The LoHud Yankees Blog

We’re headed for midnight at 0-0. This has now become one of those games everybody will save their ticket stub. What a classic.

UPDATE, 11:57 p.m: Bruney has to deal with Martinez, Youkilis and Ortiz this inning. Boston is out of relievers and had Junichi Tazawa warming up. He was called up today and was expected to start in place of John Smoltz.

Yankees still have Phil Coke, Mark Melancon and Dave Robertson left. Not Nick Swisher.

UPDATE, 12:02 a.m.: Yankees could use a 6-4-3 from Papi now. Bruney has lost his command a little.

UPDATE, 12:06 p.m.: This just in: Bill Clinton flying to the Bronx to negotiate the release of 48,262 people held hostage by this game.

UPDATE, 12:13 a.m.: This is Tazawa’s debut. He was called up this morning. What a spot to put the kid in. But Francona ran out of pitchers. He’ll go awhile if it lasts.

UPDATE, 12:15 a.m.: Posada gets it started with a one-out single. Pinch run Pena? Probably not unless Posada gets to second.

Yankees have Pena and Molina left.

UPDATE, 12:16 p.m.: Here comes Pena. Hinske can win it.

UPDATE, 12:19 a.m.: Watch a catch by Drew, a game-saver. Incredible.

Melky Cabrera, the walk-off king of New York, gets his shot. Can he do it again?

UPDATE, 12:23 a.m.: Tazawa is giving up rockets.

UPDATE, 12:25 a.m.: And so we go on. Yankees 0-11 with RISP and have stranded 12.

UPDATE, 12:29 a.m.: It’s the 15th inning and the Red Sox have four hits, all singles. How is that even possible?

At what point do they send CC home to rest up for tomorrow? I’m also officially renouncing anything that I write at this point. I can’t be responsible.

UPDATE, 12:35 a.m.: Top of the order to face Tazawa.

UPDATE, 12:36 a.m.: Jeter with a single. Nobody else for Boston, Tazawa is on his on here. Damon, Tex and A-Rod next.

UPDATE, 12:37 a.m.: Tazawa has given up hits to three of the six batters he faced and Girardi had Damon, one of his hottest hitters, bunt. Why? Of course he can’t bunt. He never does it.

UPDATE, 12:40 a.m.: Alex again. He has ended four innings today.

UPDATE, 12:45 a.m.: What a game. Alex breaks his drought, Yankees win 2-0. Boston has to be crushed. Now they get CC.

We go to extra innings at 0-0. Just a terrific game.

Alfredo Aceves in to pitch for the Yankees.

UPDATE, 10:31 p.m.: Walking Chris Woodward in a 0-0 game with two outs? Alfredo, Alfredo. 19 walks in two nights. Not good.

UPDATE, 10:36 p.m.: Ramon Ramirez to face Cano, Hairston and Cabrera.

UPDATE, 10:45 p.m.: Jeter with a chance to be a hero. Would they dare pie him?

UPDATE, 10:53 p.m.: No pie for you, Derek.

Yankees and Red Sox in extra innings scoreless for the first time since May of 1976.

UPDATE, 11:00 p.m.: Nice work by Alfredo Aceves, two scoreless innings. Damon, Tex and the overdue A-Rod to face Papelbon in the 11th.

UPDATE, 11:09 p.m.: Well, the bad news is that this game refuses to end. The good news for the Yankees is that Papelbon is probably finished.

UPDATE, 11;20 p.m: The two bullpens thus far: 8.1 innings. 3 hits, 0 runs, 10 Ks.

Brian Bruney warming up. That’s apparently it for Aceves.

UPDATE, 11:29 p.m.: Another shot for the Yankees. Melky with runners on first and second and two down. Yankees 0-8 with RISP.

Ironic if the Red Sox lost because of walks.

UPDATE, 11:32 p.m.: Where’s Luis Castillo when you need him?

Brian Bruney in to pitch. We haven’t seen much of him lately.

UPDATE, 11:39 p.m.: Bruney gets it done. Back to the top of the order for the bottom of the lucky 13th inning.

UPDATE, 11:45 p.m.: Jeter 1 for 11 in the series.

UPDATE, 11:50 p.m.: Alex with another shot to end it.

UPDATE, 11:54 p.m.: Going to the next thread. Part IV.

Top of the fourth inning in a scoreless game. Beckett and Burnett in a duel so far. Two hits in the game.

UPDATE, 8:13 p.m.: A.J. seems to be definitely pitching around Pedroia and Youkilis and it has worked perfectly.

UPDATE, 8:31 p.m.: First and second, nobody out again. Big spot for RISP-phobic Robbie Cano.

UPDATE, 8:32 p.m.: He stung it, but to no avail as J.D. Drew tracked it down and managed to avoid injury. Now to Swisher, who has been hot.

UPDATE, 8:35 p.m.: Beckett located 95 on the outside corner to strike him out. Can’t do anything with that expect walk back to the dugout. Beckett has been tremendous.

UPDATE, 8:39 p.m.: The captain with the bases loaded and two outs in a 0-0 game. This is why I like doing this job.

UPDATE, 8:40 p.m.: Uneventful. Swings at the first pitch, grounded it to third and Youkilis made a nice play coming in to end the inning.

Yankees 0 for 5 with RISP today.

UPDATE, 8:44 p.m.: Yankees have walked a ridiculous 17 in the series. At some point that is going to haunt them. Walking Nick (.234) Green is not the way to start an inning.

UPDATE, 8:46 p.m.: Catcher’s interference on Posada. Goes as an error. Red Sox threaten again, first and second with no out. The bat hit the top of Jorge’s glove.

UPDATE, 8:49 p.m.: Now this is interesting. Do you pitch around Youkilis again to load the bases for Ortiz. I think you have to. Youkilis is dangerous, Papi is not at this point.

UPDATE, 8:50 p.m.: Nope, going after him.

UPDATE, 8:53 p.m.: A.J. the Spartan warrior goes after Youkilis and strikes him out. What a great game.

Prediction: A-Rod goes deep next inning. He’s due and he loves the drama. The Yankees are about to strike.

UPDATE, 9:00 p.m.: Mark Feinsand wrote that when I wasn’t looking. I predicted a groundout.

UPDATE, 9:04 p.m.: David Ortiz 0 for 19.

UPDATE, 9:12 p.m.: Crowd is 48,262. Yankees calling it a sellout even though yesterday’s crowd was 49,005.

UPDATE, 9:17 p.m.: Great at-bat by Godzila. Sees nine pitches then singles to right field. He is 2 for 3. If you look up professional hitter in the Japanese dictionary, there’s a picture of Ichiro. But Matsui is still pretty good.

Seriously, that’s the sort of at-bat that helps get Beckett out of the game.

UPDATE, 9:22 p.m.: Why not run for Matsui here and steal second base? This is why they have Hairston, no? Then Hinske hits if that spot comes up again.

UPDATE, 9:24 p.m.: Um, a hit and run with Matsui? Inning over. We go to the 8th at 0-0.

UPDATE, 9:35 p.m.: Can’t blame Joe Girardi for pulling Burnett at 118 pitches. He tips his cap to the crowd as he walks off the field.

7.2 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 6 walks, 6 strikeouts. That is vintage Burnett, isn’t it? Now the question is whether that final walk costs him.

Hughes to face Pedroia as this game gets better and better.

Got to think Beckett is done, too.

UPDATE, 9:41 p.m.: Tremendous game. Hughes is Huuuuge as he gets Elfin Magic to fly to center.

0-0 to the bottom of the eighth. Swisher, Melky and Jeter to face Hideki Okajima.

UPDATE, 9:53 p.m.: Girardi plays it by the book, using his closer in the ninth inning when tied at home. Mo will face Martinez, Youkilis and Ortiz.

UPDATE, 10:01 p.m.: Ortiz snapped an 0-for-19 skid with that single.

To the ninth. Damon, Tex and A-Rod against Okajima and then a righty, probably Bard. Yankees have had nine walk-offs this season. Maybe Burnett has one pitch left in his arm tonight … a pie in the face.

UPDATE, 10:10 p.m.: Daniel Bard for Tex.

UPDATE, 10:13 p.m.: Bard brings it. K’d Tex with 98-mph heat high and away.

UPDATE, 10:26 p.m.: Yankees 0 for 6 with RISP. They have had their chances.

YANKEES (66-42)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF

Pitching: RHP A.J. Burnett (10-5, 3.89).

RED SOX (62-45)
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Martinez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Drew RF
Varitek C
Reddick LF
Green SS

Pitching: RHP Josh Beckett (13-4, 3.27).

TIME/TV: 7:05 / YES.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: The game post will be divided up tonight in the interest of making it easier to people to read. My plan is to have at least two (or three) posts during the game and hopefully the in-game conversation will flow from one post over to the next.

We did this last night and it seemed to work out well for everybody. So whenever a new post does pop up, please make that where you post your comments. Thanks.

STATE OF THE ‘STRIPES: The Yankees have won four straight and are 24 games over .500 for the first time this season. They lead Boston by 3.5 games, matching their largest lead. Boston has lost three in a row.

ON A LONG ROLL: The Yankees have won 15 of 20, 28 of 38 and 51 of 76.

50,000 COMING?: The Yankees drew 49,005 last night, the largest crowd in the short history of the new park. With this being a Friday night, the weather perfect and a great pitching matchup, might tonight surpass that?

MELKY’S POWER: Melky Cabrera has 11 homers, his career best.

BEEN BURNED: A.J. Burnett has been hit hard by Boston, giving up 11 earned runs on 13 hits and eight walks over 7.2 innings in two starts. He had been 5-0 with a 2.56 ERA in eight career starts against the Red Sox previously.

BAD MAN ON THE BUMP: Josh Beckett is 10-2, 2.02 in his last 14 starts. He is 2-0, 5.82 in two games against the Yankees this season. This link has how the Yankees have fared against Beckett individually. They have done pretty well.

WELL? WE’RE WAITING: Alex Rodriguez has gone 66 at-bats without a home run, his longest streak since a 77-AB drought that started in 1997 and ended in 1998.

RED SOX ROAD WOES: Boston is 27-28 on the road, having lost nine of its last 14 away from Fenway Park.

That’s it for now. Back with more later.

UPDATE, 3:45 p.m.: Ramiro Pena here.

UPDATE, 3:57 p.m.: Anthony Claggett optioned to Scranton.

UPDATE, 4:05 p.m.: Chad Gaudin joins the team Sunday. They will take a pitcher off the roster then.

UPDATE, 4:43 p.m.: Boston DFA’d John Smoltz and Billy Traber. RHP Junichi Tazawa here and INF Chris Woodward claimed off waivers from Seattle.

UPDATE, 7:00 p.m.: If there has been a more perfect night for baseball than this, I haven’t seen it. Great night for a game. Hope you’re here. If not, enjoy it at home. Updates here all night long.

UPDATE, 7:08 p.m.: A.J. warmed up to the theme music from 300. Good stuff.

7:09 p.m.: We are underway. 75 degrees at first pitch.

UPDATE, 7:17 p.m.: With a runner on third and two outs, the Yankees pitched around Youkilis to get to Ortiz and he grounded into the teeth of the shift as Cano was standing in shallow right field. Cano bobbled the ball and still threw Ortiz out. Big Papi is a shell of what he used to be.

You’re watching the remnants of the Steroids Era every day. Ortiz is a groundball machine. A-Rod has gone 18 days without a homer, etc. It’s why so many GMs did not want to shed prospects at the trade deadline. The value of young players has climbed in the last two years because the assumption is they know how to play clean and you have to question any veteran.

UPDATE, 7:30 p.m.: A.J. at 27 pitches after two innings. Economical for him.

UPDATE, 7:58 p.m.: 10-pitch AB for Swisher. Yankees in business against Becket: first and second, nobody out. You bunt here? I think so. Couple runs in this game could be big.

UPDATE, 8:01 p.m.: I don’t get it. Girardi bunts all year and now he doesn’t. 4-6-3 for Melky.

Melky Cabrera has hit .293 with three homers and eight RBI in the 11 games since Brett Gardner went on the disabled list. He has a .990 OPS and has struck out only twice. He also has played every inning in center field.

I have to admit, I was dead wrong about Melky. I thought when they sent him down last August that he was cooked as an everyday player. But he worked on his right-handed swing, got in better shape and he has been a new man this season.

It’s forget he’s actually younger than Gardner.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the Yankees need Gardner back. He has a lot of value. But there is no disputing the great job Melky has done.

The Athletics released Jason Giambi today. The Big G was at .193/.332/.364 over 83 games and was on the disabled list.

Don’t be surprised if somebody picks him up. For the prorated minimum, it’ll be worth it to somebody to see if Giambi has anything left. It likely won’t be the Yankees, which is too bad because he would wear out right field at the Pony League park in the Bronx.

If he goes unwanted, Giambi will have a good time wherever he is. He always does.

Meanwhile, kudos to the Red Sox. They’re taking early BP on the field right now. You don’t often see that before the second game of a series.

Good luck to the Twins, who just acquired Carl Pavano from the Indians for a player to be named later. The American Idle, as Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse points out, is 3-4 with a 6.37 ERA since June 10. He has allowed 74 hits (12 homers) in his last 53.2 innings.

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Meanwhile, Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is off to an unplanned retirement because of the economy.

Here’s how much Hal wanted to cover baseball: When a stroke to his optic nerve left him legally blind, he kept on going to the ballpark, watched monitors to get a good view and bumped up the type size on his laptop. The Reds players, particularly Aaron Boone, wouldn’t let him quit.

Hal has covered the Reds since 1972, the longest tenure of any beat writer. Hopefully some media outlet in Ohio is smart enough to hire him for next season.

The Yankees have 54 games left. Thanks to my keen math skills, the Yankees will need a No. 5 starter roughly 10 more times this season.

Yes, there are six scheduled days off remaining and they could skip the No. 5 guy a few times. But there is more value in giving the other starters an extra day of rest, especially if the Yankees maintain their lead in the division.

Obviously they’re going to space out Joba’s starts. But an extra day off for CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte makes sense. We all saw how the rotation looked after the All-Star break.

Here are the candidates to take those 10 starts in order of Brian Cashman’s apparent preference:

Sergio Mitre
Chad Gaudin
Russ Ortiz
Josh Towers
Jason Hirsh
Guys selling water for $1 outside the Stadium
Kei Igawa

I sense you are not inspired. But what other choices do they have at this point? There could be some more waiver-wire pickups, but don’t expect much.

Phil Hughes is staying where he is. They don’t have another set-up man worthy of the eighth inning and it would be foolhardy to mess with his arm by transitioning him back to the rotation at this point. Alfredo Aceves got a spot start last month and came down with a sore shoulder. It’s probably best to leave him where he is.

So you muddle through with Mitre and Co. Mitre hasn’t been very good, but the Yankees have won three of his four starts. Their offense covers up a lot of mistakes.

Gaudin has a chance to help them. He has 105 strikeouts in 105.1 innings, he has American League experience and he’s healthy. The other factor is the rosters will expand on Sept. 1. The Yankees will add Jonathan Albaladejo, Edwar Ramirez and assorted other arms to the mix. That will allow them to bolster the No. 5 starter even more.

In short, I don’t think this is an issue worth fretting about. If the Yankees can win 4-6 of those 10 games, they’ll be fine. It’s a lot easier to manipulate that spot when playing from ahead than it is from behind.

The Yankees broke through and slammed the Red Sox last night.

Sam Borden writes that the Yankees really needed that win.

David Ortiz heard it from the crowd. The Boston slugger didn’t say much yesterday but plans to talk tomorrow about his PED use. Josh Thomson has that story.

A.J. Burnett is eager for another shot at Josh Beckett. This notebook also has updates on Jason Bay, Muhammad Ali’s visit, Jed Lowrie’s injury and Alex Rodriguez’s drought.

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I’m scheduled to be on WFAN at 9:40 a.m. today.

A few assorted things:

• Jorge Posada played with a No. 15 decal on his mask in honor of Thurman Munson, whose funeral was 30 years ago today. “Just something I wanted to do,” he said. “He means a lot to me.”

Posada is reading Marty Appel’s new book on Munson.

• Joe Girardi was in a weird mood after the game. He refused to say why he went to the mound to speak to Joba Chamberlain in the first inning. According to Chamberlain, it was to get the signs straightened out. I suspect it was more to keep Chamberlain and Posada from killing each other. Then Girardi actually said he thought Chamberlain pitched pretty well, which obviously is silly.

• Hideki Matsui has 15 RBI in his last 21 games.

• John Smoltz is stumbling around out there, like Steve Carlton at the end of his career. He has an 8.32 ERA and has allowed 59 hits and 19 walks in 40 innings. Asked what Boston planned to do, Francona didn’t pretend everything was OK. “I know why you would ask that,” he said. “But I don’t think that five minutes after a game is the right time to come to a conclusion on that.”

• Jed Lowrie fouled a pitch of his arm and felt tingling in his fingers, which is why he left the game. His status is uncertain.

• Johnny Damon is 13 of his last 27 with seven RBI.

• A-Rod has gone 66 at-bats without a homer. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s his longest streak within a single season. He went 77 ABs from 1997-98 and 102 at the start of his career in 1994 to 1995.

• The Yankees walked 12 and won a game for the first time since August 29, 1967 when they beat Boston 4-3 in the Bronx. How in the world did they walk 12 and allow three runs?

• Boston has lost three straight and 11 of 18. “We’re playing like (garbage) right now,” Dustin Pedroia said. “That’s obvious. We went into Tampa and they beat up on us. We came here and haven’t played very good. We have to play better. We’ve hit a stretch here where we’re playing the best teams in the division. We need to win.”

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I broke up the game post tonight for the first time at the request of some readers. Please let me know how you feel about that, whether it’s helpful in terms of keeping the conversation going. I’m willing to do whatever makes it better for the community.

We had 3,800+ comments in 24 hours on Thursday, a new record. Thanks to everybody for reading and being a part of this.

UPDATE, 12:50 p.m.: Forgot this. Mark Melancon denied all intent when he hit Pedroia. “Why would I do that?” he said. Pedroia was steamed because the first pitch was over his head. “It was kinda surprising,” Pedroia said. “It goes over your head — that’s not something to mess around with obviously. I don’t know why they’d be throwing at me if they were, especially in that situation where it’s a blowout.”

Being that it was Red Sox-Yankees, folks were looking for any blood in the water. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Not sure Melancon was doing it, but I do think making the Red Sox less comfortable is a Girardi strategy.