The LoHud Yankees Blog

YANKEES (98-56)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Cabrera CF
Molina C

Pitching: LHP CC Sabathia (18-7, 3.31).

RED SOX (91-62)
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Martinez C
Youkilis 1B
Lowell 3B
Ortiz DH
Baldelli RF
Lowrie SS
Anderson LF

Pitching: RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-5, 6.80).

TIME/TV: 4:10, FOX.

STATE OF THE ‘STRIPES: The Yankees lead the Red Sox by 6.5 games with eight games left. The magic number is three. The Yankees have won three straight.

STATE OF THE SOX: Boston’s magic number to clinch the AL wild card is three. They lead Texas by seven games.

RIVALRY RENEWAL: After losing the first eight games of the season against Boston, the Yankees are 7-1 against their old rivals, outscoring them 63-42. The season series stands at 9-7 Boston with the Red Sox having scored 97 runs and the Yankees 94.

HISTORIC SUCCESS: The Yankees are 42 games over .500 for the first time since they finished the 2002 season 103-58.

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE: The Yankees are 27-7 at home since the All-Star break and 53-23 overall.

CC’S STREAK: Sabathia is undefeated in his last 10 starts, going 8-0 with a 2.24 ERA. He has allowed only 55 hits over 72.1 innings and struck out 77 with 17 walks. The Yankees have won each of his last 10 starts. He is 2-1, 2.95 in three starts against Boston this season and 4-5, 3.62 in his career. He beat Boston at Fenway on Aug. 23, allowing four runs (three earned) in eight innings and striking out eight.

HERE COMES THE JUDGE: New Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Yankees fan from the Bronx, will throw out the first pitch. Judge Sotomayor was instrumental in ending the 1994 baseball strike.

WELL-DESERVED: Dave Miley, the wildly successful manager of Triple-A Scranton, has been added to the coaching staff through the end of the regular season.

SECOND TO NONE: Robinson Cano needs two hits to become the fifth Yankees second baseman in history to collect 200 hits in a season. He now has 47 doubles, the most by a Yankee since Alfonso Soriano had 51 in 2002.

Cano also has scored 99 runs. The only two second basemen in team history with 200 hits/100 runs scored are Soriano in 2002 and Snuffy Stirnweiss in 1944.

“That Snuffy was a heck of a player. Man, the times we had,” Angel Berroa said.

IF AT FIRST: Derek Jeter has led off the first inning with a hit in seven of the last 12 games and a Major League-most 49 times this season according to Baseball Reference.com. He has reached 30 stolen bases for the fourth time in his career.

FROM THE OTHER SIDE

GOOD DEAL: Victor Martinez has a 24-game hit streak for Boston, the longest of his career. It’s the longest streak for a Boston player since Manny Ramirez injected himself into the record books by hitting in 27 straight in 2006.

In the last 50 years, only John Flaherty — the pride of Rockland County — has had a longer hit streak after changing teams at mid-season. Flash hit in 27 straight games for the Padres in 1996 after coming over from the Tigers.

POWER PAPI: David Ortiz has hit home runs in three straight games. Of his 27 home runs, 26 have come since June 6, the most in the majors in that span. Ortiz has hit 25 homers six times for the Red Sox. Only Smilin’ Jim Rice (seven) and Ted Williams (14) have done that more times.

SECOND SPEED:Dustin Pedroia’s has matched his career high with 20 stolen bases.

ON THE iPOD RIGHT NOW: High Fidelity by Elvis Costello.

It’s a beautiful day for baseball in the Bronx. Back later with much more.

UPDATE, 1:06 p.m.: Girardi flipped the rotation. Gaudin pitches on Monday and Burnett on Tuesday.

Sure looks like they’re lining up Andy for Game 2.

UPDATE, 1:26 p.m.: Dave Robertson just threw to Shelley Duncan and Juan Miranda. He looked good and his elbow felt fine.

UPDATE, 1:30 p.m.: Dave Eiland said Robertson will be available on Monday.

UPDATE, 1:58 p.m.: The reason the Yankees flipped the rotation is that Burnett’s father is having heart surgery on Monday. He’ll leave the team tomorrow.

UPDATE, 2:30 p.m.: Sam here with the audio from Girardi’s pre-game press conference. Don’t worry – audio is something we’ll absolutely continue to do here on the blog.

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UPDATE, 2:35 p.m.: Posada scratched with a stiff neck.

UPDATE, 3:54 p.m.: Looking for something to read before the game starts? Mike Ashmore has a good interview with Phil Hughes.

UPDATE, 4:09 p.m.: Escorted by Jorge Posada, new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor just threw out the first pitch to Jorge Posada. Judge Sotomayor was wearing a Yankees jersey. She is a Bronx native and a big Yankees fan. Great moment for her, I’m sure.

UPDATE, 4:11 p.m.: We are underway in the Bronx. 63 degrees at first pitch.

UPDATE, 4:22 p.m.: Strong first inning for CC. … Jeter came out to Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. New one for him. … Look for the Yankees to try and wear down Matsuzaka.

UPDATE, 4:39 p.m.: Carsten Charles is a bad man. Six up, six down, four strikeouts.

UPDATE, 4:57 p.m.: Nine up and nine down by CC thanks to a nice catch by Melky in center. Then Melky watched his catch on the scoreboard.

UPDATE, 5:07 p.m.: Alex strikes out looking then interferes with the catcher, causing a double play because Teixeira was running. Inning over.

UPDATE, 5:14 p.m.: Sabathia walks his old pal Victor Martinez to give Boston its first base runner here in the fourth inning.

UPDATE, 5:17 p.m.: Captain Intangibles with a nice little leaping catch there to end the inning. … Yankees 0-5 with RISP against Dice-K. Matsui to lead off the bottom of the inning.

UPDATE, 5:33 p.m.: There goes the no-hitter as Mike Lowell singles up the middle. CC is pitching a gem so far and it’s 0-0 as his teammates are 0-8 with RISP and have left six runners on base in four innings, four of them in scoring position.

UPDATE, 5:42 p.m.: Giving up that hit seemed to make the big fella upset, didn’t it? Holy smoke.

This is the CC they want on the hill in Game 1.

UPDATE, 5:49 p.m.: Well, here are are again as Matsuzaka puts two more runners on. Yankees again with RISP, this time with nobody out and the AL’s leading RBI man up. If not now, when?

UPDATE, 5:52 p.m.: Alex, so good last night, has been so bad today. Nice play by Martinez to get Jeter.

A-Rod 0 for 3 and has left six men on base. He is 1 for 15 against Matsuzaka.

UPDATE, 5:55 p.m.: Heck of a catch by Mike Lowell to end the inning. The Yankees are a staggering 0 for 11 with RISP in five innings. That is hard to do.

Matsuzaka has put 10 runners on base in five innings and has a shutout going. Meanwhile only the Red Sox and Yankees can take an hour and 44 minutes to play five scoreless innings.

UPDATE, 6:11 p.m.: Cano, with nobody on base, is one of the greatest hitters going. His strange-yet-great season continues as he gives the Yankees a 1-0 lead with a home run.

Cano now has 199 hits and 100 runs scored along with 24 homers and 80 RBI.

UPDATE, 6:14 p.m.: People booed when Matsuzka’s 3-2 pitch to Jeter was up and in. What makes you think he has any idea where it’s going?

UPDATE, 6:33 p.m.: CC is done after seven innings and 97 pitches. Sure, he could have gone more. But the idea is to win on Oct. 7, not an essentially meaningless game on Sept. 26. You want CC rested and ready.

This is the recipe anyway. CC + Hughes + Mo.

UPDATE, 6:41 p.m.: Huuuuuuuuuughes. Great pitching from both teams today.

UPDATE, 6:52 p.m.: He’s letting Molina hit? It’s only 1-0. This has GIDP written all over it.

UPDATE, 6:54 p.m.: Gritty Gutty Brett Gardner is so fast the Red Sox couldn’t get him in a rundown. Meanwhile Molina tried to bunt the first pitch and Wagner cant throw a strike.

UPDATE, 7:03 p.m.: Johnny Damon haunts his old teammates with a two-run single as the Yankees take a 3-0 lead and that’s it for Wagner. Johnny is seven RBI shy of 1,000 in his career.

Hi all, Sam here. Looking forward to a more formal “re-introduction” next week (though thanks to all who have emailed already), but since I wrote about Joba last night (as you can see in the post below), I thought I’d give you a little detail to pass the time until the game post goes up.

Neither Joe Girardi nor Joba were interested in offering many details about the conversations that took place between pitcher and manager/coaches after Joba’s last start out out west, and that wasn’t surprising. Girardi danced around the subject several times in his post-game press conference and Joba wasn’t exactly forthcoming in his own meeting with the media. But he did admit that Girardi/Dave Eiland hammered home the point that it was getting to be do-or-die time.

“It’s kind of the same concept” as in the past, Joba said, “but it was a little more stern.”

Apparently “stern” worked, as Joba had the kind of outing he  needed. As he said afterward, “there are a lot of people in this game that want your job” and his consistent inconsistency had him on the verge of slipping off the Yankees’ October radar. Instead, he gave them six solid innings, showed good command of his breaking pitches and seemed to be on the same page with Jorge Posada the entire night. To me, that cohesiveness was as important as anything else since the pitcher-catcher relationship is so important in the playoffs – there’s no time for in-fighting in October.

As he was getting ready to leave, someone pointed to the championship belt the Yankees pass around and asked Joba what he thought about seeing it in his locker.

“Man,” he said. “Now that looks really good right there.”

Obviously everyone wants to know what this start means for the future and, at this point, all we know for sure is that Joba will pitch again on Wednesday against the Royals.  After that, it’s very possible he’ll see the Red Sox again … in Game 4 of the ALCS.

“This is an important time of year and we told him we needed him to step up,” Girardi said. “And he did that.”

The Yankees took another step to the division title as they battered the Red Sox.

Sam Borden writes that Joba Chamberlain deserves a shot at redemption.

CC Sabathia is rested and ready for what is ahead. This notebook also has updates on Jerry Hairston and Dave Robertson along with news on Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman.

Between us, I’m a little worn out by the Joba Drama. So I’m going to skip over that. He pitched well and good for him. Now let’s see if he can do it again.

A few notes for those of you still up:

• Terry Francona said Jon Lester could actually make his next start. “He’s going to be OK,” Francona said. Several of the Yankees, including Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, said they wished Lester well.

• Hideki Okajima went back to Boston for acupuncture on a sore side. So the Yankees won’t be dealing with him this weekend.

• The Yankees have hit 127 home runs at home this season, a franchise record with five games left to play at the new Stadium. There have been 227 home runs hit at the park, 12 more than were ever hit at the old Stadium.

• The seven stolen bases were the most for the Yankees since they stole eight against Oakland on June 2, 2006 at Oakland. It’s hard to imagine the Red Sox debating even for a moment whether to keep Jason Varitek. He is hitting .208 and is 15 of 107 throwing out base stealers.

• The Yankees, now 98-56, have won their most games since finishing the 2004 season with 101 victories.

• The Yankees lost the first eight games of the season series against Boston, getting outscored by 24 runs. They have since taken seven out of eight games against the Red Sox, outscoring their rivals by 21 runs. Boston leads the season series 9-7 and the difference is three runs.

• The Yanks are 42 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2002 season, when they were 103-58.

• Finally … The Big G had a pinch-hit single that helped the Rockies beat the Cardinals 2-1 in the ninth inning. Jason is 9 for 17 with three homers and 11 RBI as a pinch hitter for the Rockies.

Back at it tomorrow. Catch you then.

Yankees up by 6.5 games with eight to play. Back later with clubhouse reaction.

YANKEES (97-56)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF

Pitching: RHP Joba Chamberlain (8-6, 4.73).

RED SOX (91-61)
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Martinez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Bay LF
Drew RF
Varitek C
Gonzalez SS

Pitching: LHP Jon Lester (14-7, 3.33).

TIME/TV: 7:05, My9, TBS.

STATE OF THE ‘STRIPES: The Yankees have won two straight but are 6-6 in their last 12. Their magic number is five.

STATE OF THE SOX: Boston also has won two straight. They are 2-2 on a seven-game road trip. Boston is 21-8 since Aug. 23. Their magic number for the wild card is three.

STATE OF THE RACE: The Yankees lead Boston by 5.5 games in the American League East. The Yankees have 10 games left, the Red Sox 11. The Yankees, Dodgers (92-61) and Red Sox have the three best records in baseball.

STATE OF THE RIVALRY: Boston lead 9-6 this season with three games left. There have been two distinct segments. The Red Sox won the first eight games and outscored the Yankees 55-31. The Yankees are 6-1 since and have outscored the Red Sox 54-37.

JOBAMANIA: Ah, yes, here we go again with young Mr. Chamberlain. The newly minted 24-year-old is 1-4 with an 8.25 ERA in his last nine starts, allowing opponents to hit .327 with a .409 on-base percentage against him. While Joe Girardi has said Chamberlain will be on the postseason roster, Brian Cashman has suggested that he needs to earn his way on.

Tonight would be a good place to start. Joba was wretched against Seattle on Sunday, giving up seven runs in three innings then talking cheerfully about how well he threw the ball. He is 1-1 with a 5.06 ERA against Boston this season. Joba has allowed nine earned runs on 13 walks and 21 hits in 16 innings but does have 19 strikeouts against Boston.

The Yankees are hoping to get him to six innings tonight. Then again they were hoping to get him to five against Seattle.

TURNAROUND: Jon Lester was 3-5 with a 6.07 ERA in his first 11 starts of the season. The left-hander is 11-2, 2.13 since. He last faced the Yankees on Aug. 9 and allowed one run over seven innings with seven strikeouts. Lester is 3-0, 3.11 in seven career starts against the Yankees.

THEY’RE HOT: Cano is 19 of his last 48. … Teixeira was 10 of 23 on the road trip with six extra-base hits and six RBI.

THE LEADERS: A few AL statistical races that could be impacted this weekend:

HOME RUNS
Carlos Pena (Rays) 39
Mark Teixeira (Yankees) 37
Jason Bay (Red Sox) 36

RBI
Mark Teixeira (Yankees) 118
Jason Bay (Red Sox) 115
Evan Longoria (Rays) 108

WINS
CC Sabathia (Yankees) 18
Felix Hernandez (Mariners) 17
Justin Verlander (Tigers) 17
Scott Feldman (Rangers) 17

WINS BY VASTLY OVERPAID JAPANESE PITCHERS
Daisuke Matsuzka (Red Sox) 3
Kei Igawa (Yankees) 0

ON THE iPOD RIGHT NOW: Stand Up by Ludacris.

Back with more later on.

UPDATE, 3:57 p.m.: Dave Robertdon threw yesterday and felt great. He’ll throw again in the bullpen tomorrow.

UPDATE, 4:25 p.m.: Nothing official, but the Yankees appear to be setting up Andy Pettitte to start Game 2 of the ALDS.

The rotation starting Monday is Gaudin, Burnett, Chamberlain, Sabathia, Pettitte and Burnett.

UPDATE, 6:03 p.m.: The Yankees now say that Joe Girardi mis-spoke about the rotation for the KC series. It’s actually:

Burnett
Gaudin
Chamberlain

So perhaps they’re not necessarily lining up Pettitte for Game 2. But they still could.

UPDATE, 6:08 p.m.: Here is Joe Girardi’s pre-game press conference. He got a little animated defending Joba and their use of him:

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UPDATE, 7:09 p.m.: The president of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, threw out the first pitch to Mariano Rivera. He was wearing jeans, sneakers and a Mo jersey.

UPDATE, 7:10 p.m.: We are underway in a breezy Boogie Down. Enjoy the game.

UPDATE, 7:20 p.m.: Strong first inning for Joba. If he can pitch well today, that would answer the only real question the Yankees have before the postseason.

UPDATE, 7:55 p.m.: Nine up and nine down for Joba. He’s answering all the questions so far. Best part for the Yankees: He has thrown only 36 pitches.

UPDATE, 8:04 p.m.: Two more RBI for A-Rod as he crushes a Lester pitch to left field. That’s 92 on the season. Could be get to 100?

The Yankees can’t clinch anything tonight. But being up 6.5 games with eight games left is pretty much a done deal.

UPDATE, 8:16 p.m.: Jon Lester took a line drive off the right kneecap and almost certainly will be leaving the game. The ball was off the bat of Melky Cabrera. He is being attended to by several trainers.

UPDATE, 8:17 p.m.: He’s leaving under his own power, which is good to see. Rivalries aside, you don’t want to see anybody get seriously injured.

UPDATE, 8:36 p.m.: Joba’s perfection lasted 3.2 innings. Victor Martinez just drilled a pitch into the Yankees bullpen. But the Yankees lead 5-1.

UPDATE, 8:49 p.m.: Good news for Jon Lester, x-rays were negative and he has a contusion on his quad, which is the area right above the knee.

UPDATE, 9:12 p.m.: Big inning there for Joba as he was able to escape a jam. This has been a hugely positive outing for him.

UPDATE, 9:33 p.m.: Joba had a chance to end his night on a real positive, then Ortiz homered. But it’s still a quality start and he hasn’t had one of those in a while. Have to start someplace.

UPDATE, 9:44 p.m.: Season-high six steals for the Yankees … That’s four RBI for A-Rod tonight.

UPDATE, 10:04 p.m.: Yankees taking this game seriously. Dr. Ronan Tynan just sang the extra-long, “We’re more patriotic than you are” version of God Bless America.

UPDATE, 10:33 p.m.: Jonathan Albaladejo making an already excruciating game even longer. Man, he is dreadful.

UPDATE, 10:46 p.m.: The Red Sox have officially given up, sending in assorted subs. You can figure on the Yankees doing the same in the ninth.

UPDATE, 10:49 p.m.: Posada walked and when Freddy Guzman pinch ran, he took second on defensive indifference.

Both Tyler Kepner and Mark Feinsand wrote excellent stories today on Joe Girardi and the adjustments he made this season in how he handled the team.

It’s easy to say that having Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, Nick Swisher and a healthy Andy Pettitte helped make him a better manager. But I do believe Girardi took the right steps to change his approach, both with the team and with the media.

It started in spring training and if you were reading the blog then, it was a topic here several times. Girardi trusted his veteran players to lead the team, he gave his coaches more input and he was far more candid with the media. The many needlessly uncomfortable moments that arose in and out of the clubhouse 2008 were rare in 2009.

Not coincidentally, the Yankees are speeding toward 100 wins and have the best team in baseball.

Girardi has one more season on his contract. If the Yankees get back to the World Series, it’ll be interesting to see whether the Yankees extend his deal or treat the manager like Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte and make him wait.

The Yankees have a magic number of five to clinch the division and could do so this weekend by sweeping the Red Sox.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have a magic number of three to clinch the wild card, which they also could do this weekend.

The Yankees passed on celebrating a playoff berth on Saturday, deciding they would wait until they wrapped up the division. But the Red Sox, knowing the division is likely out of reach, plan to bust out the bubbly if they clinch.

“Oh, we will … hopefully,” David Ortiz told Ian Browne of MLB.com. “So we don’t have to get our clubhouse dirty. Oh, we have to. Of course. We have to roll like that. That’s how we do it.”

The Red Sox have an eight-game lead on Texas in the wild card. Boston has 10 games left.

The Yankees and Red Sox have played 177 regular-season games this decade. The Yankees lead the series 94-83 and have outscored their rivals by a grand total of three runs, 900-897.

The teams have split 14 postseason games with the Yankees holding a 75-70 edge in runs.

It’s pretty amazing to think that these two teams have played 191 times since the start of the 2000 season and the difference is eight runs.

To put it another way, the average score is Yankees 5.10, Red Sox 5.06.

ESPN.com has a feature called “Baseball Tonight Clubhouse.” I assume it’s a parody because here is what John Kruk wrote:

Who is going to pitch for the Yankees? How does their rotation set up? Overall, A.J Burnett has been awful, excluding some of his recent starts, and besides CC Sabathia, which arms can the Yankees call on? Can you deem Andy Pettitte healthy after having to miss a start or two because of his shoulder? What they’ve done in monitoring Joba Chamberlain’s workload has been unbelievable, but he’s not even in the equation to start.

Let’s examine this passage sentence by sentence, shall we?

Sentence 1: Who is going to pitch for the Yankees?

CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, A.J. Burnett, Phil Hughes, Mariano Rivera for starters. Joba Chamberlain will get a shot. You’ll probably see Phil Coke, David Robertson and Alfredo Aceves. According to the statistics on — well, glory be, ESPN.com — the Yankees are first in the league in strikeouts and second in opposing batting average. So presumably they have some pitchers.

Sentence 2: How does their rotation set up?

CC Sabathia will pitch Game 1. It’s likely that A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte will follow him. That’s how.

Sentence 3: Overall, A.J Burnett has been awful, excluding some of his recent starts, and besides CC Sabathia, which arms can the Yankees call on?

Burnett has not been great. However it’s a stretch to say that he has been awful. He is eighth in the AL in strikeouts, 11th in innings pitched and only 13 pitchers in the league had more victories. In fact, he was one of the best pitchers in the league during the months of June and July when he was 7-2 with a 2.27 ERA. Beyond Mr. Burnett, the Yankees will call on Andy Pettitte. He is 13-7 with a 4.15 ERA and is 14-9, 3.96 in 35 postseason starts.

Sentence 4: Can you deem Andy Pettitte healthy after having to miss a start or two because of his shoulder?

Well, he missed one start. Not two. One. Then when he pitched against the Angels on Monday, he went six innings, allowed three runs and said his shoulder felt fine after throwing 91 pitches. It was in all the papers.

Sentence 5: What they’ve done in monitoring Joba Chamberlain’s workload has been unbelievable, but he’s not even in the equation to start.

He’s not? Since then? There’s this guy who manages the Yankees named Joe Girardi. Pleasant fellow, actually. Twice a day he lets these guys called “beat writers” ask him questions. These “beat writers” have asked him whether he plans to start Joba in the playoffs and the answer was, “Yes, I do.”

Obviously plans can change. But it does seem that Chamberlain is, in fact, in the equation to start.

Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. And ESPN.com should not let John Kruk write for them.