The LoHud Yankees Blog

Derek Jeter went deep twice and Jorge Posada hit a grand slam as the Yankees beat up on the Astros 9-3 at Yankee Stadium this afternoon. Javier Vazquez pitched seven innings, allowing three runs and picking up his third straight win. Marcus Thames left the game with a strained right hamstring, but in losing Thames the Yankees got Brett Gardner back on the field.

Associated Press photo of Posada after his grand slam

YANKEES (38-23)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada DH
Marcus Thames LF
Francisco Cervelli C
Curtis Granderson CF
Kevin Russo 3B

RHP Javy Vazquez (5-5, 5.63)
Career vs. Astros

ASTROS (25-37)
Michael Bourn CF
Jeff Keppinger 2B
Lance Berkman 1B
Carlos Lee DH
Hunter Pence RF
Geoff Blum 3B
Jason Michaels LF
Humberto Quintero C
Tommy Manzella SS

LHP Wandy Rodriguez (3-8, 4.95)
Career vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 105 p.m. / YES Network

UMPIRES: HP Paul Nauert, 1B Ted Barrett, 2B Tony Randazzo, 3B Brian Gorman

WEATHER: There’s a chance of rain, but so far so good here at the stadium. There are clouds, but also plenty of sun shining through.

NL PITCHER: Even though he’s spent some time in the National League, Javier Vazquez has faced only four current Astros more than 10 times. Jason Michaels has hit .333 against him, but Pedro Feliz, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee have hit .250 or worse. Lee does have two homers against Vazquez.

HOME SWEET HOME (RUN): Neither team homered last night, marking hte fourth homerless game at Yankee Stadium this season. The Yankees are 3-1 in those games, so it’s working out for the home team, but last year this stadium saw just one zero-home-run game during the regular season.

MILITARY APPRECIATION: As part of Military Appreciation Day at the stadium, former Army Ranger Keni Thomas, who fought in the Battle of Mogadishu that was depicted in Black Hawk Down, will sing the national anthem and God Bless America.

UPDATE, 1:20 p.m.: Derek Jeter’s home run was the 24th lead-off home run of his career, tying Rickey Henderson for the most in Yankees history. It’s a 1-0 Yankees lead.

UPDATE, 1:23 p.m.: Hunter Pence just clobbered the first pitch of the second inning. That’s a solo shot to tie the game at 1.

UPDATE, 1:50 p.m.: RBI double by Jeff Keppinger has put the Astros in front 2-0. I’ve always kind of liked Keppinger. He was stuck in the Mets system for a while, but he’s been alright since he got a chance to get some regular at-bats in the big leagues.

UPDATE, 2:00 p.m.: Jeter walks, steals second, takes third on an error and scores on Swisher’s single. Two Yankees runs this game, and Jeter’s created both of them.

UPDATE, 2:04 p.m.: Remember when I wrote pregame about Jorge Posada not being comfortable as a DH? Nevermind.

UPDATE, 2:05 p.m.: The grand slam was Jorge Posada’s 250th career home run. The Yankees are now up 6-2.

UPDATE, 2:20 p.m.: Apparently Brett Gardner is good to go. He just came in to play left field for Marcus Thames.

UPDATE, 2:38 p.m.: Line drive home run for Carlos Lee, cutting the Yankees lead to 6-3. The Astros have really hit only three balls hard off Vazquez, but all three have lead to a run. Two homers and an RBI double.

UPDATE, 2:50 p.m.: A two-homer day for Jeter. A three-run shot here in the sixth inning has pushed the Yankees lead to 9-3. It’s his ninth career multi-homer game, his first since 2006. He hadn’t hit two homers at home since 2005, also in interleague against the Cubs.

UPDATE, 3:38 p.m.: Marcus Thames left today’s game with a strained right hamstring. He’s currently undergoing an MRI.

That picture is of Joba Chamberlain talking to Giants running back Brandon Jacobs before yesterday’s game. It has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I also just watched Sergio Mitre hit a batting practice home run to left field, so not a lot  is making sense this morning.

The most significant update is about Jorge Posada, who could be a day away from catching in a game.

Posada said this morning that he “could be” behind the plate tomorrow. At the very least, Joe Girardi promised to have news about Posada tomorrow.

“I’ll get a chance to talk to our medical staff and we’ll have something for you tomorrow,” Girardi said.

Posada has hit just .133 with no extra-base hits since coming off the disabled list, but he’s hoping that getting behind the plate will help turn him around with the bat. This whole designated hitter thing has taken some getting used to. Posada has tried stretching, hitting in the cage, riding the bike, stretching and watching video but he said he still isn’t sure what to do with himself between innings.

“It’s not easy,” Posada said. “It’s not dislike or like, it’s just not easy when you play every day. It’s like pinch hitting four times. It’s the toughest thing to do. You just have to get used to it.”

• Girardi isn’t sure yet whether Alex Rodriguez is available as a pinch hitter, but he showed up at the park with no plans of putting him in the lineup. “He’s not ready to go,” Girardi said. “We’ll continue to evaluate him every day and see what availability we have of him every day.”

• Girardi blames the injury on that extra-innings game in Toronto more so than Rodriguez’s surgery or his workload. “He didn’t really have a problem until he played that 14-inning game on the turf,” Girardi said. “Is it workload or was it the 14 innings on the turf? If I was a guessing man, I would guess it’s the latter.”

• Brett Gardner took full batting practice this morning. Girardi said it’s possible Gardner could be in the lineup tomorrow.

• Although Posada is nearly ready to catch, Girardi said he won’t be immediately ready to trim his roster down to two catchers. “I think you have to see him behind the plate and how he reacts the next day,” Girardi said. “Or if we play him two days in a row how he reacts.”

• When the Yankees released Randy Winn, Girardi cited Kevin Russo’s versatility as one of the reasons they chose to keep Russo over Winn. With injuries to Gardner and Rodriguez, that flexibility has come into play. “Whenever you ask someone to make a position change, and you don’t give them a ton of games to do it, you have to be pretty athletic to be able to make that adjustment,” Girardi said.

• What’s made a difference for Javier Vazquez in his past few starts? “It’s been command,” Girardi said. “It’s staying out of the middle of the plate. Staying down in the zone. Not getting into long counts with hitters.”

UPDATE, 12:08 p.m.: Astros lineup.

Michael Bourn CF
Jeff Keppinger 2B
Lance Berkman 1B
Carlos Lee DH
Hunter Pence RF
Geoff Blum 3B
Jason Michaels LF
Humberto Quintero C
Tommy Manzella SS

LHP Wandy Rodriguez

Associated Press photo

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada DH
Marcus Thames LF
Francisco Cervelli C
Curtis Granderson CF
Kevin Russo 3B

RHP Javy Vazquez

The final game ball from Andy Pettitte’s 200th Yankees win was delivered, appropriately enough, by Mariano Rivera.

“Guys were all just coming in here and just hugging me,” Pettitte said. “Mo, with a big ole smile on his face, had the baseball and handed it to me. Gator just called me and congratulated me on it.”

Pettitte said he can’t help but think about these milestones because he gets so many questions about them — it was clear that this win meant a lot to him — but as always, there was a business-as-usual quality to the veteran left-hander.

“Andy is about as humble a guy as I’ve ever met,” Joe Girardi said. “One day, though, I think he’ll sit back and be very fond of what he’s done in his career.”

Here’s Pettitte after win No. 200.

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• Brett Gardner was diagnosed with a Grade 1 sprain of the ligament in his left thumb, but he was also cleared to take full batting practice tomorrow. “Hopefully play tomorrow or Sunday,” he said. He took BP in the cage and threw a little bit today. He said both felt fine.

• Pettitte said he felt a little too strong today. The extra-days rest, he said, might have hurt him a little bit. “Mechanically I felt like I was over-throwing, which I haven’t done in a while,” he said. “I was very glad to see that I could get back on track in that third or fourth inning.”

• Also, it seems television cameras caught Pettitte mouthing the word “fastball” to Francisco Cervelli during an at-bat. Was his stuff so good it didn’t matter if the hitter knew what was coming? “Oh gosh no,” he said. “I would never.” Pettitte said that’s something he does when he knows the hitter isn’t looking. He does something quick like that so that the catcher doesn’t have to give a sign and they can just move on to the next pitch.

• Pettitte admitted it was a little awkward facing his former team, but there aren’t many guys over there he played with. He was glad to get Lance Berkman out. He called Berkman one of his best friends.

• Girardi said he didn’t give much thought to keeping Pettitte in after the sac bunt in the eighth. “I just thought it was time to go to Joba,” he said. And Joba did the job.

• Girardi called Kevin Russo’s fifth-inning at-bat — coming back from 0-2 to draw a walk and steal second — one of the key’s to the game. Clearly the biggest hit, though, was Cervelli’s two-out, two-run single in the first inning.

• Pettitte is one strikeout shy of tying Ron Guidry for second place on the Yankees all-time list.

• At two hours and 19 minutes, this was the shortest home game of the season. Those of us who had early trains out of Baltimore this morning greatly appreciate it!

• The Yankees are back to 15 games over .500, matching their season high.

Associated Press photos of Pettitte and Cervelli.

Alex Rodriguez shared his manager’s optimism when he got the MRI results this afternoon.

“Overall I feel very happy, very relieved,” he said. “I spent 30 minutes in that machine today, and you’re really hoping for the best, and today we got a good answer.”

Rodriguez said the doctors have told him the current problem is not related to last year’s hip injury. In fact, Rodriguez still refers to it as a groin injury. “It’s all pretty connected,” he said.

Rodriguez was no on the bench for tonight’s game. He was in the training room getting treatment all night, and Joe Girardi said it’s likely Rodriguez will have tomorrow night off as well. It sounds like there’s a chance he will simply take the whole weekend, plus Monday’s off day, and try to be back in the lineup on Tuesday.

For now, Rodriguez seems relieved. He acknowledged that any time he has pain on his right side — “If it’s my right knee or my right ankle,” he said — he can’t help but wonder if the hip is involved. Right now, he’s convinced this isn’t a lingering issue, only a separate injury that he doesn’t believe to be especially serious.

“I hate those tubes,” Rodriguez said. “And going in there for 35 or 40 minutes is the longest and loudest 40 minutes you can ever imagine. Obviously with the thoughts of last year and maybe a second surgery, it’s always a thought, but I was obviously very relieved when I got the news.”

Only three pitchers have ever won 200 games with the Yankees: Whitey Ford, Red Ruffing and now Andy Pettitte. The veteran lefty pitched another gem tonight, shutting down the only other team he’s ever played for in a 4-3 Yankees win against the Astros. At one point Pettitte retired 16 of 17 batters, and only two of the three Houston runs were earned. Francisco Cervelli and Mark Teixeira had RBI singles, and Mariano Rivera closed it out for his 15th save. Of those 200 Pettitte victories, 67 have been saved by Rivera.

Associated Press photo of Pettitte

YANKEES (37-23)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Francisco Cervelli C
Ramiro Pena 3B
Kevin Russo LF

LHP Andy Pettitte (7-1, 2.47)
Career vs. Astros

ASTROS (25-36)
Michael Bourn CF
Jeff Keppinger 2B
Lance Berkman 1B
Carlos Lee LF
Hunter Pence RF
Jason Michaels DH
Pedro Feliz 3B
Tommy Manzella SS
Kevin Cash C

RHP Brett Myers (4-3, 3.01)
Career vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m. / YES Network

UMPIRES: HP Brian Gorman, 1B Paul Nauert, 2B Ted Barrett, 3B Tony Randazzo

WEATHER: Little bit cooler than it was in Baltimore — temperatures getting into the 60s — but it’s a bright, sunny day at the ballpark.

BERN BABY BERN: Bernie Williams is performing all weekend at at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club, 1650 Broadway (At 51st St.). He’s playing at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. tonight and Saturday. On Sunday he’s playing at 8:30 and 10:30. He’s had the No. 1 jazz single in the country for the past six weeks.

NO CRYING IN PREGAME CEREMONIES: Former All-American Girls Professional League player Lavonne “Pepper” Paire is in the stadium as a guest of the Yankees. She’s 85 years old and served as an advisor for the movie A League of Their Own.

CANO STAT OF THE DAY: Robinson Cano leads the major leagues in batting average (.376), hits (89) and total bases (146). He also leads all major league second basemen in runs scored and runs batted in.

UPDATE, 7:20 p.m.: With the second out of the first inning, Andy Pettitte reached 3,000 career innings. He and Jamie Moyer are the only active pitchers with 3,000 innings pitched.

UPDATE, 7:28 p.m.: Swisher worked a bases-loaded walk for the first Yankees run of the night, but it was Francisco Cervelli’s two-out, two-run single that made the biggest splash. It’s 3-0 Yankees after one.

UPDATE, 7:44 p.m.: Tommy Manzella just ripped a two-out double into left field, scoring two runs and pulling the Astros within 3-2. Manzella is an all-glove, no-bat young shortstop who’s hitting .210 this season.

UPDATE, 8:15 p.m.: Brett Myers got in trouble in the first inning, but he’s now retired 10 straight. It’s still 3-2.

UPDATE, 8:33 p.m.: A walk and stolen base by Kevin Russo setup Mark Teixeira’s two-out RBI single and the Yankees are now leading 4-2. Pettitte, meanwhile, rolling through this Astros lineup.

UPDATE, 8:57 p.m.: I got to cover Michael Bourn in the minor leagues. The dude can fly and he just took a double away from Derek Jeter, who’s on-base streak is in serious trouble.

UPDATE, 9:02 p.m.: Big ovation for Pettitte, who pitched a great game and is now turning the game over to Joba Chamberlain with runners at second and third and one out. He might have gotten out of this inning if not for Derek Jeter’s error.

Still no sign of Alex Rodriguez here at Yankee Stadium. He is apparently going to talk to the media at some point today, but no one seems to be sure when that’s going to happen.

Obviously Joe Girardi has addressed the bulk of the issue. We’ll just have to wait to get Rodriguez’s take.

Two lingering issues…

How does this relate to the hip surgery?
Girardi is correct when he points out that the hip flexor was not directly involved in last year’s operation, but it’s clearly the same part of the body. We’re talking about a difference of a few inches, and there could be some level of correlation.

“Any time he has a problem in that region, there’s a red flag that’s going to go up in all of us,” Girardi said. “… If you pull a quad and you had knee surgery, can you say 100 percent that it’s not part of it?” Girardi said. “No, you can’t say that. But to me, they’re totally separate.”

Why did he play yesterday?
When Rodriguez felt the stiffness in his groin a few minutes before last night’s game, he chose not to tell Girardi about it, but he did tell Ramiro Pena to be ready just in case. To me, it’s a minor issue because players are a little banged up all the time. Maybe he should have given Girardi the option of taking him out of the lineup, but it also seems that players who complain about minor injuries are always dismissed as being soft.

“I’m not upset because I was a player once and every time I was stiff, I didn’t run to the manager and say I’m not sure I can go today,” Girardi said. “You want your players to want to play. If the players in that clubhouse only went out when they felt 95 to 100 percent, we’d have a hard time putting the lineup up every day.”

• Brett Gardner hit today, but he’s still limited to pinch running for the game.

• Girardi on Jorge Posada: “He’s closer. Felt good about the drills he was doing today. We’ll talk to Dr. Ahmad when he gets here and try to get an exact timetable on when we might see him behind the plate.”

• Alfredo Aceves will begin throwing off flat ground on Sunday. He’s been going through therapy to stabilize and strengthen his lower back and said he feels confident that he’s made significant progress.

• The Yankees don’t play the Astros often, but they did see Brett Myers this spring. Robinson Cano hit his first spring homer off Myers.

• Francisco Cervelli showed up wearing a Team Italy soccer jersey with his last name and the No. 29 on the back.

Associated Press photo from last night.

Alex Rodriguez has tendonitis in his right hip flexor.

Although it’s in the hip, it’s in a very different spot from the area where Rodriguez had hip surgery last year.

“This is about as good of news as we could have gotten,” Joe Girardi said.

Girardi said the trainers have told him that pinch hitting isn’t out of the question for Rodriguez, but Girardi would rather not use Rodriguez if he can avoid it.

UPDATE, 4:55 p.m.: Here’s the audio of Girardi making the announcement about Rodriguez’s MRI results. He gathered the media in the clubhouse roughly 15 minutes after his regular pregame press conference to give everyone the news.

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