The LoHud Yankees Blog

Here’s the release from the Yankees about Yankee Stadium being open tonight for fans who want to watch Game 4 in the Bronx:

THE NEW YORK YANKEES TO OPEN YANKEE STADIUM FIELD LEVEL AND GREAT HALL TO PUBLIC TO VIEW WORLD SERIES GAME 4 TV BROADCAST ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1

The New York Yankees will open the Yankee Stadium Field Level and Great Hall to the public to watch the broadcast of the World Series Game 4 from Philadelphia on Sunday, November 1. (The opening will be dependent on weather conditions in Philadelphia permitting the game to be played.)

Turnstiles between Gates 4 and 6 will open at 7:00 p.m. for the 8:20 p.m. game. Fans can watch the Game in the Great Hall or in the opened sections of the Field Level.

Food and concession stands will be open and available to fans. NYY Steak and Hard Rock Café will also be open.

During Andy Pettitte’s postgame press conference last night, Nick Swisher stood to the side and listened. When it was over, he began to applaud then looked at the room of reporters and said, “Nobody claps?”

When he went to the table for his press conference, Swisher took a video recorder with him and filmed the moment of him taking center stage. Someone joked that he’s supposed to act like he’s been there before and Swisher replied, “But I haven’t been here before.”

“I think tonight just really, really turned things around for me,” he said. “You know, I mean, obviously this post-season has been kind of a struggle for me, but I’ll tell you what, I think the real thanks from me definitely goes to my teammates, my manager. Those guys have never lost faith in me. And my family, they’ve been behind me this whole way. It’s different. When you’re in the postseason and you’re in New York, it’s completely different than anywhere else I’ve ever been. It’s nice to have a day like this, but it’s just one game. I mean, right now we’re sitting 2-1, and it’s all about the team. We want to get this thing. Obviously coming here into a hostile crowd like tonight, it’s great to definitely get a game here.”

Swisher entered Saturday hitting .114, but Joe Girardi said before the game that Swisher has been the team’s right-fielder all season and that wasn’t going to change because of three and a half bad weeks. He sat Swisher in Game 2, and Swisher responded in Game 3.

“That was heartbreaking,” Swisher said. “There’s no doubt about that. I’m an emotional guy. You definitely know what I’m thinking. I wear my heart on my sleeve. Skip sat me down the other day and said, ‘Hey, just relax. I want you to just watch this game, enjoy this game.’ And then we talked about some stuff after the game. But I think it really helped me mentally, not necessarily physically because right now you’re such on cloud 9 because you’re playing in the World Series, you don’t really feel anything.

“But it was nice for my head to just rest and enjoy that game, and especially for us to win, that was great. So for today, I talked to Skip a lot today, I talked to K Long, our hitting coach, and those guys have really helped me out, as well.”

Here’s the Swisher audio.

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Andy Pettitte pitched and hit as the Yankees beat the Phillies to take a two-games-to-one lead in the World Series. Chad Jennings has all the details on a rainy night at Citizens Bank Park.

The Yankees bats finally delivered the kind of performance everyone had been waiting for, I wrote in my column. After two games dominated by pitching, this win belonged to the offense.

Joe Girardi named CC Sabathia as his Game 4 starter and it’s possible that A.J. Burnett (and Pettitte) will follow Sabathia’s lead and make starts on short rest. Girardi doesn’t seem concerned; after all, there will be plenty of time to take it easy in about a week.

Nick Swisher busted out of a postseason slump with two hits in Game 3 including a home run. The notebook also has items on Hideki Matsui (he homered as well), Chad Gaudin’s availability and Yankee Stadium being opened up for fans to come watch Game 4 on the big screen tonight.

I am heading to Philadelphia this morning on a fun assignment, to capture the scene of a unique New York-Philly doubleheader. It isn’t often a key NFL divisional game is played within walking distance and within hours of a World Series game.

Anyway, the reason I mention this is because I hope some of you will find your way south for the doubleheader. I want to meet local readers who plan to attend one or both games. If that’s you, shoot me an e-mail at jthomson@lohud.com and tell me your plans. If you’re there, I’ll be in touch.

Hope to talk to you soon.

Two numbers that standout after tonight’s game: Seven and Zero.

Seven different Yankees had a hit. Nick Swisher was the only one with two. A lineup that hasn’t been especially good this postseason scored its second most runs of the playoffs, and scored them on night when the Yankees fell in an early hole and needed to put some runs on the board. It started with Alex Rodriguez’s replay home run, included Andy Pettitte’s first postseason RBI and finished with Hideki Matsui coming off the bench for a pinch hit homer.

“It’s always good when more guys contribute,” Johnny Damon said. “But Alex really got us going with that home run.”

Zero Phillies left-handers — other than Cole Hamels of all people — had a hit. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez combined to go 0-for-12 with seven strikeouts. Against Pettitte they were 0-for-9 with six strikeouts. On a night he didn’t have his best stuff, Pettitte was able to lock in against the best hitters in the Philadelphia lineup. Pettitte actually said he was fortunate to have those lefties in the lineup because he could after them with cutters.

“I can’t remember winning a game, I may have, but I can’t remember winning a game where I’ve struggled like I did tonight,” Pettitte said. “It’s very gratifying to be able to go out there and just battle through it. Really that’s all. I knew where I was when the game started. I knew after the first inning, even though I got through that first, the ball wasn’t going where I wanted it to exactly, and usually lately it has been. So it’s just going back to the dugout, talking to Dave and the guys and just trying to take it slow, take one pitch at a time and realizing it’s a long game, and hopefully that our offense could get clicking and get going.

“And we got going tonight, and that was a good thing to see.”

UPDATE: Here’s the Pettitte audio. It’s all good stuff, with a nice payoff at the end when he talks about Derek Jeter nearly catching him on the bases. This one comes highly recommended.

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The Yankees bats came alive at just the right time, chasing Cole Hamels and giving the Yankees a 8-5 win over the Phillies. They now lead the World Series, 2-1, with CC Sabathia going in Game 4. Back with more from the clubhouse shortly.

UPDATE, 1:30 a.m.: Lots of laughing from the Yankees about Derek Jeter nearly catching Andy Pettitte on the bases when Johnny Damon doubled in the fifth. “I could have caught him,” Jeter said, laughing. “But it would have been embarrassing.”

Pettitte said he was tired for much of the night. “I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “I was gassed.”

Mariano Rivera was asked if he thought he might get a night off with a big lead in the ninth. “I never think like that,” Rivera said, “especially in the playoffs. You don’t want to be taken by surprise. You have to be ready and tonight I was.”

UPDATE, 1:43 a.m.: Pettitte was struggling tonight. It won’t go down as one of his finest postseason starts, but nights like tonight are the reason you always feel pretty good with Pettitte on the mound.

“I’ve had a lot of rain delays this year already, and I feel like I’ve been pitching in a lot of rain, but it affected me a little bit today,” he said. “You know, I was heated up and ready to go and felt like I was in a real, real good place mentally, and right as I was about to walk out the door to go to the bullpen, they shut me down. For me that was — I really feel the way that I’ve been feeling this post-season out there and the way I felt out there in the first inning that I wasn’t quite as locked in and didn’t feel quite like I had been feeling.”

He never had that feeling.

“It never really felt like it fell really good in place,” he said. “I felt like I started getting a few balls where I wanted to get them. But it was a battle tonight. I wasn’t able to get ahead. I wasn’t able to get my breaking ball over. You know, fortunately enough, they had some lefties in the lineup that I was able to cut some balls, get them away from them in some big situations and able to get some outs when I needed to get some. But it was a grind tonight for me, where I’ve been feeling like I’ve been able to put the ball right where I want to all post-season so far.”