game of the season and tonight marks the ninth time they have allowed nine or more runs in a game.

I went to public school. But that seems like a high percentage.

UPDATE, 8:31 p.m.: Adam Eaton should be ashamed of himself. It’s 9-0 and he walks the bases loaded. Of course the Yankees should be ashamed of themselves for trailing Adam Eaton 9-0 in the first place.

Meanwhile, the Yankees have allowed 56 runs in the five games they have played on Saturday this season.

UPDATE, 8:39 p.m.: It’s good that Dave Robertson is on the Scranton shuttle and Mark Melancon gets tossed away so Edwar Ramirez can keep serving up bombs.

Here’s the thing about Edwar: You are never going to be able to trust him in any sort of important game because it’s too easy to sit on his stuff and drive it. His fastball is not good enough to make that changeup work. He’ll strike out his share of guys, but anybody who has seen him a few times knows what is coming.

UPDATE, 8:52 p.m.: Wow, Damon is killing it. He’s 10 of his last 20 with seven extra-base hits and 10 RBI. At least the Yankees have one player worthy of the All-Star Game.

UPDATE, 8:54 p.m.: It’s ridiculous that they’re going to lose to Adam Eaton, who has pitched incredibly poorly. But Hughes was worse.

If Girardi has sent a pitcher out there instead of Edwar, it might be 7-4. Instead it’s 11-4.

UPDATE, 9:04 p.m.: Now it would be 7-5 without Edwar.

San Diego State’s Stephen Strasburg is like a legend come to life.

He threw a no-hitter against Air Force last night and struck out 17. He hit 101 and was sitting at 99 all game. He is now 11-0, 1.24.

His line on the season: 87.1 innings, 48 hits, 17 walks, 164 strikeouts.

Strasburg is represented (well, “advised” under NCAA rules) by Scott Boras and will want the Pentagon and half the Smithsonian from the Nationals when they draft him. If by some miracle he signs quickly, it would be fascinating to see how quickly he could make it through the minors.

No, there’s no chance he falls to the Yankees. The Nationals need something to invigorate their franchise and he’s it.

A reflective Alex Rodriguez returned to the Yankees last night and homered in his first at-bat to help deliver a 4-0 victory.

CC Sabathia and rookie Francisco Cervelli teamed up for a commanding performance. This notebook also has an update on Ian Kennedy, some roster moves and an unusual play for Nick Swisher.

Yanks-Orioles again tonight. Phil Hughes will be on the mound. Check back later for the lineup.

————

With Jorge Posada and Xavier Nady out and Mark Teixeira having lost the ability to hit (temporarily, one would assume), the Yankees obviously need A-Rod back in the lineup and he delivered last night. It was a Hollywood moment.

But over the long term, you have to wonder how this marriage will work. Rodriguez said yesterday that it is “50-50″ he will need another surgery on his hip. While the labrum was repaired, he still has the born deformity that caused it in the first place. “I’ll be curious to see how I feel when I wake up,” he said.

At some point, will they have a $30 million DH for six or seven years? We also don’t know to what extent that stricter drug testing will inhibit his production. That is the great unknown for all players, really.

A-Rod said all the right things about focusing on baseball and wanting to win. But we’re heard that all before. His words were great, but his actions will tell the ultimate story. In 20 years, will the acquisition of A-Rod be looked upon as a smart move or a dumb one? Only time will tell.

The way it works in a Major League clubhouse is that the starting pitcher that day gets to pick the pre-game music.

CC Sabathia is not a music guy on game days. He’s more of a walk-around-and-talk-to-assorted-teammates guy. So Nick Swisher (of course) plugged his iPod into some speakers in the middle of the room.

Out came country music. I’m not opposed to country music as long as it’s Johnny Cash. Or maybe some Hank Williams or Delbert McClinton. But this was modern, sappy, makes you want to kill yourself country music.

A.J. Burnett, who considers Metallica easy listening, withstood it for a few minutes then finally decided he had heard enough.

“Are we going that bad that we’re listening to country?” he asked in a loud voice. “We can’t possibly be going that bad.”

Swisher perked up. “What do you want?” he said.

“I want to take a bat to that iPod,” Burnett said.

Swisher laughed. “I’m here for you” he said as he went over to change the playlist.

Burnett laughed.

Teams that win have good chemistry. Teams that lose have bad chemistry. But I’m here to tell you, The Yankees have better chemistry than they’ve had in several years. These guys like each other and they’ll play hard for each other.

If this team can get healthy and stay healthy — and there is no guarantee of either — they’re going to be pretty good.

So, Nick Swisher, what did you think of A-Rod’s home run?

“Amazing. Perfect. Storybook. Awesome,” he said.

That about summed it up. A.J. Burnett said it was the greatest thing he had seen in baseball.”You’re not supposed to be able to do that,” he said. “(Jeremy Guthrie) threw it 98 and he still it. It tailed back over, but still.”

Rodriguez looked rusty in his last three at-bats. But his presence in the lineup brings balance and gives the opposing pitcher reason to pause. The Yankees look a lot better when Swisher is hitting sixth and not fourth.

A few notes for you:

• A-Rod said he would be in the hotel pool tomorrow morning doing rehab exercises. It’s something he will need to do for the foreseeable future. Dr. Mark Lindsay, the rehab guru, will fly in once every 7-10 days to check on him.

Rodriguez said his hip bothered him for the final two months of last season and left him unable to handle pitches in the mid-90s. He also felt “a lack of fire” in November when he started hitting again and at the start of spring training.

Alex hit .258/.366/.511 over the final two months of last season with 12 home runs, so the numbers bear that out. But why did it take until March for him to get an MRI and have a proper diagnosis? It’s mind-boggling. Either Rodriguez should have said something or the Yankees should have noticed.

• Let’s not anoint Francisco Cervelli the new Johnny Bench quite yet. He caught a terrific game and that throw in the first inning was eye-opening. Keep in mind that this is a player with a career .267 batting average in the minors. He’s likely to get abused once the scouting reports catch up to him. But if he can catch a clean game, that’s all that matters for now.

Brian Cashman told me earlier that he doesn’t envision a trade. The hope is that Jorge Posada and/or Jose Molina is back in three weeks.

• The Orioles drew 36,926 for the Yankees on a Friday night in nice weather. The bad economy kept the Yankee fans back home.

• Mark Teixeira was 0 for 3 with three whiffs. He’s 15 of his last 83 (.181). They boo him here like he’s Robert Irsay.

• Cano was 1 for 23 before that double in the sixth.

• The Yankees are 8 for 52 with RISP the last six games.

• The big lefty had retired 23 out of 24 going into the ninth inning, the last 16 in a row. Then after Baltimore got two singles, he struck out the side on 14 pitches. That roar he let out when Mora whiffed could have been heard at the White House.

You got the feeling watching that game that the real CC will be around now. A-Rod’s Hollywood moment will be the story of the game. But if this game sparks CC to a huge summer, that’s even more important.

Thanks for reading. Check back tomorrow.

Nine innings 4 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts. Total dominance. You have to feel good for Francisco Cervelli.

Back with more later.

YANKEES (13-15)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Cervelli C

Pitching: LHP CC Sabathia (1-3, 4.85).

Sabathia vs. the Baltimore hitters.

ORIOLES (12-17)
Roberts 2B
Jones CF
Markakis RF
Mora 3B
Huff 1B
Wigginton DH
Montanez LF
Moeller C
Izturis SS

Pitching: RHP Jeremy Guthrie (2-2, 5.05).

Guthrie vs. the New York hitters.

TIME/TV: 7:05, YES.

THE STATE OF THINGS: The Yankees have lost five straight and nine if their last 13. It’s the longest losing streak of the Joe Girardi Era and the longest since the Yankees dropped seven straight from April 20-27, 2007. They are 5.5 games out of first place.

THE RETURN: Alex Rodriguez will make his season debut today. He had surgery on his right hip on March 9, about a month after it was revealed that he was a steroid cheat. A-Rod played in seven extended spring training games in and around Tampa. He was 7 of 38 with eight walks, eight strikeouts and four home runs.

HERE’S HOW MUCH THEY’VE MISSED HIM: The Yankees have used Cody Ransom, Ramiro Pena and Angel Berroa at third base in the absence of Rodriguez. They have hit a combined .202 with a .248 OBP and a .283 SLG. They have no home runs and 10 RBI.

MOVES MADE: Catcher Kevin Cash was called up. Jose Molina is on the DL and RHP Mark Melancon was optioned out. There is a 40-man move as yet unknown. If they’re keeping Berroa around that wouldn’t seem to make much sense. But what does with that roster?

HOW LOW CAN CANO GO? Robinson Cano is 1 for 21 in the last five games with no runs scored and no RBI. His batting average has gone from .378 to .319.

DAMON HEATS UP: Johnny Dangerously is 8 of 13 with five extra-base hits and seven RBI in the last three games. He has homered in four of the last seven games.

MATSUI MATTERS: Godzilla has a 15-game hit streak as a starter. He is 21 of his last 60 with eight extra-base hits and 10 RBI.

PITCHING PROBLEMS: The Yankees have the second-worst ERA in the AL (5.77) and lead the league with walks.

AT LEAST THE FANS HERE LOVE HIM: Mark Teixeira was 4 for 16 before he hurt his left wrist. He is 15 of 80 since.

UN-CLUTCH: The Yankees have stranded 40 runners in the last four games and are 6 of 43 (.140) with runners in scoring position.

Back with much more later on. We’re hoping to bring you some A-Rod pre-game audio depending on what the circumstances are.

I’m also scheduled to be on ESPN News at 3:40 p.m.

UPDATE, 4:19 p.m.: The return of A-Rod has the national media out in force and most of the players are hiding out.

No press conferences until later, closer to BP. Alex is thinner than last we saw him. He seemed happy to be back. Short haircut, no frosted tips.

Cervelli said his experience with CC was limited to bullpen work in spring training.

UPDATE, 5:12 p.m.: A-Rod just said “no” asked if he took steroids in high school or as a Yankee.

He said be unsure of how he would feel on the field. Personally, he said he needed to straighten out his life.

“I needed to look in the mirror and grow up,” he said.

UPDATE, 6:06 p.m.: Terrible news for Ian Kennedy. He has an aneurysm and will have surgery in New York on Tuesday. The same surgeon that worked on David Cone, Dr. George Todd, will do the surgery.

UPDATE, 6:11 p.m.: Here is the audio of A-Rod’s pre-game press conference:

It was a very chaotic setting. Instead of having the press conference in the interview room at Camden Yards, which was unoccupied, the Yankees had Rodriguez meet with reporters in the dugout. There were dozens of TV cameras, radio reporters and print reporters pushing and shoving to try and get close enough to hear him.

Here’s the audio. It’s just the segment he did with the print reporters:

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UPDATE, 6:21 p.m.: Just to Alex for a few minutes in the dugout during BP. He said that Chien-Ming Wang is working with the same rehab therapist he had — Dr. Mark Lindsay — and is making great progress.

“I’d still be a month away if not for Lindsay,” A-Rod said. “Wang looks different, he’s a lot stronger and his legs are better. He’s going to get back and be fine.”

Alex is an unusual dude. He’s standing there talking to Sweeny Murti and I when Jeter walked by. “You gotta help me out there, Jeet,” he says. “I’m going to be nervous. Very nervous.”

“What?” Jeter said with a quizzical look.

“Nervous,” Alex said. “I’m going to need your help.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Jeter said.

I have no idea whether A-Rod was kidding or not. It was hard to tell. I hope he was. Jeter looked at him like he was crazy.

UPDATE, 6:31 p.m.: Here’s the roster move: RHP Steven Jackson was DFA’d.

I have no idea why they’re keeping Berroa around. I guess in case Alex gets hurt again. I asked Girardi and he hinted that more moves are on the way.

UPDATE, 6:36 p.m.: A little more on Ian Kennedy. The aneurysm is under his armpit and it’s what was causing the numbness in his fingers. He’ll be operated on at Roosevelt Hospital on Tuesday. No idea yet on the timetable. But Cone came back fairly quickly, all things considered. He was out four months.

It’s a real shame for Ian, who pitched so well in winter ball and was off to a great start for Scranton.

UPDATE, 6:54 p.m.: Here’s a shot of Alex in the dugout.

I have a lot of newspaper work to do, but I will try and update the blog as needed. Enjoy the game. It should be interesting with everything that is going on.

Meanwhile, Steven Jackson had a 1.88 ERA at Scranton. He had allowed 16 hits in 14.1 innings and struck out only eight. But, still. I would expect some other club to want him.

They just introduced Alex and it was the usual amount of booing. Nothing more. They hate Tex more here.

UPDATE, 7:10 p.m.: It’s like a movie. One pitch and he crushes a three-run homer. The Yankees have the lead for the first time since Saturday.

The crowd was booing when Alex came to the plate. There were approximately 30-40 people waving these large foam syringes around.

There is a a very sparse crowd here, fewer Yankees fans than usual. Lots of empty seats.

UPDATE, 7:26 p.m.: Wow, it would seem young Mr. Cervelli can throw the baseball. Even if the umpire blew the call. Jones was safe. But heck of a throw.

UPDATE, 8:25 p.m.: A-Rod will be the story of this game and rightfully so. But Cartsen Charles has arrived as a Yankee: 5 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts. He’s mowing down the O’s. He has retired 14 of the last 15.

Just looked up a few splits on Mariano Rivera:

• Opposing batters are at .241 (7 of 29) with two strikes. That may not seem like a lot. But over the course of his career, that number was at .158 prior to this season.

• The first hitter he faces is 5 of 12 and has struck out only twice.

• With two outs, opposing hitters are 5 of 17 with two home runs.

Granted it’s a small sample size. But that is troubling. If he just needs to build up velocity, perhaps it’s just a blip. If not …

————

Meanwhile, sad news today as Dom DiMaggio passed away at 92. The brother of Joe DiMaggio was a great player in his own right, making the All-Star team seven times as the center fielder of the Red Sox. Because he wore glasses and was 5-9, he was known as “The Little Professor.”

Imagine having the great Joe D as your brother and still being able to fashion a fine career.

Mr. DiMaggio also was a successful business after he retired from baseball and was known for his charitable ways, especially to down-and-out players from his era.

As I read A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez by Selena Roberts, I thought back to an introduction to journalism course I took at UMass a long time ago.

The professor one day spoke about the difference between writing a story for a newspaper and a column. A story, he explained, contained only what you could prove. A column was what you thought.

The book is 246 pages of what Roberts thinks about Rodriguez. What she proves isn’t much of anything.

Because Roberts broke the story in February about Rodriguez having tested positive for steroids use, I wrongly assumed the book would include other revelations. Instead it’s page after page of “one teammate” suggesting Rodriguez did something wrong. Or “a player” insinuating that he did something else. “Friends” of Rodriguez paint him in unflattering terms.

In her postscript, Roberts acknowledges the use of 19 anonymous sources. But no explanation is given as to why these sources needed anonymity. It’s also unclear whether the 19 sources were used equally or whether one or two sources provided the bulk of the information. We’re supposed to trust her judgment, apparently.

Even those facts that could be documented are not. Roberts, for instance, reports that notorious Dominican trainer Angel Presinal was signed into major league clubhouses by security officers while attending to Rodriguez. But no dates or places are given.

Throughout the book, Roberts even places herself in Rodriguez’s conscience and writes as though she knows what he was thinking. In her version of his thoughts, Rodriguez is a weak-willed, narcissistic cheater and womanizer willing to do anything to succeed.

Given the completeness of the February story in Sports Illustrated, I expected more in the book, certainly more detail. But the book does not meet the standards of the magazine. It is, in essence, a 246-page column.

This is not to say that Rodriguez deserves the benefit of the doubt. He has admitted to using steroids from 2001-03 and it’s difficult to believe he limited himself to those three years. Roberts is able to prove he associated with suspicious characters and she is a skillful enough writer to lead you believe that Rodriguez probably did use PEDs at other points of his career. There are many layers of hearsay evidence.

But she doesn’t prove anything beyond that he’s not particularly well-liked by his teammates and says a lot of dumb things. That we knew. The rest is unfair to Rodriguez.

Roberts come close. But a good editor would have kicked the manuscript back and told her to come back when she had more.