The LoHud Yankees Blog

5:00 p.m. Gates Open to the Public
5:40 p.m.-6:50 p.m. Yankees Hit
6:50 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Angels Hit
8:04 p.m. Presentation of Colors: Yonkers Fire Department Color Guard
8:05 p.m. Moment of Silence: Yonkers Fire Fighter Patrick Joyce from Rescue 1
8:06 p.m. National Anthem: Chuck Mangione
8:10 p.m. Ceremonial First Pitch: Bernie Williams
8:14 p.m. Umpires and Managers to Home Plate
8:18 p.m. Yankees Take the Field
8:20 p.m. First Pitch

Joe Girardi had Nick Swisher in his lineup yesterday and, ostensibly, will keep him there when Game 6 finally gets played tonight. In explaining why he stuck with Swisher to the beat writers yesterday, Girardi invoked history – and himself.

“Johnny was scuffling and Johnny came out of it. Tex was scuffling and he had a huge hit for us,” Girardi said of Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira. Then, he mentioned himself. “I didn’t have a hit in the [1996] World Series until my triple in Game 6,” Girardi said. “Joe [Torre] didn’t bench me, you know? Swish plays a good right field out there for us, he does. And it’s not the easiest right field to play. He’s had good at-bats against Joe Saunders.”

A quick look at the stats shows that Girardi was hitting .179 (5-for-35) during the ’96 postseason until that Game 6 against the Braves. Then, in the clinching game for the Yankees, he busted out for two hits including a third-inning triple off Greg Maddux that gave the Yankees their first run. Not a bad example if Swisher is looking for one to follow.

The Yankees and Angels couldn’t avoid the raindrops yesterday and MLB postponed Game 6 until today. Chad Jennings has the story on the rainout and what it means for both teams.

My column focused on Joe Girardi’s decision to keep Andy Pettitte as his Game 6 starter instead of giving the ball to a fully-rested CC Sabathia. Cliff’s Notes version: I’m in favor of it. In truth, I think it’s a no-brainer. Check out the column for more explanation.

Rick Carpiniello thinks this series had the potential to be a classic but hasn’t played out that way.

And finally, Josh Thomson writes about how Mariano Rivera is planning to give struggling Phil Hughes a pep talk. His notebook also has the rest of the news from a soggy, soggy day at the Stadium.

—–

I’ll repost the Flash Points pitching analysis later today and we’ll have the game post up around 4 p.m. Remember that first pitch is about 20 minutes later – 8:20 p.m. – than it was scheduled for yesterday, and be sure to check back throughout the day for more.

Calling the game because of rain? Good decision.

It’s been raining hard and steady here at Yankee Stadium ever since the announcement that tonight’s game had been rained out. It seems whatever optimism I expressed at 4 was tenuous at best. And so the Yankees will play Game 6 on Sunday, leaving Andy Pettitte to start on five days rest. Most seasons, that would be unusual for him, but he hasn’t started on normal four days rest since September 5.

Joe Girardi said he never gave much thought to pitching CC Sabathia on short rest in Game 6. Instead, he and the Yankees will stick with the guy who has a chance to get his 16th postseason win, more than any other pitcher in the history of the game.

The other Yankees starter, A.J. Burnett, will be available out of the bullpen. Not sure what his role might be, I’m sure we’ll find out more from Girardi tomorrow, but Burnett said he was supposed to throw a side session today but skipped it so that he could be available to pitch in relief.

“They didn’t tell me tomorrow or whenever, but if needed, I’ll be ready,” Burnett said. “Whatever it takes. I just want to get the ball again.”

——

UPDATE, 10:29 p.m.: Sam here to let you know that the racist comments from this thread have been deleted and the IP address of the poster – both came from the same person who just changed their handle – has been added to the banned list.

I’m sorry it took a couple of hours for one of us to see the e-mails and be able to do something about it. We’re not at computers all the time and, during that particular time, we were traveling home from Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately, the paper does not employ a full-time moderator, so there will be times when hateful/inappropriate comments are visible. I URGE YOU TO IGNORE THEM. Commenting on them only gives credence to the original poster, which obviously we don’t want. Just email us and I absolutely promise that as soon as we’re able to address the issue, we will do so. Thanks.

Game 6 has been called because of weather. It will be played Sunday at 8:20 p.m. More info to come.

UPDATE, 6:45 p.m.: Here’s the release from the Yankees.

Major League Baseball has announced that tonight’s game between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels at Yankee Stadium has been postponed due to inclement weather. The game is rescheduled for Sunday, October 25 at 8:20 p.m.

Tickets for ALCS Home Game 4 at Yankee Stadium will be valid for ALCS Game 7, only if necessary, on Monday, October 26 at 7:57 p.m.

UPDATE, 6:47 p.m.: Joe Girardi just met with the media and confirmed that Andy Pettitte is still his Game 6 starter. CC Sabathia will pitch Game 7, if necessary, on one day’s extra rest Monday. Don’t forget that Sabathia made just about every start over the last month of the season with one extra day’s rest, so it’s hardly unfamiliar territory. Here’s the audio:

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.

UPDATE, 7:03 p.m.: It’s absolutely pouring and there was lightning in the area, but Andy Pettitte is out doing his running on the warning track. Hopefully he doesn’t drown.

UPDATE, 7:04 p.m.: Now they’ve turned the lights out in the Stadium. You’d assume Sabathia would start tomorrow if Andy is swept away by the current.

UPDATE, 7:08 p.m. We can all rest easy now; Pettitte managed to swim back to the dugout safely.

YANKEES
Derek Jeter SS
Johnny Damon LF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jorge Posada C
Hideki Matsui DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Melky Cabrera CF

Pitching: LHP Andy Pettitte (1-0, 2.84 ERA in postseason)

ANGELS
Chone Figgins 3B
Bobby Abreu RF
Torii Hunter CF
Vladimir Guerrero DH
Kendry Morales 1B
Howie Kendrick 2B
Juan Rivera LF
Jeff Mathis C
Erick Aybar SS

Pitching: LHP Joe Saunders (0-0, 2.57 ERA in postseason)

TIME/TV: 7:57 p.m., FOX

WEATHER: Gray, gloomy, wet and awful. Let’s play two! The full forecast is here.

STATE OF THE STRIPES: The Yankees remain one win from a 40th pennant and first World Series trip since 2003. They were nine outs away from it on Thursday in Anaheim after a thrilling six-run rally, but could not hold a two-run lead and now have to win one of the next two games at Yankee Stadium to advance. The odds are certainly in their favor; 19 of the 28 teams to hold a 3-2 lead since 1985 have gone on to win the series.

BATTER VS. PITCHER: Here’s the Angels vs. Pettitte. And here’s the Yankees vs. Saunders.

HOME SWEET HOME: Poor as the conditions may be in the Bronx, the Yankees are always happy to be home. They were a major-league best 57-24 record at home this season, including a 36-10 mark since June 30. They lost consecutive home games only once in that stretch and have won all four postseason games there so far this year.

LEAKY PEN: The Yankees bullpen was supposed to be a strength in the postseason but it hasn’t felt that way lately. Phil Hughes has allowed three earned runs, nine hits and has a WHIP of 2.36 in 4 2/3 innings during the playoffs while Joba Chamberlain has a 3.38 ERA and has seen opponents hit. 500 off him over 2 2/3 innings. Should Joe Girardi use Dave Robertson more often? He’s thrown three scoreless innings during the postseason.

BOTTOM TO THE TOP: Melky Cabrera has five hits in the past two games and has upped his ALCS average to .381 (8-for-21). Cabrera also has three walks and four RBI, meaning that he might be flip-flopped in the lineup with …

STRUGGLING SWISH: Nick Swisher continues to be a black hole in the lineup during the postseason. Joe Girardi has said he may sit Swisher tonight, but if he doesn’t, look for him to at least be dropped even lower in the batting order. Swisher is 2-for-17 with 16 LOB in the ALCS and 3-for-29 in the playoffs with only one RBI.

SLOW STARTERS: The Angels four first-inning runs in Game 5 marked the first time they’d scored in any of the opening three innings of any postseason game this year. The four runs also equaled the total runs they scored in all of Games 1 and 2 combined.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE: Derek Jeter will play in his 47th LCS game tonight, moving him past David Justice and into second place on the all-time list (Manny Ramirez has 49). Jeter isn’t just showing up either; he’s on a nine-game postseason hitting streak that dates back to 2007.

LIGHTNING ROD: Alex Rodriguez had a down night, relatively, in Game 5, since he didn’t drive in a run for the first time in eight postseason games this year. He did go 1-for-3, though, with a double and run scored as well as two walks (one intentional). A-Rod has a hit in 10 straight playoff games.

RANDOM QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is there anything more annoying than remembering to take your umbrella with you and then having the wind blow it inside-out almost immediately?

IF THERE WERE WALK-TO-THE-PLATE MUSIC IN REAL LIFE, TODAY’S WOULD BE: Welcome to The Jungle by Guns N’ Roses

Back with much, much more later.

UPDATE, 4:01 p.m.: Hey everyone, it’s Chad. The weather at the stadium is not bad right now. Slight mist, but nothing overwhelming. The forecast still looks bad — it’s supposed to get worse hour by hour — but right now it’s promising.

UPDATE, 4:25 p.m.: Josh here. It’s raining pretty darn hard now and the sky is darkening. Not good. Not good at all.

We just met with Joe Girardi, who said there remains hope the storm will push through and they’ll get the game in. Hopefully for all of us the storm doesn’t push through at midnight.

I’m uploading the Girardi audio at the moment. I’ll have the file and a few bullet points in a bit.

UPDATE, 4:40 p.m.: Chad here with some notes from Girardi’s session with the beat writers.

• Had the Yankees decided not to play Nick Swisher, it would have been Jerry Hairston Jr. – not Brett Gardner –who was inserted into the lineup.

• Freddy Guzman was the first pinch runner in Game 5 because Girardi knew Guzman was coming out of the game for Hairston to play third. He saved Gardner to pinch run for Matsui so that Gardner could stay in the game as the DH.

• Damaso Marte has not replaced Phil Coke as the top lefty in the bullpen. Girardi said he prefers Marte against certain Angels hitters and prefers Coke against other Angels hitters. That’s why Marte pitched ahead of Coke in Game 5. As always, it had to do with matchups.

• No surprise, Girardi said the Yankees would prefer to play this game rather than wait for Sunday. He’s heard anything is possible: The game could be played as planned, it could start in a delay, it could be delayed midway through or it could be postponed altogether. It is, quite literally, up in the air.

UPDATE, 5:08 p.m.: Josh here. Sorry for the delay on the Girardi audio. I left the recorder running in my pocket and needed to edit it. Don’t want you folks hearing me huff and puff coming up the stairs to the press box.

Anyway, the rain has pretty much stopped for the time being and rays of light can be seen beyond the right-field side of the stadium. CC Sabathia is throwing out in right field. The lights are slowly coming on around the stadium.

Chad covered most of the news from Girardi, but one quick note: If the game is played tonight, expect another long one, rainstorm or no rainstorm. Girardi was asked if we could see Dave Robertson tonight considering the struggles of Joba and Hughes. The answer? We could see ‘em all.

“Joba has probably the most experience down there. Hughesy has a lot of experience,” Girardi said. “But we have matchups that we like, that we favor, and that’s what we’ll go to. You could see David possibly depending on how the game goes, but I can’t tell you I’d use one guy over the other. Situation dictates a lot what you’re going to do.”

Here’s the entire press conference:

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.

UPDATE, Who’s Your Daddy Edition, 5:15 p.m.: Josh again. I forgot to mention that — if the Yankees reach the World Series — Pedro wants the ball in Game 2 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Discuss.

UPDATE, 5:17 p.m.: Ominous clouds overhead but several players are out on the field playing catch, including Phil Hughes and Chad Gaudin.

UPDATE, 5:19 p.m.: And, as I say that, it starts raining very hard.

UPDATE, 5:29 p.m.: Like, very hard. Ark hard.

UPDATE, 5:32 p.m.: The Angels lineup is out and, not surprisingly, Jeff Mathis is in there. Mathis, who was a .211 hitter during the season, is 6-for-10 with four doubles, all of which seem to have been to the gap in left-center.

UPDATE, 5:38 p.m.: I know some Yankees fans were upset by some of the comments Torii Hunter has made in the press about an Angles comeback, but Mike Scioscia just defended him, saying he didn’t have a problem with anything Hunter has said during the season or the playoffs. “He’s just speaking his mind,” Scioscia said. I should add that in all of my interactions with Hunter, I’ve always found him to be refreshingly honest and a genuinely good guy. You may not like his confidence in the Angels if you’re a Yankees fan, but you’ve got to at least respect him for saying what he’s thinking.

Let’s assume that the Yankees are going to win the ALCS and play the Phillies in the World Series. Does it matter if they do it tonight or tomorrow night?

You bet it does. A lot. If the Yankees win the series tonight with Andy Pettitte on the mound, their pitching plans for the World Series remain intact. They can still start CC Sabathia in Game 1 and, if they want, send him back out three times in the seven-game series. The way Sabathia pitched on short rest in the ALCS, I don’t think anyone could argue with him doing that.

But if the Yankees go to a Game 7 tomorrow and Sabathia has to start then, that rules him out of a World Series start until Game 2, meaning he can only go twice and the Yankees will almost surely have to use four pitchers. If there is rain tonight and Game 7 isn’t until Monday, Sabathia would be out until Game 3 of the World Series. This is part of the reason Joe Girardi has already said Pettitte will pitch Game 6 whenever there is one, even if it’s rained out tonight and played tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in other potential-World-Series-pitching news, Charlie Manuel has said he’s going to start Pedro Martinez in one of the World Series games. I’d bet it’s one of the games in the NL park, but can you imagine if it was at Yankee Stadium? Would the “Who’s Your Daddy?” chants echo differently in the new place?

After a disappointing and disheartening loss in Anaheim, the Yankees are coming home to try to wrap up the American League Championship Series and clinch a spot in the World Series. It’s a new Yankee Stadium, but as Sam writes, it’s become a real home for the Yankees. They have yet to lose a playoff game at the new place.

On the mound for the Yankees, who else but Andy Pettitte? As I wrote, Pettitte had to spent Thursday assuming the Yankees were not going to clinch on the road. He has yet to make a postseason start at the new Yankee Stadium, but he has a chance to send the new place into the World Series.

Josh was at the stadium on Friday, and writes that the Yankees are confident heading into Game 6. The notebook also has information on the Yankees sticking with Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain as their setup relievers, a decision to make regarding Nick Swisher and the potential for John Lackey to start Game 7 if the series goes that far.

With the forecast calling for a 90 percent chance of rain and the chance of thunderstorms Saturday night, the question was logical. Still, Joe Girardi didn’t hesitate, saying he will pitch Andy Pettitte in Game 6 even if rain pushes it to Sunday.

“Andy’s going to start the next game for us,” Girardi said during a 6:15 press conference.

CC Sabathia would be ready on full rest on Sunday, when he is currently scheduled to pitch Game 7. But reasons to keep the rotation intact are obvious. Which is chief among them if Pettitte and the Yanks lock up the ALCS in 6? The luxury of sending Sabathia against the Phillies on Wednesday in Game 1 of the World Series. We know that, even if Girardi didn’t quite say it.

The manager answered a few other pertinent questions. Including:

• He will “sleep on” replacing the struggling Nick Swisher in the Game 6 lineup. Girardi, as you can hear, said Swisher has done well against Joe Saunders. A quick look indicates that isn’t entirely true. Swisher is 5 for 21 with a home run, six RBI and a .741 OPS vs. Saunders in his career. That’s well below Swisher’s career .818 OPS.
• Removing Alex Rodriguez from the lineup in the ninth inning of Game 5 was “very tough,” but Girardi believed Freddy Guzman gave the club a better chance to score the tying run on a double to the gap. “Alex runs the bases very well, but sometimes the extra step can tie or win a game for you,” he said.
• Girardi continues to express confidence in his bullpen, Phil Hughes in particular. Dave Eiland told us earlier he, like Posada, expected to talk to Hughes. Eiland said Hughes’ mechanics failed him on the single by Vladimir Guerrero in the exact way they failed him against the Twins. “It’s just a minor adjustment and he knows it,” Eiland said. “It’s just staying within yourself and not trying to make that good stuff you have even better. If you do that you get a little jumpy in your delivery and it affects your command. That’s what’s happened.” No comment tonight from Hughes, who did not attend the workout.
• The cold that bothered Derek Jeter has not spread to others. Dr. Girardi thought Jeter sounded better today.

Here’s the audio:

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.

As you can see in the grainy photo above, the Yankees are on the field for this evening’s optional workout. Most players are in attendance, including Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Joba Chamberlain, Brett Gardner, and Jerry Hairston. That’s Cano in the cage, pictured above.

UPDATE, 5:45 p.m.: As I mentioned before, most Yankees are in the house for today’s workout. Chief among them is a struggling Nick Swisher, who, after making the final out of Game 5 with the bases loaded, sunk even further into his postseason swoon. Swisher said if he and Kevin Long knew how to correct where it went south, they would. The only solution? “Hits,” Swisher said. He wasn’t kidding.

Later in the clip, someone asked Swisher if he showed up at the park today to get out of his funk. It seemed like a rhetorical question for someone who is 3 for 29 this postseason with one extra-base hit, no homers, three walks and 10 strikeouts.

“Hell yeah,” Swisher said. Listen to more from the right fielder here:

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.

The scrum then moved over to Jeter’s locker. The captain said he felt better but he never reveals much on physical problems anyway. He had more to say about the position the Yankees find themselves in, one both he and Posada appeared comfortable with. They both knew this would turn into a tough series and feel confident in their club’s chances up 3-2 at home.

Both Jeter and Posada discuss their belief in Pettitte. Posada also said he will talk to Phil Hughes before Game 6, hoping to set the right-hander’s mind right after another tough outing.

Here’s Jeter:

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 Posada:

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.

UPDATE, 6:00 p.m.: The Yankees will be leaving the field soon. They are just taking their last swings. I will be downstairs for Joe Girardi and about 45 more minutes of clubhouse time. There will be audio from Girardi and a few leftover thoughts upon my return.