The LoHud Yankees Blog

The Yankees just announced a new scheduled start time of 8 p.m. Given the two teams that are playing, I’m officially giving myself a two percent chance of getting home before 2 a.m.

UPDATE, 7:33 p.m.: CC Sabathia just walked to the bullpen with Dave Eiland. Seems to be a good sign.

UPDATE, 7:40 p.m.: The tarp is off and they’re working on the infield.

It’s still raining here at Yankee Stadium. The tarp is still on the field and we’re still waiting for any sort of announcement about the game.

Based strictly on looking at the field, I would say there’s no way they can play this baseball game. But I’ve also seen a radar that’s promising and I’ve heard some speculation of a window opening around 7:30.

If I heard anything solid, I’ll post it to the blog. Until then, we’re stuck waiting.

UPDATE, 6:58 p.m.: I kid you not, the Yankees just now announced that the game will not be starting on time. Still no announced starting time.

Jorge Posada is pretty sure it was Michael Cuddyer who fouled a ball that hit off Posada’s foot on Sunday night. “It hit me up top,” Posada said. “But something’s going on on the bottom.”

Posada has taken a foul ball of the top of his foot before, but he said this one feels different. The pain is gone at the point of impact, but the bottom of his foot is still bothering him. He’s never experienced anything quite like it.

“I felt it right away,” he said. “As soon as I got hit, the bottom of my foot was barking. Right off the foul tip, I felt it right on my foot already. This was weird. You feel the blow on top, then that goes away. But this, for some reason, I guess nerves or something messed up the bottom of it.”

That said, Posada said he could play tonight if he the Yankees needed him, and he hopes to be back in the lineup tomorrow. That’s a big improvement from last night when Posada was absolutely not available.

“It just feels funny walking on it,” he said. “So imagine playing on it.”

• Alfredo Aceves had a cortisone shot four days ago. The hope is that the shot will ease his lower-back pain enough that he’ll be able to play catch on Thursday. Aceves has a bulging disc, but he said he’s been moving a lot easier the past few days.

• Because of the rain, Curtis Granderson was not able to throw or go through any drills on the field, but he remains optimistic about the progress of his strained left groin. He’s been hitting and taking fly balls and said he’s so far felt no discomfort.

• Joe Girardi said he’s “hopeful” that Nick Swisher will be back in the lineup tomorrow.

• Javier Vazquez threw only four pitches last night, but Girardi wants to stay away from him because Vazquez isn’t used to pitch two nights in a row. “I wouldn’t plan on using Javy today,” Girardi said.

• With Nick Johnson out for the foreseeable future, Girardi said he plans to give Juan Miranda regular starts at designated hitter, but he also plans to continue rotating some of his regular position players into the DH role to give them half-days off.

Nick Swisher hit left-handed off a tee this afternoon and said he felt no pain.

“The trainer’s got magic hands, man,” Swisher said.

In other news, the Yankees have announced that the gates will open on time. No word on the game, but the team seems to be holding out hope.

Derek Jeter SS
Brett Gardner CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Francisco Cervelli C
Marcus Thames RF
Juan Miranda DH
Randy Winn LF

LHP CC Sabathia

Sergio Mitre is listed as a reliever. Mark Melancon is not.

The weather is not promising here at Yankee Stadium. Bryan Hoch and I are braving the first row of the open press box, but that’s mostly because we’re really dumb. Most everyone else has moved back a row.

There’s no announcement yet about a delay or a rainout, but it doesn’t look good.

As for actual news, the Yankees have announced that Nick Johnson had surgery today. The procedure was done at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital by hand specialist Dr. Melvin Rosenwasser who remove inflamed tissue from his right wrist. According to the Yankees official announcement, “it will be a minimum of 4-6 weeks before Johnson is able to swing a bat.”

The Yankees are prepared to add a releiver before tonight’s game, but they’re watching the weather to make sure the game is going to be played before they commit to a call-up.

A source has indicated that Mark Melancon is the most likely addition. Melancon was with the Yankees briefly this season, and he hasn’t allowed a run in his past 5.2 innings with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In that time he’s struck out 13, walked two and allowed four hits.

Boone Logan could be optioned to make room on the roster, but I’ve heard the Yankees might send Greg Golson down in order to keep the extra reliever.

It’s hard to be too critical of Phil Hughes after last night’s start. He gave up the three-run homer that pulled the Red Sox within a run in the fifth inning, but he also pounded the strike zone — 71 of 104 pitches for strikes — and left in line for his sixth win of the season.

This wasn’t his best start, but I think the Yankees will take a guy who still manages to throw strikes while battling pitch-for-pitch against a Red Sox team that had awfully good at-bats all night.

Former scout Frankie Piliere did have a good observation from last night’s game: “Hughes is getting burned too much on his cutter,” Piliere wrote on Twitter.

Hughes agreed. The home run to David Ortiz was a cutter. So was the home run to Drew.

“I just didn’t execute my cutter in,” Hughes said. “… I had success with it early whenI got it in there, but maybe just a little too much plate (on the home runs).”

Hughes said he might have gone to the cutter too many times against Drew. “Any time I felt like he might be cheating in I went away (with the four-seamer),” he said. “And he seemed to be on that pitch pretty well too.”

Here’s Hughes, as usual giving a very candid evaluation of his start.

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And speaking of Piliere, those of you who really like to dig deep into prospects should check out his list of two dozen international free agents to watch. The Yankees are or will be connected to quite a few of these names.

Alex Rodriguez tied it with a two-run home run, Marcus Thames won it with a two-run home run and A.J. Burnett celebrated the Yankees 11-9 win against Boston with the first whipped cream pie of the season. The Yankees squandered a five-run lead, but their four-run ninth made all the difference.

Before the game, the Nick Johnson announced that he will undergo surgery on his right wrist. The notebook also has items on Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher, Javier Vazquez and Chan Ho Park.

In honor of John Sterling: Two you-can’t-predict-baseball twists from tonight’s walk-off win against the Red Sox.

1. Javier Vazquez could have started this game. He and Phil Hughes each pitched that doubleheader in Detroit, and either could have gotten the start tonight in the Bronx. Vazquez was skipped, he was called into emergency duty out of the pen, and he picked up his first home win of the season on four pitches. “I was watching from afar last year, all of the pies in the face from A.J.,” Vazquez said. “I was glad to finally see one in person.”

2. If not for the injuries to Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher, chances are Marcus Thames wouldn’t have been in the lineup tonight, and he almost certainly wouldn’t have been in there against a right-handed closer. “If I would have those two guys available, Marcus probably wouldn’t have been in the game,” Joe Girardi said.

Sometimes things just work out.

Of course, it looked like this one wasn’t going to work out at all. After that early five-run lead, Yankee Stadium was in a state of stunned silence heading into the ninth. One night after Mariano Rivera blew a save, the Yankees were three outs away from blowing a massive early lead. Then Alex Rodriguez went deep. Then Thames crushed the first pitch he saw.

“We did it the hard way today,” Rodriguez said. “Obviously yesterday was devastating for us, but we’re at home and we feel like, until the last out is collected we have a chance.”

Here’s the man of the hour, Marcus Thames, talking about the first pie of the year.

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• Vazquez is still the scheduled starter for Friday. He threw four pitches tonight, and Girardi said he could have gone up to 45 or 50 and still had a chance of making that start.

• Joba Chamberlain and Dave Robertson were not available. That’s why Chan Ho Park had to go two innings and that’s why Vazquez had to pitch in the ninth. Robertson had pitched two days in a row. Chamberlain had pitched Sunday and he’d gotten loose twice on Saturday. “It’s hard to look at that card and not want to use guys,” Girardi said. “You have to understand it’s a long season and it’s my job to protect guys in the bullpen.”

• Girardi called down to the bullpen early in the ninth inning and told Vazquez to get ready in case Youkilis came to the plate. “We weren’t going to let Marte go beyond J.D. Drew,” Girardi said. After that, Vazquez had 100 pitches and he was going to use them all. It was his game the rest of the way.

• Girardi got upset when it was suggested he had skipped Vazquez’s start to keep Vazquez out of the pressure of a Red Sox game. “I want to make this clear,” Girardi said. “He was not skipped because of that situation. Our bullpen is a mess. We needed a long guy. We could not activate Chan Ho Park if you didn’t have a long man. You couldn’t call up some of the guys we sent down, you couldn’t recall them, and you did not have Nova. We wanted Chan Ho Park back in our bullpen, and that’s why Javy had to do it.”

• Park said going two innings was not a factor in giving up the home runs. He had enough stamina, just didn’t make the pitches. It was a slider to Youkilis, a fastball to Martinez. “Make the right pitch in the right spot, you get out of it,” Park said.

• Although he seemed upset at the time, Francisco Cervelli said he was not angry at being hit by a pitch in the ninth. “Not angry, I think it was adrenalin,” he said. “Nothing was on purpose. He tried to go in and missed his spot.”

• Hughes was pretty down on himself, probably too down on himself. “To blow the early lead like that was pretty embarrassing,” he said. Truth is, Hughes pounded the strike zone, but the Red Sox had some great at-bats and took advantage of two cutters — Ortiz and Drew — that Hughes said he didn’t get far enough inside.

• Rodriguez went out of his way to praise Gardner, who Rodriguez said had a great at-bat for that lead-off double in the ninth. Three runs for Gardner was a career high. Against Papelbon, Gardner is 4-for-4 with two walks. “Without Gardy getting on base, the home runs are solo and we probably lose,” Rodriguez said.

• Burnett said he always has the whipped cream and towel waiting just outside of the dugout, just for occasions like this.

• This was the second walk-off home run of Thames’ career, but we’ll leave the final numbers for Rodriguez. Of the past 16 Yankees walk-offs, Rodriguez has driven in the game-tying or game-winning run in seven of them.