The LoHud Yankees Blog

Regardless of what happened in that at-bat, Kelly Shoppach was going to be CC Sabathia’s last hitter this afternoon. When Shoppach singled with two outs in the eight, it broke up a no-hitter on Sabathia’a 111th pitch of the game.

“Shoppach was his last hitter no matter what,” manager Joe Girardi said. “He did not know that going out, but he knows now. I told him when he came out because, big picture. It’s not something you want to do, but you have to think big picture. I told Dave (Eiland), 110 to 115, that was it.”

Sabathia might have disagreed.

“It makes it easy now,” he said. “But we would have been fighting out there on the mound. I felt good, but I understand where he’s coming from too.”

In the end, there was no decision to make. Sabathia said he knew as soon as Shoppach looped that ball to left field that his day was done. He and Shoppach are old friends from their days with Cleveland, and Sabathia left a two-seamer up in the zone to a guy who likes to swing at fastballs.

“That was as good as I’ve seen him,” Shoppach said. “He did not make a mistake with his changeup all day. He had the extra velocity up in the zone when he needed it. Man, he was throwing strikes and getting ahead.”

Had Shoppach not gotten that hit, we might be having a very interesting and dare I say spirited debate right now.

“You have to look at the big picture and not the small one, get caught up in everything that’s going on out there,” Eiland said. “That’s our job to make those tough calls. It’s for the betterment of him and the betterment of the team. CC would have fought us on it, but he would have understood. I think anyone with any baseball sense would have understood.”

Here’s Sabathia talking about his outstanding second start of the year.

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Photos from The Associated Press.

CC Sabathia was four outs away from the 11th no-hitter in Yankees history this afternoon. Kelly Shoppach broke up the milestone with a two-out single to left in the eighth inning. Sabathia threw 111 pitches, 69 for strikes. He struck out five, walked two and got the win in a 10-0 Yankees landslide.

That’s the Associated Press picture of Sabathia after the Shoppach single.

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

CC Sabathia LHP (0-0, 8.44)
Career vs. Rays

RAYS
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Ben Zobrist 2B
Evan Longoria 3B
B.J. Upton CF
Willy Aybar 1B
Pat Burrell DH
Kelly Shoppach C
Gabe Kapler RF

RHP Wade Davis (2-2, 3.72 in 2009)
Career vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 3:10 p.m./FOX

WEATHER: Room temperature.

UMPIRES: HP Wally Bell, 1B Laz Diaz, 2B Vic Carapazza, 3B James Hoye

INTO THE DEEP IN: Wade Davis is a 24-year-old who had pretty good numbers last season, but the Yankees have hardly faced him. Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter are each 2-for-3 against Davis, but Francisco Cervelli, Brett Gardner and Nick Johnson have never faced him in the big leagues (I’m guessing Gardner probably did in the minors). The Yankees lineup has a total of 15 at-bats against him.

ON THE MARK: If Mark Teixeira doesn’t get a hit in his first at-bat, he will set a personal record for the longest hitless streak to start a season. He’s currently 0-for-16, matching the way he started his rookie season. He’s never opened 0-for-17.

ONE AWAY: Alex Rodriguez has 999 hits as a Yankee. With one more he’ll become the 39th player to reach 1,000 in pinstripes. The last to do so was Jorge Posada in 2005. Rodriguez had 966 hits with Seattle and 569 with Texas.

ONE AWAY (AGAIN): Rodriguez needs one home run to move into sole possession of eighth place on baseball’s career home run list. He’s currently tied with Mark McGwire at 583 career homers.

UPDATE, 3:12 p.m.: According to the Associated Press, Phil Hughes allowed one run and six hits through six innings this morning. He struck out six and threw 56 of 84 pitches for strikes. Gary Sanchez, one of the team’s premier low-level catching prospects, had two of the hits. Slade Heathcott also played in the game.

UPDATE, 3:22 p.m.: Might have been a single for Mark Teixeira. Instead it was hit right into the shift for the second baseman to catch on the fly. Officially the worst start of his career at 0-for-17.

UPDATE, 3:41 p.m.: Single to left for Rodriguez’s 1,000th hit with the Yankees… He was then caught stealing second.

UPDATE, 4:05 p.m.: How many times and how many ways can Francisco Cervelli get hit in the head this year? By the way, great job to work a walk there.

UPDATE, 4:19 p.m.: How’s Cano looking in the No. 5 hole? His two-run homer has the Yankees on top 2-0.

UPDATE, 4:37 p.m.: The Yankees continue to get nice production out of the bottom of the lineup. Single by Gardner and sac bunt by Cervelli setup the RBI base hit for Jeter.

UPDATE, 4:41 p.m.: Took him one more at-bat than in his rookie season, but Teixeira just broke out of his hitless slump with an RBI double. Gutsy move by Rob Thomson to send Jeter, especially with Rodriguez coming to the plate, but it paid off. It’s 4-0 Yankees.

UPDATE, 4:56 p.m.: Cervelli was at least halfway to the dugout and still pumping his fist after the Burrell strikeout.

UPDATE, 5:06 p.m.: Granderson seemed uncertain what he wanted to do in that situation. When Shoppach shifted, Granderson was in a bad spot. That was a nasty spill.

UPDATE, 5:15 p.m.: Teixeira with a great, great play.

UPDATE, 5:33 p.m.: Chan Ho Park is getting loose in the Yankees bullpen. You do not want to see Park enter this game, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. We can talk about why after the game.

UPDATE, 5:35 p.m.: Alex Rodriguez’s arm doesn’t get talked about enough. Talk about that right now. There’s nothing else that should be talked about!

UPDATE, 5:51 p.m.: Gazooooo!

UPDATE, 5:58 p.m.: Are you (freaking) kidding me! What a play by Cano.

UPDATE, 6:03 p.m.: There goes the no-hitter on an 0-1 pitch to Kelly Shoppach. The Yankees infield was already on the mound before Girardi could get there to take Sabathia out of the game, and Jorge Posada was the first player to greet him when he got to the dugout. What a game for Sabathia and the Yankees infield defense.

Joe Girardi started his pregame media session with a very, very true statement.

“Day games after night games are always a little slow,” he said. “Nothing happens in the time that we leave.”

On this day, the only exception to that rule was Phil Hughes, who made his final extended spring training start this morning at the Yankees minor league complex. According to Girardi, Hughes threw 84 pitches across six innings. He had “five or six strikeouts,” Girardi said.

Hughes will make his regular season debut on Thursday, and Girardi said there will be no pitch limit. “He’s the same (as the other starters),” Girardi said. “He’s built up.”

As for how the Yankees will manage Hughes innings this season, Girardi said the same thing he said this spring: The limit is higher than Joba Chamberlain’s was last year, and so the team isn’t worried about it right now. They’ve told Hughes not to worry about it when he pitches. If they have to adjust, they’ll adjust, but right now there’s no set plan for when they’ll skip his turn in the rotation.

“If there’s a situation where we feel we need to skip him, we’ll skip him,” Girardi said.

Here’s Girardi’s audio.

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• Girardi said he “will not hesitate” to pinch hit for Francisco Cervelli in a big spot this afternoon.

• Who’s the emergency third catcher? “Nino puts the shin guards on from time to time, and A.J. used to catch,” Girardi said. Nino is Ramiro Pena. A.J. is A.J. Burnett. You can guess which of the two is most likely to get out there in an emergency.

• Girardi acknowledged that Brett Gardner probably would have caught the double that got past Marcus Thames last night, but he said he had no problem with Thames diving for the ball. “Marcus did everything he could to get to it,” Girardi said. “But (Gardner) probably does.” Girardi indicated that he might not platoon Thames in left field when the Yankees are playing in a big outfield, but he certainly didn’t commit to that, just mentioned it as something to consider.

• At this time last year — a week into his return to the Yankees lineup — could Alex Rodriguez and his bad hip have tripled on the ball he hit last night? “I don’t think he gets to third base in that situation,” Girardi said. The surgically repaired hip rarely crosses anyone’s mind any more.

• Every reliever except Sergio Mitre is available tonight, but Girardi said Mitre felt good after his 2-plus innings last night.

• A Yankees highlight video of last season was on TV in the Yankees clubhouse this afternoon, but Dave Robertson and the writers seemed to be the only people interested. I don’t think anyone else gave it a second look.

• Good stuff from George King on the bizarre Joe West story.

• Mike Ashmore checked in with injured pitching prospect Alan Horne, who has decided to postpone his rotator cuff surgery and will try platelet-rich plasma treatments. Other news from Trenton: Christian Garcia is waiting for MRI results on his sore elbow. It doesn’t sound like a great situation.

Like Girardi said, not much has happened since last night, so I pulled a random AP picture from the Boston series. It was either that or another shot of a dejected Javy Vazquez.

Without Jorge Posada in the lineup, Nick Swisher has moved up to the No. 6 spot while Curtis Granderson stays in the No. 7 hole.

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

CC Sabathia LHP

RAYS
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Ben Zobrist 2B
Evan Longoria 3B
B.J. Upton CF
Willy Aybar 1B
Pat Burrell DH
Kelly Shoppach C
Gabe Kapler RF

RHP Wade Davis

Swisher being bumped up to sixth is obviously the biggest change to the Yankees lineup, but the  most important change could be production from Mark Teixeira who is 0-for-16 this season.

Teixeira also started his career 0-for-16 before finally doubling off Mark Mulder.

“It’s always turned around,” he said. “It’s always turned around really, really well.”

Here’s Teixeira’s session with the media last night.

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That’s an Associated Press shot of Alex Rodriguez’s RBI triple last night.

Javier Vazquez made his season debut on Friday night and gave the Yankees their worst start of the young season. After cruising through the first three innings, Vazquez struggled with his command and was knocked around for eight runs.

Before the game, several Yankees players and their manager reacted to comments by umpire Joe West, who called the pace of their opening series in Boston “pathetic and embarrassing.” The notebook also has items on Francisco Cervelli, Andy Pettitte and Mark Teixeira.

Javier Vazquez seemed to cruise through his first three innings, but after he walked Ben Zobrist to lead off the fourth, his entire outing seemed to crumble.

“From the stretch he seemed like he wanted to rush a little bit,” Jorge Posada said.

Vazquez said it wasn’t only that his pitches were up, they were over the middle of the plate. And the middle of the plate is no place for a pitcher to be.

“Obviously you want to start out on the right foot, and to lose this game is disappointing,” Vazquez said. “First three innings I was doing a pretty good job controlling their lineup, but I made a lot of mistakes in the zone, and in the big leagues they get hit hard.”

Here’s the Vazquez postgame audio.

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• Francisco Cervelli will start tomorrow’s afternoon game against the Rays. “Jorge will be off tomorrow,” Joe Girardi said. “I’m not going to catch him too many day games after night games.”

• Vazquez is really the first of the new guys to get off to a terrible start. Chan Ho Park allowed that home run in the opener, but he bounced right back with an outstanding relief appearance on Wednesday. “You worry about a guy that’s younger more than you do a guy that’s experienced,” Girardi said. “Javy’s been through this.”

• Speaking of new guys who have been here before, Nick Johnson and Marcus Thames each got their first hits tonight. Johnson and Derek Jeter were the only Yankees with two hits.

• Every Rays starter had a hit.

• David Price was pretty dominant. Girardi praised his curveball, but both Posada and Mark Teixeira seemed impressed by his curveball, his four-seam, his two-seam and his changeup. “We hit a couple of ball hard off him, but he pitched pretty darn well,” Teixeira said.

• Speaking of Teixeira, he’s 0-for-16: “I’ve hit a few balls hard, but not enough to really feel great about myself,” he said. “Unfortunately I do this to myself every year. I just punish myself early on and then I get it going.”

• Girardi’s take on Teixeira: “I’ve got a feeling it’s going to happen tomorrow.”

• Solid work from Sergio Mitre, who allowed base hits to the first two batters he faced but retired the next eight in a row.

That’s an Associated Press photo of Vazquez after the fourth inning home run to Carlos Pena.

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

RHP Javier Vazquez (15-10, 2.87 in 2009)
Career vs. Rays

RAYS
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Ben Zobrist RF
Evan Longoria 3B
Carlos Pena 1B
B.J. Upton CF
Willy Aybar DH
Dioner Navarro C
Sean Rodriguez 2B

LHP David Price
Career vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:10 p.m./YES Network

WEATHER: Not that it matters, but it actually is very nice outside. At least it was while I was driving to the park and walking into the dome.

UMPIRES: HP James Hoye, 1B Wally Bell, 2B Laz Diaz, 3B Vic Carapazza

PRICE IS RIGHT: None of the Yankees has more than 10 career at-bats against David Price, but the Rays lefty has so far been successful against them. Alex Rodriguez is 3-for-9, but none of the other Yankees has more than one career hit against Price. Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher have each homered as their only hits against him.

POWER AT THE BOTTOM: When Curtis Granderson batted ninth on Tuesday, it was the first time the Yankees had ever used a No. 9 hitter with 30-plus home runs the year before. The last time it happened in the major leagues was 2007 when Joe Crede batted ninth for the White Sox against the Yankees.

BOTTOM’S UP: In the opening three games against Boston, the Yankees 5-9 hitters batted .368 with 12 runs, five doubles, four home runs and 10 RBI. Their 2-4 hitters batted .056 with three runs, two doubles and four RBI.

UPDATE, 7:49 p.m.: Price looks terrific, but Vazquez looks pretty good too. He did a great job to strand the runners in the second and he has yet to allow an especially hard-hit ball.

UPDATE, 8:06 p.m.: There’s Nick Johnson’s first hit of the season to break up an early no-hitter.

UPDATE, 8:12 p.m.: For whatever reason, Alex Rodriguez was credited with a triple on that play. Whatever you want to call it, Rodriguez’s hit and the following error have given the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

UPDATE, 8:23 p.m.: So much for the lead. Hard to believe Carlos Pena was a complete afterthought not so long ago. We’re tied at 2.

UPDATE, 8:35 p.m.: Now things are starting to get tricky. Rodriguez can run a little bit, and I tend to think he would have scored on Bartlett’s double even if Thames had decided not to dive for it.

UPDATE, 8:47 p.m.: Seriously, it seems like every time a pitcher appeals to either the first-base or third-base umpire on a check swing, it takes the ump at least five or six seconds to make the call. Let’s hurry it up, fellas!

UPDATE, 8:58 p.m.: Sergio Mitre is getting loose in the Yankees bullpen, and it looks like they’re going to need him.

UPDATE, 9:05 p.m.: 98 pitches, 62 strikes for Vazquez.

UPDATE, 9:36 p.m.: Nick Johnson’s RBI double has roused the Yankees fans who have started a Let’s Go Yankees chant in left field.

UPDATE, 10:02 p.m.: Not a good game for the Yankees. They were pretty well dominated by David Price, Javy Vazquez looked bad and they’ve lost their first game here in Tampa Bay.

The Yankees spent much of the afternoon responding to umpire Joe West’s remarks calling the pace of the opening series in Boston “pathetic and embarrassing.”

“It’s his words, ask him what’s embarrassing about it,” Derek Jeter said. “I don’t see what’s pathetic and embarrassing about it. As opposed to what? If it’s 20 minutes shorter it’s not pathetic and embarrassing? At what point is it not embarrassing?”

Andy Pettitte said he did notice, while watching the first two games from the bench, that the umpires were hesitant to give hitters timeout, but he also seemed a little surprised that the Yankees and Red Sox were called out for it.

“Those are pretty bold statements,” Pettitte said.

Manager Joe Girardi pointed out that both the Yankees and Red Sox have focused on signing hitters who work the count. He also pointed out that the Rays have a lot of hitters who work the count. Could we expect another three-plus hour game tonight?

“We’re not going to ask out hitters to change their approach to speed the game up,” Girardi said.

UPDATE, 6:14 p.m.: Here’s Jeter’s pregame session with the media.

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• Francisco Cervelli caught two innings and had three at-bats in an extended spring training game yesterday. He hadn’t played in a while and just wanted to get his feet wet again. Cervelli will start one of the games here in Tampa.  ”He’ll be in one of the next two days,” Girardi said.

• After Wednesday’s collision at first base, Andy Pettitte said he was sore but didn’t get any extra treatment on his neck or shoulder. He actually went home to Texas on the off day. “As I’m falling and got up I was like, what a start to the season,” he said.

• Girardi said he expects every reliever to be available tonight, but he will check with Chan Ho Park after he plays catch just to make sure he feels strong enough to pitch. “He’s probably not a guy we’ll ask to go multiple innings tonight,” Girardi said.

• Girardi on Randy Winn: “He’s going to get some time, it’s just with all the days off, our guys haven’t needed (games) off.”

• Girardi said he doesn’t consider left field to be a platoon situation, but he does expect Marcus Thames to keep appearing in the lineup against lefty starters. “There might be a day when we give Curtis (Granderson) a day off against a lefty,” Girardi said.

• Before Cervelli played in that extended spring training game yesterday, Mark Teixeira went to the minor league complex to take some extra swings. He’s hitless so far this season.

RAYS
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Ben Zobrist RF
Evan Longoria 3B
Carlos Pena 1B
B.J. Upton CF
Willy Aybar DH
Dioner Navarro C
Sean Rodriguez 2B

LHP David Price

I mentioned an upcoming art exhibit in an earlier post this afternoon. That portrait of Jeter is one of the pieces that will be on display.

As I type this, the Yankees are taking early batting practice. It’s pretty standard the day after an off day.

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

RHP Javier Vazquez

A few random bullpen numbers:

8 -- The Yankees relievers have thrown eight scoreless innings the past two games, going 2-0 and allowing three hits with no walks and four strikeouts.

61 – Mariano Rivera has converted 61 of his past 65 save opportunities on the road. That’s after blowing his first two saves of 2007.

25 – Dave Robertson turns 25 today.