The LoHud Yankees Blog

It’s supposed to rain in Boston tomorrow, so this could be adjusted …

Tuesday: RHP A.J. Burnett (4-2, 4.69) vs. RHP Josh Beckett (6-2, 4.09), 7:10 p.m., MY9

Wednesday: RHP Chien-Ming Wang (0-3, 14.46) vs. RHP Tim Wakefield (7-3, 4.50), 7:10 p.m., YES

Thursday: LHP CC Sabathia (5-3, 3.56) vs. RHP Brad Penny (5-2, 5.85), 7:10 p.m., YES

Caught the last few innings of the game tonight. I was hoping to see Phil Hughes go two innings, but Carlos Pena was 2 for 3 against him with two home runs. Scotty Proctor Coke can always use the work.

How strange is it that after the Yankees set a record with 18 consecutive errorless games they’ve made an error in six straight?

Tex now leads the AL in homers and Mariano has worked three days in a row. Who closes tomorrow night if they need one? Be kind of cool to see Hughes do it.

Finally, the Yankees sent this photo along today. It seems that Mariano was given a gavel and robe from the judge on The People’s Court, Marilyn Milian, because he’s the judge of the team’s kangaroo court. Whatever happened to Judge Wapner?

YANKEES (33-23)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF

Pitching: LHP Andy Pettitte (5-2, 4.33).

RAYS (29-29)
Upton CF
Crawford LF
Longoria 3B
Pena 1B
Aybar 2B
Zobrist SS
Dillon DH
Kapler RF
Hernandez C

Pitching: RHP Andy Sonnanstine (4-5, 7.07).

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

STATE OF THE ‘STRIPES: The Yankees need a win to take the series. They have won seven of the last eight series. … The Red Sox are off today, so a win would give the Yankees a one-game lead in the division before they head to Boston tonight to open a three-game series tomorrow.

THE PERILS OF PETTITTE: Pettitte has pitched only 10 innings in his last two starts, allowing 13 hits and walking 11. But he has given up only five runs somehow. He has been troubled by a bad back but that has abated. His five wins are tied with CC Sabathia for the staff lead.

SONNANSTINE STUMBLES: After going 13-9, 4.38 last season, Sonnanstine has allowed 78 hits over 56 innings and walked 16. There has been some improvement lately. Sonnanstine is 3-1, 6.75 in his last four starts.

DEFENSE ANYBODY? After not making an error for a MLB-record 18 consecutive games, the Yankees have committed at least one error in each of the last five games.

HOME COOKING: The Yankees are 17-11 at home.

NEVER FINISHED: The Yankees lead the majors with 20 come-from-behind wins. They have won 11 games in their last at-bat, the most in the AL.

PITCHING IS THE KEY: The Yankees are 20-0 when they hold opponents to three runs or less. They are the only team undefeated in that category.

STUFF ON SWISH: Nick Swisher has 11 homers. He did not get to 11 last season until June 30. He has hit right of his 11 homers left-handed.

THANKS: To Ernie Palladino for filling in as he is covering the game tonight. Not sure how many updates we’ll have. I’m getting a head start up to Boston for the Red Sox series. But I’ll check in later on.

Enjoy the game.

The SWB Yankees e-mailed today to say that on-line voting has started for the Triple-A All-Star team. So help out the Yankees prospects and vote one or two or 25 times.

You can go to MinorLeagueBaseball.com or right to SWBYankees.com.

Shelley told me will personally thank anybody who votes for him.

(Just kidding, although he might.)

Here are a few links to be aware of:

If you are on Facebook, you can become a fan of this blog and get links to each post there. We have just over to 1,700 fans, so join the crowd.

All of the audio files that are posted are also available as podcasts on iTunes.

We’re also now on Twitter. Follow “PeteAbe” and there will be a tweet every time the blog is updated with a link you can follow. There are 1,300+ followers on Twitter.

Jon Heyman of SI (SI_JonHeyman) is a Twitter machine and has 5,000+. If you want to read a hilarious Twitter, check out hankstein.

You can find the daily newspaper stories at LoHud.com’s Yankees page.

Check back later for the game post as the Yankees face the Rays.

Our seventh reader Q&A was a big success as nearly 500 people e-mailed in questions for CC Sabathia. It was hard to cut the list to 10 but we promised CC this would take a few minutes, not a few hours.

The interview took place on Sunday morning in the Yankees clubhouse at CC’s locker.

Thanks to everybody who sent in questions and please take no offense if yours wasn’t selected. Thanks especially to CC for agreeing to do this and taking the time to answer the questions.

Here’s the audio of the interview:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

And the transcript:

Me: “Thanks for doing this.”

CC: “Oh, no problem.”

John and many others ask: With the accomplishment of Randy Johnson and all the talk about there never being another 300 game winner, do you see yourself being able to reach that win plateau?”

CC: “That’s something I don’t think about. It’s so far away. He was blessed to be healthy that long, to play that long. That’s going to be a tough accomplishment. I’m more worried about trying to win some championships than win 300 games.”

————

Pete asks: If you weren’t a pitcher, but a position player, who would you like to play like and why?

CC: “Ryan Howard. Just a big lefty, hit homers. Got a lot of pop. Ryan Howard, definitely.”

Followup question: So you see yourself as a first baseman?

CC: “A first baseman, definitely.”

————

Clay from Brooklyn asks: Do you have any plans in working with the Yankees to promote baseball among African-Americans kids in the area? To what extent do you think that Major League clubs have that responsibility?

CC: “I think we have. It’s all on us. Me, myself, the Jimmy Rollinses, the Ryan Howards, the Dontrelle Willises in each city that we play in to get that started, and even in our hometowns, too. So, yeah, I’m planning on doing a lot. I’m going be here this whole offseason. I’m going to be living up here the next seven years so I’m going to be very active in the community as far as getting kids in the inner city back playing baseball.”

———-

Shaun asks: My wife’s birthday is next Friday and I was thinking about buying her flowers. What does a guy like you, who has all the money, buy his wife for her birthday?

CC: “What did I buy my wife for her birthday last year? I bought roses. Purses and stuff is what she likes. I buy her a purse and some flowers.”

Follow-up question: “So everybody goes with flowers?

CC: “Oh, yeah. You gotta go with flowers.”

————

Josh asks: How did you get the number 52 and why have you taken it with all the three teams you’ve played on so far?

CC: “I got No. 52 because it was just the number in my locker. In spring training when I made the club it was there and I kind of liked it because I figured not a lot of people around the league had it and if I did change clubs, it would be easy to get it. It was just the first number in my locker the year that I actually made the big league team.”

———–

Bryan asks: A lot of people have speculated that your workload the last few years will lead to some kind of injury. How would you respond to their concerns?

CC: “I just think the Indians, when I was younger, they did a good job just with my pitch count and keeping my pitch counts down. If you go back and look at my first couple of years, my workload wasn’t big at all. I was throwing 85, 90 pitches probably up until the time I was 24, 25. I’ve been in the big leagues since I was 20, so the first five years I didn’t throw many pitches. The older I get and the better work routine I have, I’m able to handle heavy workloads.”

Follow-up question: “So you’re not concerned too much?

CC: “No, I’m not. I think if I had got overworked as a young guy I’d probably be broke down by now. But the Indians really looked out for me and that’s why I’m here.”

————

Eric asks: You’re scheduled to make your first ever start in Fenway Park. Do you think that it will feel like just another start to you or will there be something different because it’s Red Sox-Yankees?

CC: “I think a lot of people want me to say that it’s something different. But for me, it’s another start. It’s a good baseball team, a team in our division, a game, a game we need to win. I look to go out and try and help our team win the game.”

————

Justin asks: Have you ever thrown a no hitter in RBI Baseball for Nintendo?

CC: “I have thrown … nope, a one-hitter is the closest I got. I’ve never thrown a no-no. One-hitter was the closest.

Follow-up question: “Who was the pitcher?

CC: “Clemens. Clemens was the guy. I use Bert Blyleven a lot. I’ve thrown a couple of one-hitter but no no-hitters. I’ll no-hit Bruney before the year is over.”

Brian Bruney demanded the right to respond when he heard this: “No chance. It can’t be done. He’ll have to throw it over the plate at some point and I’ll hit it.”

————

Many people asked: Do you think you can leverage your relationship with LeBron James to get him to the Knicks in 2010? They need a lot of help.

CC: “They do need a lot of help. I don’t know if I want to get involved in that. I don’t know. My gut tells me that, you know, maybe we’ll see him here.”

———–

Sam asks: Have you ever given Joba or the other guys a hard time about the bugs that attacked them in Cleveland during the ’07 playoffs?

CC: “I’ll give Joba a hard time, definitely. Absolutely That was a crazy night, man. It was right on the field. They only come out once a year and it just happened to be that game.”

Follow-up question: Have you talked to him about it?

CC: “Oh, we talked about it. We talk about it all the time. They were out the last time we were there, too. It was deja vu.”

————

Thanks again to everybody as these are fun to do. My goal is to do another one during the All-Star break. I’m happy to take suggestions. We’ve already had Derek Jeter, Brian Cashman, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Jason Giambi and Mariano Rivera.

It was a day of redemption for Mariano Rivera as the Yankees rallied to beat the Rays.

Alex Rodriguez is getting better every day. This notebook also has updates on Brian Bruney, Jose Molina, Phil Hughes and some celebrity fans.

The reader Q&A with CC Sabathia will be on the blog at 10 a.m., so keep an eye out for that.

Wish I had thought of this first, but Deadspin did.

Anyway, Gillette missed a triple play today. Official Gillette spokesman Roger Federerererer won the French Open. Official Gillette spokesman Tiger Woods won The Memorial and Official Gillette spokesman Derek Jeter … went 0 for 4 and couldn’t get a bunt down.

But the good news is the Yankees won, he makes a lot of money and the babes love him.

————-

Shameless plug: Rumor has it I’m going to be on WFAN at 10:45 p.m.

Jose Molina was in uniform today, taking batting practice before the game to test his strained quad muscle.

Jose aggravated the strain running the bases in Florida last week but he is hopeful of being activated in 10 days or so. “It’s not as bad this time,” he said.

I asked Jose if he has been keeping track of Francisco Cervelli, who has done such a nice job of filling in for him.

“I’m so happy for that kid,” Molina said. “He has been working hard and it’s great to see it pay off for him. He has done great.”

Catchers are a tight-knit group and that is especially the case with the Yankees. Joe Girardi was a catcher and bench coach Tony Pena was one of the best defensive catchers ever. At spring training, you often see Pena and the catchers together, either doing drills or talking about the game.

Cervelli has been in camp for several years now and Pena, Posada and Molina have taken turns mentoring him. Pena keeps in close contact with minor league catching instructor Julio Mosquera to stay current on the kids he works with during spring training.

“I’ve been blessed,” Cervelli told me. “I’ve had a lot of great teachers. Jorge and Jose, they talk to me all the time and tell me what I should be doing. They want to do what’s best for the team and the pitchers. Tony talks to every day. He’s like my own coach sometimes.”

It tells you what a class guy Molina is to act that way. He will be a free agent after the season and the Yankees could well decide that Cervelli is ready to be Posada’s backup. But Jose is doing more than his part to get Cervelli ready.

Meanwhile, several people e-mailed to ask what the three stickers on Cervelli’s catcher’s helmet (see the photo) are for. Francisco said the initials represent the nicknames of the father, mother and sister back in Venezuela.

“They’re with me all the time,” he said.

For the first time this season, Mariano Rivera was awarded the championship belt by Commissioner Johnny Damon.

The greatest closer of all time had the belt displayed in his locker like it was the Cy Young Award. After what happened yesterday, retiring the side on 10 pitches was a good feeling. The ability to forget, Rivera said, is what helps make him who he is.

“I would say that’s one of my talents. I would say so,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that separates me from rest of closers because we have a lot of good closers. But I have that ability and I’m thankful.”

Meanwhile, Joe Girardi was asked why he bunted Jeter in the fifth inning. He said it was because Garza is tough against right-handers and they wanted Teixeira and A-Rod to have a chance to drive in the go-ahead run.

Jeter came to the plate 5 of 16 (.313) against Garza in his career with one strikeout. Bunting that player in this park in the fifth inning of a 1-1 game makes little sense. Small ball has its place, but the Yankees aren’t paying Jeter $20 million to bunt in a 1-1 game.