The LoHud Yankees Blog

When the Yankees boarded the bus to Clearwater this morning, the sky was grey and the forecast said a 30 to 50 percent chance of rain. Not great considering Andy Pettitte opened the exhibition schedule with a sim game, then had to pitch another simulated game when his second outing was rained out last week.

By game time, the sky was mostly clear, and Pettitte was able to get on the mound for an encouraging spring training debut: 4 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. The walk came on a 3-2 curveball, a pitch Pettitte said he decided to try just to work on it. The first run came when Ryan Howard fought off a pretty good pitch inside.

“I threw a lot of good stuff, a lot of good pitches,” Pettitte said. “My location I thought was fairly good. The balls they hit were just balls that I just didn’t quite finish on a couple of them.”

Here’s Pettitte talking about his outing.

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• Damaso Marte said he’s fine after being hit by a Ryan Howard line drive in the lower back. “He’s going to be sore,” Girardi said. “I asked if he had Bud’s signature on there. They said, just seams.”

• Joba Chamberlain threw 47 pitches in the game and another 15 or so in the bullpen. He wasn’t sure how many pitches he threw in the pen, but he said it was three batters worth. Pettitte was at 55 pitches, 36 strikes.

• Since Pettitte and Chamberlain are on the same scheduled, Girardi said there’s a good chance Pettitte’s next start will come in a minor league game so that Chamberlain can start another big league game.

• Girardi said once again that every fifth starter candidate will get at least one more outing before the Yankees start eliminating people from the competition.

• Two hits brought Brett Gardner’s spring average up to .240. Marcus Thames and Randy Winn also had hits today, just the third spring hit for each of them. “Marcus has swung the bat a little bit and run into a little bit of bad luck,” Girardi said. “You want to see everyone get into their groove because as we get going further, there are going to be less at-bats for people.”

• Give some credit to Amaury Sanit. He was easily the smallest-name Yankees pitcher in this game, but he did throw a hitless, walkless inning with two strikeouts. He hasn’t walked a batter or allowed a run through 3.2 spring innings.

• Three hits for Francisco Cervelli, who’s suddenly batting .583 this spring. That sort of number makes that goofy helmet look good on him. Jon Weber also had another hit. He’s batting .571. Cervelli and Weber have the highest batting averages in camp.

• None of the fifth starter candidates will pitch tomorrow night against the Rays. “We’re going to see some relievers,” Girardi said. Javier Vazquez will start. Chan Ho Park and Dave Robertson are among those scheduled to pitch in relief.

• Split-squad on Friday. CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera will pitch at home. Chad Gaudin and Sergio Mitre will pitch on the road. The Yankees still haven’t decided when Alfredo Aceves will pitch next. He might pitch in relief of Sabathia on Friday, or he might start on Saturday.

• Recently discovered that I’m allowed to post Associated Press photos on here. It’s very helpful. That’s an AP shot of Pettitte at the top and of Marte in the middle.

Damaso Marte is fine. After being drilled by a Ryan Howard line drive, he has a bruise on his lower back but was already going through exercises within a few innings of leaving the game. Joe Girardi said he’s not sure Marte will make his next scheduled appearance on Friday, but he’s not concerned about any lasting impact.

The story of the day, obviously, was Joba Chamberlain. The Yankees lost 6-2, but that hardly mattered because Chamberlain closed the game with four strong innings. Even then, he was at such a low pitch count that he pitched to an additional three simulated hitters in the bullpen.

Chamberlain allowed two hits, walked one and struck out five. Only three strikeouts will show up in the box score and in his spring stats because Chamberlain’s 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth came after the game was official, but the Yankees are well aware of exactly how well he pitched. They’ve said the spring training results are starting to matter, and Chamberlain was even better than the results.

“Outstanding,” Joe Girardi said. “Worked quickly. Attacked the zone. He’s got to go out and throw more, and that’s what you want to see. Quality.”

Here’s Chamberlain talking about his outing.

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YANKEES
Brett Gardner CF
Nick Johnson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Marcus Thames LF
Randy Winn RF
Francisco Cervelli C
Ramiro Pena SS
Kevin Russo 2B

LHP Andy Pettitte

PHILLIES
Jimmy Rollins SS
Shane Victorino CF
Jayson Werth RF
Ryan Howard 1B
Ben Francisco LF
Cody Ransom 3B
Juan Castro 2B
Carlos Ruiz C
Joe Blanton P

RHP Joe Blanton

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m., not carried by any of the usual New York stations, but Bryan Hoch tells me that it is available through mlb.tv.

WEATHER: The sky looked bad when we got here, but the dark clouds have gone. No longer looks like rain will be an issue. Breeze blowing right to left.

UMPIRES: HP Marty Foster, 1B Jerry Crawford, 2B Mark Carlson, 3B Andy Fletcher

ON THE LINE: Phil Hughes looked good last night, now it’s Joba Chamberlain’s turn. Joe Girardi said that a bad outing wouldn’t eliminate Chamberlain from the fifth-starter competition, but it certainly seems that he needs a good one to remain a viable candidate… Andy Pettitte and Damaso Marte are each pitching in a game for the first time this spring… Marcus Thames, Randy Winn and Brett Gardner are in the lineup. Jamie Hoffmann is scheduled to play off the bench. I’m sure the Yankees would like to see one of those four get his average above .200.

UPDATE, 1:15 p.m.: Gardner led off with a clean single to right, then got his first stolen base of the spring.

UPDATE, 1:49 p.m.: Andy Pettitte is giving up some hits and some runs — four hits and two runs in the first two innings — but he doesn’t seem especially wild or especially bad for his first time facing hitters. Nothing hit too hard off him. It’s 2-0 Phillies heading into the bottom of the third.

UPDATE, 2:02 p.m.: Two-out single by Randy Winn, followed by an RBI double from Francisco Cervelli. Winn can still move a little bit. Nice job scoring from first on that base hit. It’s now 2-1 Phillies with Pena at the plate.

UPDATE, 2:15 p.m.: Two-hit day for Gardner, who just tripled to center field. Shane Victorino tried to make a diving catch but missed, and Gardner jogged into third. For a while there, it looked like he had a shot at an inside-the-park home run, but he was given the stop sign. He scored on a sac fly by Nick Johnson. We’re tied, 2-2.

UPDATE, 2:22 p.m.: Pettitte’s line: 4 IP, 5 H, 2 R 2 H, 1 BB, 4 K. He threw 55 pitches, 36 for strikes. I think you’ll take that for a first time facing batters. He was solid, and that’s pretty much what you expect a veteran pitcher to be with two and a half weeks to go in spring training. Damaso Marte now pitching.

UPDATE, 2:25 p.m.: Marte’s spring debut, not as good as Pettitte’s. Three-run home run by Werth and Marte still hasn’t gotten an out.

UPDATE, 2:27 p.m.: Now it’s worse. Marte was just drilled in the back by a Ryan Howard line drive. He’s coming out of the game. Amaury Sanit now pitching.

UPDATE, 2:55 p.m.: With two outs, a flare double into no-mans land and an RBI single have led to a run off Chamberlain. Cervelli threw out a runner stealing second to end the inning. Neither hit was hard hit, but the double got just past Russo, who tried to make a diving play going back into right field. The RBI was a routine single to right. It’s now 6-2.

UPDATE, 2:57 p.m.: Bronson Sardinha’s brother Dane is now catching for the Phillies. Bronson was once a big prospect in the Yankees system, and played briefly in the big leagues a few years ago.

UPDATE, 3:05 p.m.: The Yankees have made all of their defensive changes except at catcher. Cervelli is still in there catching Chamberlain.

Phil Hughes seemed to raise the bar with his four scoreless innings on Tuesday. This afternoon, Joba Chamberlain has to keep pace against the Phillies. It will be Chamberlain’s third outing of the spring, and it needs to be better than his first two.

“I told him, just pitch. Do what you have to do,” Joe Girardi said. “We’re not expecting you to work on things any more. We’re expecting you to compete. Show us what you’ve got.”

Despite the fact Chamberlain opened last season in the bullpen, Girardi said he never considered the fifth-starter role to be Chamberlain’s to lose. Girardi said he wouldn’t rule out sending Chamberlain to Triple-A, but it remains more likely Chamberlain will end up in the bullpen if he’s not in the big league rotation.

“I believe he really wants to start,” Girardi said. “For him, he knows this is the time you really have to show us something.”

Here’s Girardi’s morning media session.

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• Clearly the most important thing that happened this morning was that Brett Gardner showed up with his hair cut short again. He said his hair was the longest it had been since 2001. That’s him with Posada in the AP photo.

• Girardi told all of the starters that they no longer have to work on things. They can simply pitch for results, but Phil Hughes still used his changeup in key spots last night. “It shows me that he has confidence in it,” Girardi said.

• The pitching plan is the same as yesterday except with different names: Andy Pettitte for four innings, then Damaso Marte for one, then Chamberlain for four. Royce Ring, Amaury Sanit and Ryan Pope are also available.

• Brandon Laird has a sore elbow, but it doesn’t sound serious. “He’s not going to play for a couple of days,” Girardi said.

• Jason Hirsh threw in the bullpen this morning.

• Scheduled to play off the bench: C Mike Rivera, 1B Juan Miranda, 2B Reegie Corona, SS Eduardo Nunez, 3B Jorge Vazquez, LF Jamie Hoffmann, CF Reid Gorecki, RF David Winfree, DH Jon Weber.

• Scheduled Phillies pitchers: RHP Joe Blanton, RHP Jose Contreras, LHP Sergio Escalona, RHP Chad Durbin, RHP David Herndon.

• Top Phillies prospect Domonic Brown was sent to minor league camp yesterday, so you won’t see him this afternoon.

• The Phillies elected not to use a designated hitter, but the Yankees will use one. Cody Ransom is starting at third for the Phillies.

• The Phillies lineup:

Jimmy Rollins SS
Shane Victorino CF
Jayson Werth RF
Ryan Howard 1B
Ben Francisco LF
Cody Ransom 3B
Juan Castro 2B
Carlos Ruiz C
Joe Blanton P

UPDATE, 11:22 a.m.: Yikes. Just saw my mistake in the Yankees lineup. Brett Gardner is leading off and playing center field. Sorry about that. I posted the lineup from my phone in the clubhouse, then drove to Clearwater and started working on this notes post before checking the comments of the previous post. I guess I’d gotten used to putting Jeter’s name at the top.

Four players return from yesterday’s starting lineup. There is roughly a 50 percent chance of rain today in Clearwater.

Derek Jeter SS (oops, my bad)
Brett Gardner CF
Nick Johnson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Marcus Thames LF
Randy Winn RF
Francisco Cervelli C
Ramiro Pena SS
Kevin Russo 2B

The Yankees used their A lineup on Tuesday, and it included Brett Gardner in the No. 9 hole. Gardner seems to be leading the race for the third outfield spot. He’s hitting below .200 and hasn’t stolen a base, but he’s struck out only twice and has two bunt singles, showing improvement in two key parts of his offensive game.

Also on Tuesday, the Yankees officially hired Kevin Towers as a member of their scouting department. The notebook also has items on Phil Hughes pitching well, A.J. Burnett pitching not so well and Mariano Rivera pitching at all. There’s also a note on Joba Chamberlain’s scheduled outing this afternoon and individual tickets going on sale Friday.

This might have been the best Phil Hughes has pitched this spring, and his four scoreless innings came after Joe Girardi told the fifth starter candidates that results are starting to matter this spring.

What’s more important — and impressive — is that Hughes got those results while still working on his changeup. He threw a first-pitch changeup for probably the first time in his life, and he threw a 2-1 changeup with runners on base, inducing a groundball.

“I threw some in counts where normally I would never, ever do it,” he said. “And I got good results with it.”

Check out his audio. It’s good to hear a young player talk about the big picture when he’s fighting for a job.

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Cleary, The Associated Press takes better pictures of Mariano Rivera than I do. That’s their work on the right. You’ve all seen my attempts.

In his first spring outing, Rivera had the bases loaded but of course got out of it with no damage done. “It’s good because you’re out there throwing your pitches, working,” Rivera said. “It’s not six, seven, eight pitches. You need to throw to build you.

His arm felt “day and night” different from last spring, when he was coming back from surgery. “Last year it wasn’t even close,” he said. Here’s Rivera’s quick session with the media. He’s scheduled to next pitch on Friday, which is a split-squad day, and there was a lot of joking about the idea that he might be asked to pitch in the road game, which absolutely never happens.

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A.J. Burnett wasn’t especially happy with his outing, but he also hadn’t faced hitters in 10 days because his previous start was rained out. Jorge Posada told Burnett that this was the best his changeup had looked, but Burnett was more worried about his fastball.

“My emphasis is on my four-seam right now,” Burnett said. “My next pen I’ll probably throw 30 down and away and that’s all I’ll throw. I have to get that back and establish that… That’s my bread and butter. As good of a hook as I’ve got, that four-seamer is what sets the table. I’ve got to get confidence back in that.”

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UPDATE, 11:52 p.m.: Just a very quick update before I head to bed. Girardi’s session with the media was very short, only four or five questions, including one from Girardi himself who asked whether I now have the flu because I coughed when I walked in the room. Someone responded that Rivera was sneezing during his interview, to which Girardi said:

“He’s allergic to come in in the fifth.”

Pretty good line. The bulk of the interview was about Hughes.

“He threw the ball extremely well tonight,” Girardi said. “Attacked the strike zone. Had a good curveball. Threw some good changeups tonight. He let his fielders do the work, too. He looked good tonight. It seems like his fastball command gets better and better each outing, and that’s important.”

YANKEES
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Johnson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson LF
Nick Swisher RF
Brett Gardner CF

RHP A.J. Burnett

ASTROS
Jason Bourgeois CF
Jeff Keppinger 2B
Hunter Pence, RF
Geoff Blum 1B
Pedro Feliz 3B
Jason Michaels LF
Jason Castro C
Edwin Maysonet SS
Brian Bogusevic DH

RHP Brian Moehler

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., as far as I know this game is not on TV.

WEATHER: Little colder than the past few days. Temperature in the low 60s, could drop into the 50s. Light breeze blowing out to right.

UMPIRES: HP Mark Carlson, 1B Eric Cooper, 2B Mark Wegner, 3B Marty Foster

ON THE LINE: Phil Hughes is scheduled for four innings, and the Yankees are starting to look much more closely at the results for their fifth starter candidates… Curtis Granderson is making his second start in left field as the Yankees try to determine their outfield alignment.

UPDATE, 7:15 p.m.: Paul Simon threw out the ceremonial first pitch. It was actually a nice throw from the mound to Jorge Posada. A few notes as the game gets underway:

• Damaso Marte was scheduled to pitch today but was bumped to tomorrow because they Yankees weren’t sure there would be enough innings. They hope to have Burnett and Phil Hughes pitch four innings each, with Mariano Rivera throwing an inning in between. Marte will pitch tomorrow and Chan Ho Park will make his debut on Thursday.

• Hughes joked that Rivera is his setup man for the day.

• Dave Robertson threw a sim game this afternoon. Joe Girardi said the Yankees will have to do things like that, and use the upcoming minor league games, to get their relievers work now that all of these starters are up to 65 pitches.

• Girardi on Joba Chamberlain’s outing tomorrow: “He’s got to pick it up. We’ve told him, you’ve got to pitch now. We gave you those couple of starts to get under your belt, now you’ve got to show us. You’ve got to pitch.”

• Girardi said all of the fifth starter candidates will make at least one more appearance before they start eliminating candidates. They hope to have a starter picked by the end of next week, and until then they might gradually rule out a starter or two at a time. “There are no rules,” Girardi said. “We’ll just do it as we feel it’s necessary to make moves.”

• Curtis Granderson starting in left field is not an indication of the Yankees outfield alignment on Opening Day. Girardi said he will spend “all of spring training” deciding who will open in left and who will open in center.

• As expected, Yankees individual game tickets will go on sale Friday. They will go on sale at noon.

UPDATE, 7:38 p.m.: His first 2010 at-bat as the Yankees No. 5 hitter, Robinson Cano grounded out to strand runners at first and second. Let the panic begin… now!

UPDATE, 7:54 p.m.: One out RBI double by Nick Swisher gives the Yankees a 1-0 lead here in the bottom of the second. A.J. Burnett has put some runners on base, but he left the bases loaded in the first inning and pitched around a walk in the second inning.

UPDATE, 8:09 p.m.: Burnett was a little wild and lasted only 2.1 innings. He’s out here in the third inning with the score 1-1. Zack Segovia is in to pitch with a runner at second.

UPDATE, 8:13 p.m.: By the way, I’m also in spring training mode. Last inning, Brett Gardner flied out to medium right field. I thought the ball was crushed off the bat. This is my version of “just seeing pitches” or “just trying to throw strikes.” Just trying to tell the difference between a routine fly ball and an epic home run into the next county.

UPDATE, 8:23 p.m.: Mark Teixeira, first pitch home run to right, his second homer of the spring.

UPDATE, 8:32 p.m.: Two-out double by Cano and an RBI single by Posada have made it 3-1 Yankees. Segovia still out there to pitch the top of the fourth.

UPDATE, 8:58 p.m.: Burnett said he felt strong, maybe too strong after his previous start was rained out. “I was overdoing it early,” he said. “I was probably overdoing it the whole time.”

UPDATE, 9:03 p.m.: Mariano Rivera said his arm felt “day and night” better tonight compared to how it felt at this time last year. “I walked a guy,” he said. “I got too excited.”

UPDATE, 9:32 p.m.: Colin Curtis continues his nice big league camp with a running catch in left field. By the way, every Yankees starter is out of he game except Swisher, Gardner, Jeter and Posada.

In what I guess would be called his introductory press conference, Kevin Towers sat right next to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman in the home dugout here at George M. Steinbrenner Field. The two spoke for about 10 minutes about Towers’ new role as special assignment scout.

“Everybody knows that Kevin and I are the best of friends,” Cashman said. “But I’m not in the business of hiring friends. This is all about business. I’ve got a lot of friends, I just don’t hire all of them. He’s here for professional reasons, to make us better.”

Towers was fired by the San Diego Padres last year, but he has a great reputation for his baseball mind and his scouting eye. He will cover both professional and amateur scouting for the Yankees, and Cashman said he wouldn’t rule out sending him for some international trips.

“It will be a different pool of players that I’ll be focusing on,” Towers said. “In San Diego, the months of November and December for me were trade months. We just weren’t able to be real competitive in the free agent market. Our free agent season was usually late February, who was left over. If anything, I might be able to bring to Cash and his staff here, there is probably a pool of players I focused on that maybe they didn’t focus on. Might be able to find a diamond in the rough.”

Here’s the entire session, with Cashman speaking first, then Towers, then some back and forth between the two.

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Mariano Rivera will make his first spring training appearance tonight. On the list in the Yankees clubhouse, Rivera’s named was second — ahead of Phil Hughes — so it might be Rivera who pitches immediately after starter A.J. Burnett.

I didn’t go back and double check, but I’m pretty sure Dave Eiland had previously indicated that Damaso Marte would also debut today. Instead, Marte is pitching tomorrow against the Phillies.

I never saw Eiland in the clubhouse to ask him about it, but the situation could be as simple as splitting Rivera and Marte to make sure both are able to pitch. If Burnett and Hughes were to both pitch four innings today — which is at least possible — there would be only one inning left.

• Scheduled to pitch: A.J. Burnett, Mariano Rivera, Phil Hughes, Romulo Sanchez, Zack Segovia.

• Scheduled to play off the bench: C Jesus Montero, 1B Jorge Vazquez, 2B Reegie Corona, SS Eduardo Nunez, 3B Brandon Laird, LF Colin Curtis, CF Greg Golson, RF Jamie Hoffmann, DH Austin Romine.

• Pitchers for tomorrow: Andy Pettitte, Joba Chamberlain, Damaso Marte, Royce Ring, Amaury Sanit.

• Position players not making the trip tomorrow: Jorge Posada, Austin Romine, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Greg Golson, Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson.

• In the middle of the Yankees clubhouse, there’s an aisle of lockers — four on each side — that was packed last week. Today, it was only Jamie Hoffmann. He used to be surrounded by Hector Noesi, Ivan Nova, D.J. Mitchell, Kyle Higashioka, Andrew Brackman, Christian Garcia and Wilkin De La Rosa. Now it’s his locker among a bunch of empty hangers.

UPDATE, 2:58 p.m.: Houston’s lineup.

Jason Bourgeois CF
Jeff Keppinger 2B
Hunter Pence, RF
Geoff Blum 1B
Pedro Feliz 3B
Jason Michaels LF
Jason Castro C
Edwin Maysonet SS
Brian Bogusevic DH

RHP Brian Moehler

UPDATE, 3:00 p.m.: MLB Network just sent a press release announcing John Smoltz as the newest addition to its on-air roster.

UPDATE, 3:09 p.m.: Forgot to mention that minor league catcher Kyle Anson has decided to retire. He was a converted third baseman who always showed a great eye at the plate, but never hit for much power or average. He got to Double-A.

Although it’s been widely speculated that former second-round pick J.B. Cox has also retired, Mark Newman said the Yankees are “still waiting” for Cox to make a final decision about his playing future. Cox was a dominant closer at the University of Texas and put up terrific minor league numbers before injuries got in the way.