The LoHud Yankees Blog

YANKEES (75-45)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C

Pitching: RHP Chad Gaudin (1-0, 5.13).

ATHLETICS (53-66)
Kennedy 3B
Davis CF
Ellis 2B
Suzuki DH
Sweeney LF
Powell C
Cust RF
Everidge 1B
Pennington SS

Pitching: LHP Brett Anderson (7-8, 4.55).

TIME/TV: 10:05 p.m.. YES.

STATE OF THE ‘STRIPES: The Yankees face Oakland in the rubber game of the three-game series. They are 4-2 on a road trip that has four games left. The Yankees have won six of eight.

GAUDIN’S TURN: Chad Gaudin gets a start tonight as the Yankees stretch out their rotation. He last started Aug. 5 when he was in San Diego. He was 4-10 with a 5.23 ERA in 19 starts for the Padres. Over 103.1 innings, Gaudin allowed 104 hits and struck out 102.

Gaudin has appeared in two games for the Yankees out of the bullpen. He threw 30 pitches against Seattle on Sunday. Joe Girardi said Gaudin should be able to go 85-90 pitches tonight.

BACK AGAIN: Gaudin was with Oakland from 2006-08. He was 20-18 with a 4.00 ERA. Gaudin is 12-9 with a 3.71 ERA in 58 career games at the Oakland Coliseum, 20 of them starts.

ANDERSON INFO: Anderson, a 21-year-old rookie, is 4-1 with a 3.12 ERA in his last nine starts. He has faced the Yankees twice, going 12 innings and allowing nine runs on 18 hits and three walks. He last faced the Yankees on July 24 at the Stadium, giving up four runs on 6.2 innings.

LEFTY LUMBER: Derek Jeter is 57 of 133 (.429) against left-handed pitchers this season with 12 extra-base hits.

POWER OUTAGE: The Yankees gave not homered in the last two games. Shocking, I know.

DAMON DYNAMITE: Nine of Johnny Damon’s last 11 hits have been for extra bases.

ALL ABOUT ALEX: The Yankees are 62-30 since Alex Rodriguez came off the disabled list.

HOT RELIEVERS: Brian Bruney has thrown five scoreless innings in his last four appearances, Dave Robertson has seven scoreless innings in his last eight.

SLIGHT SLUMP: Mark Teixeira is 3 of his last 18 in his last five games with one RBI.

TEX’S GOOD COMPANY: Teixeira, Albert Pujols and Adam Dunn are the only players with at least 30 home runs in each of the last six seasons.

NO ANSWER FOR HIM: Oakland catcher Kurt Suzuki owns the Yankees. He has hit .407 (22 of 54) against them in his career with 11 RBI. This season, he is 13 of 29 (.448) with five extra-base hits and nine RBI.

ON THE iPOD RIGHT NOW: Gimme Some Lovin’ by The Spencer Davis Group. Steve Winwood was only 18 when he wrote and sang lead on that song.

Back with more later on.

UPDATE, 8:19 p.m.: Here’s the latest on Joba:

He threw an extended bullpen today and will throw in the ‘pen on Friday and Sunday before starting Tuesday. Joba has been told he’ll get six more starts this season. He did not reveal those days, but some obviously will be on extra rest as there are 41 games left in the season after tonight.

“We sat down and figured out a plan that works for both of us as far as keeping it as regular as possible. It gives my arm the rest that this whole thing is for, so it all worked out great,” he said. “Mentally, for me to know that this is the plan for the rest of the year, it’s definitely calming.”

Joba has thrown 126.2 innings this season. Six more starts will add 36 innings or so, so the innings cap is around 165 innings. That’s pretty much I reported it would be in March.

UPDATE, 8:36 p.m.: A few e-mailers asked why Posada wasn’t playing. Well …

• He has caught three days in a row and four of the last five.

• He’s a 38-year-old catcher.

• The team has tomorrow off, so he can get two days off in a row.

• There’s a big series coming up.

• He had major shoulder surgery a year ago.

• The Yankees are up by seven games.

• Jose Molina is a really nice guy.

That about covers it. I really thought that at 75-45, folks would be done with complaining about the lineup. I guess not.

UPDATE, 9:39 p.m.: Scoring change from last night. Swisher gets a hit in the fourth inning on the ball that Nomar Garciaparra had to dive for. So Swish was 2 for 5.

UPDATE, 10:08 p.m.: We’re underway and Derek Jeter gets another single. He’s 10 of his last 14.

A little chilly in Oakland but clear. Enjoy the game.

UPDATE, 10:22 p.m.: Gaudin is going to reach his pitch count in a hurry if this keeps up. You get the feeling were going to see plenty of Sergio Mitre and Alfredo Aceves tonight.

UPDATE, 10:31 p.m.: Good job by Gaudin to squirm out of trouble. … Meanwhile. Mr. Matsui seems to have a spring in his step. He drilled that ball to center.

UPDATE, 11:00 p.m.: That’s 31 homers and 89 RBI for Tex. Yankees 3-0 and Gaudin looks surprisingly good.

Every day they can work through one of these games with the fifth or sixth starter is a big plus.

UPDATE, 11:24 p.m.: Nice catch by Davis, the pride of New London, Conn., to save a run.

Yankees 3-0 here in the fifth.

UPDATE, 11:35 p.m.: Cano’s error might have cost Gaudin a win. But he did his job. Now Aceves will try and work out of this mess. Bases loaded, one out.

UPDATE, 11:38 p.m.: The Ace gets the inning-ending 1-2-3 DP.

Gaudin’s odd line: 4.1 1 0 0 5 5.

UPDATE, 11:56 p.m.: This game is flying along. Not that I’m complaining.

UPDATE, 12:06 a.m.: This game is screaming for Coke and Hughes.

UPDATE, 12:08 a.m.: Aceves is not what he once was. His numbers since the spot start in July have been awful. His shoulder is not right, I suspect.

UPDATE, 12:24 a.m.: Hey, it’s Phil Hughes. We know he’s well-rested.

UPDATE, 12:28 a.m.: Strikes, young Hughes, strikes.

UPDATE, 12:31 a.m.: Hmm, this isn’t good. First and second, nobody out. Hughes need a DP and a strikeout. It’s all him at this point.

UPDATE, 12:34 a.m.: DP and a pop-up. I was close. Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughes.

UPDATE, 12:40 a.m.: Back later with clubhouse reaction.

This player is hitting .310 with a .404 on-base percentage. He has only 11 home runs but has 80 RBI, 74 runs scored and 26 stolen bases for the team with the second-best record in baseball. His teammates and his manager love him.

He’s also getting paid a base salary of only $5 million.

How to prove everybody wrong, Bobby Abreu.

(Best part of his contract? He gets a $100,000 bonus if he wins the Gold Glove. That would be like promising me $100,000 if I win the New York Marathon.)

The Yankees did the absolute right thing not offering Bobby arbitration. It would have cost them at least $17 million. But he has had one heck of a season.

The Associated Press has a correspondent in Tampa, Mark Didtler, who hangs around the minor-league complex and Steinbrenner Field and picks up little bits of news. When I retire, that’s the job I want.

Mark is good at what he does and he brings us this information today:

• Ian Kennedy will not pitch in the minors this season but plans to pitch in Instructional League and then the Arizona Fall League. The Yankees could, in theory, also send him to Winter Ball after that. He could get a fair amount of innings that way.

IPK is throwing only fastballs and change-ups off the mound at this point. As you know, he had surgery in May to remove an aneurysm.

Mike Ashmore checked in and said that, according to Nardi Contreras, Ian won’t throw BP until Aug. 31.

• Slade Heathcott, J.R. Murphy, and Gary Sanchez took batting practice at the minor league complex today. Heathcott and Murphy will get into a few GCL games. Not sure if Sanchez is eligible for that or not.

CB, one of our more astute readers, made this point about Phil Hughes having pitched only 5.2 innings this month:

“Hughes has been an important piece to the pen’s revitalization. But his actual impact on games is, unfortunately, much, much less than is frequently perceived. … There’s this die-hard belief that the 8th inning is spectacularly important and excruciatingly difficult to pitch, so a disproportionate amount of credit for the revitalization of the pen is given to “stabilizing the set up role, etc.” The pen is better now primarily because the starters given them length.”

Bingo!

People got all fired up about Joba being in the pen and now it’s Hughes. The reality is the Yankees have been on a roll with Hughes playing essentially a cameo role.

The “set-up guy” is perhaps the 15th or 16th most important player on a well-balanced team. Every player in the lineup, the five starters and the closer impact the game more.

The bottom line is this: good starters are very difficult to obtain or develop. Pitchers who can throw in the 8th inning are much, much easier to find. It would be a ridiculous waste of money, effort and talent to use Joba or Phil in that role. The Yankees realize that.

Phil will be standing in the bullpen next to A.J., CC, Joba and Andy on the first day of spring training next year. He’s a starter who, for now, was needed in the bullpen.

A few statistics that are curious and/or interesting:

• Alex Rodriguez averaged a home run every 11.15 at-bats from May 8 to July 19. He has averaged a home run every 49.5 at-bats since. He has two home runs in the last month. But as his power goes down, Alex’s batting average is going up. He is hitting .298 in his last 46 games.

• Phil Hughes has thrown only 5.2 innings this month. If he’s going to pitch in the bullpen, shouldn’t they actually use him?

• Per Tyler Kepner, Dave Robertson has the best strikeout ratio in the American League (minimum of 30 innings). He is averaging 13.1 per nine innings.

• The Yankees have spent the last 30 days in first place.

It’s almost a surprise these days when Derek Jeter fails to get a hit. Consider these numbers:

Last three games: 9 of 13.

Last six games: 14 of 25, 4 runs, 6 RBI, 3 extra-base hits.

Last nine games: 20 of 36, 8 runs, 7 RBI.

Jeter is hitting .330 with a .394. That’s an amazing OPB when you consider he hasn’t drawn a walk in his last 95 plate appearances.

The Athletics released Jason Giambi on Aug. 7. But Jason Giambi Bobblehead Day will go on as scheduled on Friday.

I need to get my hands on one of those. Just for the historical value.

CC Sabathia pitched against the Oakland Athletics last night. This morning he’ll be at his old elementary school, Loma Vista in his hometown of Vallejo, for the first day of school.

And he’s showing up with gifts.

CC, with the able assistance of his wife and mother, will be providing the kids with a backpack loaded with school supplies including binders, paper, rulers, erasers, a pencil sharpener and crayons.

The kids also will get an autographed photo of CC.

CC said he plans to talk to the kids about achieving their dreams and his own path to success. The event is part of CC’s “PitCCh In” foundation. CC has worked with Toys for Tots, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Oakland and Vallejo and the UCSF Children’s Hospital. He will soon be organizing similar events in New York.

The more you get to know CC, the more you realize those stories about what a good guy he is are exactly true. This is a guy who really gets it.

The Double-A Trenton Thunder have put their Eastern League playoff tickets on sale.

If you haven’t been to Waterfront Park in Trenton, it’s a terrific ballpark and a great place to bring your kids. The Yankees also have a gang of prospects there. The Thunder currently trail New Britain by one game for the second playoff spot in the EL Northern Division. They trail Connecticut by 10 games for first place in the division.

Trenton is the two-time defending EL champion.

Tickets are available now for $10 per seat and may be ordered online at trentonthunder.com, by calling the Thunder Ticket Office at (609) 394-3300 ext. 101 or by visiting Waterfront Park Monday-Friday 9:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and on game days starting at 9:30 a.m.

Fans will be refunded for any playoff games that were purchased and not played by October 1. Tickets will be available for pick up the day after the Thunder clinch a playoff spot.

2009 EL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Division Championship Series (best of five)
Game 1: Wednesday, Sept. 9 (2nd place at 1st place)
Game 2: Thursday, Sept. 10 (2nd place at 1st place)
Game 3: Friday, Sept. 11 (1st place at 2nd place)
Game 4: Saturday, Sept. 12 (1st place at 2nd place)
Game 5: Sunday, Sept. 13 (2nd place at 1st place)

Eastern League Championship Series (best of five)
Game 1: Tuesday, Sept. 15 (Southern Division at Northern Division)
Game 2: Wednesday, Sept. 16 (Southern Division at Northern Division)
Game 3: Thursday, Sept. 17 (Northern Division at Southern Division)
Game 4: Friday, Sept. 18 (Northern Division at Southern Division)
Game 5: Saturday, Sept. 19 (Northern Division at Southern Division)

2009 PLAYOFF TICKET PRICES
Club/Pavilion Level Seats: $10 Group Outings (20 or more tickets): $8
Picnic Areas – Adult: $27
Picnic Areas – Child: $22
Yankee Club Adult (Picnic/Gourmet): $39 / $32
Yankee Club Child (Picnic/Gourmet): $34 / $27
Luxury Suite (25 tickets / $100 food credit): $750

CC Sabathia finally pitched well at Oakland Coliseum as the Yankees beat the A’s 7-2.

Nick Swisher was happy in Oakland, but he’s even happier in New York.

The Yankees won’t be getting Brett Gardner back as quickly as they hoped. This notebook also has updates on Damaso Marte, Joba Chamberlain and a visit to an NFL camp for Joe Girardi.