The LoHud Yankees Blog

Although Joe Girardi didn’t commit to a full-time platoon in left field, he said Marcus Thames could be a regular in the lineup whenever the Yankees are facing a left-handed starter. Today’s it’s at the expense of Brett Gardner, but there might be games when Nick Johnson gets a day off, or Nick Swisher gets a day off, or days when Curtis Granderson gets a day off and Gardner shifts to center.

“Will it always be Gardner (out of the lineup)?” Girardi said. “Not necessarily.”

Thames has strong career numbers against lefties. He’s 1-for-2 with a home run against Jon Lester. The homer came at Fenway. “It was a cutter that didn’t get in there,” Thames said. Getting at-bats against left-handed starters and relievers is more or less the same role Thames filled in Detroit.

“It’s a guy that we thought could get a lot of at-bats against left-handers,” Girardi said. “That’s what we envisioned, him being productive in that role. He’s a guy that you could pinch hit if you need a home run. He has the ability to do that. There are a lot of different things we thought we could do with him, but for the most part the numbers against left-handers is what spoke the loudest.”

Here’s Girardi’s pregame session with the media.

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• Everyone is well aware that Granderson’s splits against lefties were awful last year, but Girardi said another bonus of dropping Granderson is the lineup is to pair Granderson and Derek Jeter for some speed on the bases.

• Phil Hughes is with the team. He got in this afternoon after pitching yesterday in Tampa. Hughes went 100 pitches in that sim game — there were five different batters but no defensive players or base runners — and he’s scheduled for 110 his next time out.

• Girardi is going to play match-ups to determine his eighth-inning relievers early in the season, but he’s hoping to have defined roles sooner rather than later. “I think it’s important and that’s why we want to to get this ironed out as soon as possible,” he said. Basically, whoever steps up consistently will get the setup job ahead of Mariano Rivera.

• Joba Chamberlain went 30-plus pitches on Sunday, but Monday’s off day might make him available tonight. “I’m going to see how he feels physically,” Girardi said.

• Speaking of how they feel physically, Girardi said he’s confident Damaso Marte was physically able to pitch Sunday night and he considers him available tonight. Those control issues might have been because he hadn’t pitched lately, not because of any physical problems.

• Pretty cool to watch Gardner rewind video of Jon Lester’s pickoff move over and over this afternoon. He’s not in the lineup, but Gardner was studying just in case.

• The Red Sox are going with the same lineup as yesterday.
Jacoby Ellsbury LF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Victor Martinez C
Kevin Youkilis 1B
David Ortiz DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
J.D. Drew RF
Mike Cameron CF
Marco Scutaro SS

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 A.J. Burnett

A.J. Burnett was almost untouchable in his two Fenway Park starts in 2008, but he was infinitely hitable when he pitched there last year.

“Do you chalk it up to he got too involved in he rivalry? I don’t know,” Joe Girardi said. “Do you chalk it up to he just had a bad year? I don’t know. Obviously we’re going to be able to find out over the course of the season what he’s capable of doing.”

Tonight, Burnett will return to Boston with a chance to get the Yankees first win of the season. He’ll pitch to Jorge Posada, hoping to reconnect after the two struggled together last season.

“I’m going to have to pitch here eventually,” Burnett said. “It just happens to be the first start. That’s in the past, and I think it’s in the past for both of us. We’re just looking forward to getting out there and having fun together.”

Here’s Burnett talking to a few reporters on Sunday.

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A.J. Burnett pitched well at Fenway Park back in 2008, but last year he had two of his worst starts of the year in Boston. Tonight he’ll return to the mound hoping to erase the memories of last year and get the Yankees their first win of the season.

If you haven’t seen it, make sure you go to mlb.com to check out Mark Buehrle’s between-the-legs play today against the Indians.

When I showed it to my sister this afternoon she said, “You need to put that on the blog, that’s just good baseball!”

Considering it’s a play that made my sister use the phrase, “That’s just good baseball,” for the first time in her life, I thought I’d follow her advice. That’s an Associated Press picture of the play, but it really has to be seen to be believed: Just your typical off-the-foot, diving-through-the-air, flip-through-the-legs, caught-barehanded putout.

The rest of the game might have gone downhill, but arguably the most exciting Yankees moment of last night’s season opener was the double steal in the fourth inning.

With two outs and Brett Gardner at third, Derek Jeter broke for second base. Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez threw to second, allowing Gardner to steal home easily.

“I saw him take off,” Jeter said. “It’s a play that happened last year, a similar play, and we talked about it last year, but we didn’t talk about it this year. You just look at the positioning and I was hoping he would take off.”

Gardner said it wasn’t exactly a set play, but he thought Jeter might try it.

“I wouldn’t say it’s ever a called play,” Gardner said. “But I had an idea that he might be going. If he went and they threw to second base, I was going to go.”

It was the highlight of a good day for Gardner. He made a throwing error in left field, but also went 2-for-4 with an RBI. He nearly beat the throw to second base on a fielder’s choice, and each of his hits came with two outs and a runner on base.

“Just being able to let the ball get deep, let it travel and hit some balls hard, square some balls hard,” Gardner said. “My last at-bat of spring and my first two at-bats (Sunday) were all good, exactly what I’ve been trying to do for two weeks. I’ve been rolling over balls and being out front for two weeks, so it feels good to be seeing the ball well and hopefully I can keep it going.”

That’s an AP shot of Gardner and Mark Teixeira after Gardner stole home.

Phil Hughes struck out 12 through 8.1 innings of a simulated game today in extended spring training. The Associated Press has a few more details:

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Yankees fifth starter Phil Hughes struck out 12 and allowed three hits over the equivalent of 8 1-3 scoreless innings in a simulated game.

The right-hander pitched against players from the Yankees’ extended spring training program on Monday.

Hughes was “very happy” with his control and the overall outing. He threw 70 of 100 pitches for strikes.

Hughes will rejoin the Yankees before tomorrow’s game in Boston. He will then travel with the team to Tampa, where he’ll make another extended spring training start before making his regular season debut on April 15 against the Angels.

This afternoon I’m working on a column for tomorrow’s paper about Curtis Granderson, who saw the highs and lows of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry all during his first game. Granderson homered in his first at-bat as a Yankee (joining Cody Ransom and Marcus Thames, among others, in the club of players who have done that) and made a jumping catch in center field on a rocket from Adrian Beltre, but also couldn’t come up with a big hit against a left-hander and made the final out of the game with the Yankees down two runs.

Afterward Granderson was asked plenty of questions about his homer off Josh Beckett, but said the ninth-inning groundout against Jonathan Papelbon “will be the one that’s going to be remembered” because ultimately all that matters is what happens to the team.

“We want to be victorious,” Granderson said. “No matter what you did out there, at the end of the day, it’s going to be, ‘What did the Yankees do?’ Not, ‘What did Curtis Granderson do?’ And we lost today. I had a chance to keep the inning going, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get it done.”

Granderson is a very measured guy who tries to give thoughtful answers. Check out his interview below.

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Thanks to everyone who stopped by for today’s video chat.

You can watch or re-watch the whole thing at www.lohud.com/protalklive. Just go to On Demand at the bottom of the video box. Today’s chat should be available.

Just a reminder, I’ll be chatting live from Boston beginning at 1 p.m.

Go to www.lohud.com/protalklive to get in on the conversation. Not sure how long we’ll go, but we haven’t had a chat since the beginning of spring training, so I’m sure there’s plenty to discuss. I’ll try to stick around for a while before getting back to writing.