The LoHud Yankees Blog

In the Yankees clubhouse this morning, there are a little more than a dozen reporters, all of them discussing the fact we were just here a few hours ago.

There are four players in here with us: Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre, Jonathan Albaladejo and the recently arrived Mark Teixeira.

Funniest thing in the room? A letter addressed to Rule 5 pick Jamie Hoffmann, who hasn’t been with the Yankees since the middle of spring training.

If there was a silver lining to last night’s Yankees loss, it was that the Rays spent the night blowing a lead in Baltimore and losing to the lowly Orioles. In front of the First Lady, no less.

So the Yankees division lead stayed the same, but he most significant news of the night might have come a little before midnight when Buster Olney reported that the Rays were talking about a trade to acquire right fielder Jayson Werth from the Phillies. The deal could be a blockbuster, because Ed Price is reporting that the Phillies are also talking to the Astros about adding Roy Oswalt.

With that, I’m on my way back to Yankee Stadium. It’s as if I never left.

The Yankees are committed to limiting Phil Hughes’ innings this season, but the two times he’s pitched on extended rest, he’s struggled.

Tonight was his first start in 11 days, and Hughes allowed six earned runs through five-plus innings. The only other time he allowed six earned this season was June 29, when he went 10 days between starts after the Yankees skipped his turn in the rotation to limit his workload.

“We have to manage his innings, and you have to look at him long term,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Maybe do something a little bit different between starts if you have to do it again. The bottom line is, he has a limitation, and we have to respect that. It’s difficult for any pitcher when you have a long layoff. It’s not just him.”

Hughes, as you might expect, said he didn’t feel any different, but it’s hard not to notice that he seemed to have turned a corner in his last start before the break, then took a step back tonight. “He didn’t have much command of his fastball and he got beat with his cutter, not having a whole lot of command of that as well,” Girardi said. Those were the same problems as in those late-June, early-July outings.

“I felt fine,” Hughes said. “Obviously with the all-star break and the day off being back in the rotation, it was kind of an extended break, but I really didn’t feel anything any different.”

• Girardi was stunned when he was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing a call at first base. This is the same crew that ejected him earlier this season in Toronto. “I was shocked when I was tossed, then I got a little hot,” Girardi said. “I’ve been tossed nine times as a Yankee. I’ll be the first to tell you (that) eight times I deserved it. Tonight I thought I didn’t deserve it.”

• I’m guessing by the time that picture was taken, Girardi was in the “deserved it” phase of his argument.

• Jonathan Albaladejo admitted he was a little tired by the end of his outing — he threw more than 30 pitches for only the second time this season — but that was a solid return. He might not be an eighth-inning candidate, but he’s tossed his name into the ring for regular middle relief work.

• What made Sean O’Sullivan so effective after that first inning? “All of a sudden his changeup got real good,” Girardi said. Jorge Posada said the exact same thing. “Even when he was falling behind int he count, he was throwing his changeup and throwing it for strikes,” Posada said.

• Stunning stat from the Yankees fine media staff: Posada has thrown out six runners this season. Four of them have been Bobby Abreu, who was thrown out twice tonight.

• Nick Swisher hit his ninth Yankee Stadium home run of the season. He hit eight at Yankee Stadium all of last season.

• Speaking of homers at Yankee Stadium, Hughes has allowed 13 home runs this year, every single one of them at home. He wasn’t too pleased with the Maicer Izturis homer that got just over the wall in right. “I didn’t feel like it was a horrible pitch,” Hughes said. “The way the short porch here is, it’s going to happen sometimes, and it’s going to happen on nights when nothing’s going right. I have to make better pitches earlier to stay out of those situations.”

• Hughes wasn’t hurt on that comebacker. “It was fine,” he said. “Just hit the outside of my calf. I didn’t really feel any pain or anything like that.”

• Mark Teixeira has now reached base in 36 straight games. That matches the longest such streak of his career.

• The Yankees fell to 3-4 against the Angels this season and need a win tomorrow to avoid losing the season series for the sixth time in the past seven years.

Associated Press photos of Hughes and Girardi

This night started pretty well for Phil Hughes, but after a harmless inning and two-thirds, the Angels jumped on him for six runs through five-plus innings for a 10-2 Anaheim win. It matched Hughes’ shortest outing of the year, and the six-earned runs matched his season high. Really, the only pitching bright spot for the Yankees was Jonathan Albaladejo, who was just called up. The offense scored two runs in the first inning, but went scoreless in the last eight.

Associated Press photo of Hughes.

YANKEES (58-33)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Ganderson CF
Juan Miranda DH
Brett Gardner LF

RHP Phil Hughes (11-2, 3.65)
Hughes vs. Angels

ANGELS (50-45)
Erick Aybar SS
Howie Kendrick 2B
Bobby Abreu RF
Torii Hunter CF
Hideki Matsui DH
Mike Napoli 1B
Juan Rivera LF
Maicer Izturis 3B
Jeff Mathis C

RHP Sean O’Sullivan (0-0, 1.29)
Has never faced any of the Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m. / MY9

UMPIRES: HP Bruce Dreckman, 1B Paul Emmel, 2B Bill Hohn, 3B Gary Darling

WEATHER: It’s actually kind of hot. Temperatures in the 80s. Did it feel like this through the weekend? Just feels a little warmer than I remember.

SMALL SAMPLE SIZE: None of the Angels has more than six career at-bats against Phil Hughes, but there’s also not a single Angels batter with more than one hit against him. Howie Kendrick has been the worst at 1-for-6. Hideki Matsui and Maicer Izturis are each 1-for-1.

THE STREAK CONTINUES: Mark Teixeira’s on-base streak has reached 35 games dating back to June 6. It is tied for the second-longest streak of his career, and one shy of his career-high.

FROM THE BEGINNING: The Yankees are 19-11 in series openers this season, including 11-4 in series openers at home.

UPDATE, 7:20 p.m.: Imagine how well Robinson Cano would be hitting if he had been allowed to do the Home Run Derby. Nick Swisher’s 17th homer has given the Yankees an early 1-0 lead in the first inning.

UPDATE, 7:33 p.m.: Posada grounds to second, drives in Teixeira and pushes the Yankees lead to 2-0.

UPDATE, 7:40 p.m.: Torii Hunter seems to have left his mind in California.

UPDATE, 8:05 p.m.: A run in the second and now another run here in the third, the Yankees lead is gone. We’re tied at 2.

UPDATE, 8:09 p.m.: Hughes gets out of the inning with a double play — not the best night for Matsui so far — and between innings, the Yankees scoreboard showed Steve Martin sitting behind home plate. Instead of labeling him as Steve Martin, the scoreboard showed his name as Navin Johnson. Hilarious.

UPDATE, 8:50 p.m.: Sorry for the time between updates. I’ve been wrapping up newspaper stuff and trying to work on some behind-the-scenes registration stuff. Anyway… Hughes coughed up the lead with a two-run home run in the fourth, and now he’s allowed another two-run shot in the sixth. Here comes Albaladejo. Hughes didn’t get an out in the sixth. It’s 6-2 Angels.

UPDATE, 9:05 p.m.: After a single, Albaladejo got through three in a row on a strike out, line out and ground out back to the mound. Still 6-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth.

UPDATE, 9:28 p.m.: Matsui just Chan Ho Parked one into right field, a two-run shot for an 8-2 Angels lead.

UPDATE, 9:45 p.m.: Posada took second on an E-2 — illegal use of equipment because he swatted the ball with his mask — and Juan Miranda followed with a two-out single to put runners at the corners for Brett Gardner. Best scoring opportunity the Yankees have had since the first inning.

UPDATE, 10:08 p.m.: Ugly game all around for the Yankees. Hughes was bad, Park gave up another home run and the offense has been shutdown since the first inning. Chad Gaudin is now in for the top of the ninth, still an 8-2 Angels lead.

UPDATE, 10:23 p.m.: Two-run single off Gaudin has pushed this to a 10-2 game.

You might remember Jonathan Albaladejo’s spring training. It was beyond awful. Probably the worst spring of anyone in Yankees camp. He pitched five times, got eight outs, and allowed 10 earned runs on 16 hits.

“Nobody here has seen something like that,” Albaladejo said. “It was terrible.”

It was his two-seamer — the go-to pitch that originally got him to the big leagues — that was being knocked around, and when Albaladejo was sent down to the minor league complex, he decided he had to make a change. He couldn’t keep getting beat on the same pitch over and over again, so he started throwing his four-seamer. That’s the pitch that seems to have made all the difference.

It’s not so much velocity, Albaladejo said, it’s control. He can spot the pitch, and he’s been mixing it with his usual slider and an improving curveball. He started mixing the two-seamer again in the past month or so, and it’s been effective.

“That struggle in spring training probably helped me learn how to pitch, I guess it was to my advantage,” he said.

I find it hard to believe, but Albaladejo said he wasn’t getting antsy in Scranton. His numbers are overwhelming, but he kept waiting for an opportunity. “I just want to do my job in Triple-A,” he said. “And whenever they decide they need me, I’ll be ready.”

Here’s the guy they call Alby talking pregame. He very nearly cursed at one point, but he managed to censor himself.

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• Sergio Mitre said he feels good after last night’s final rehab start with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He was asked about filling Andy Pettitte’s spot on the team: “I’m trying to fill my own spot right now,” he said. “I’ve been out for a while. That’s going to be a tough loss for the next month. I’m not trying to fill anybody’s show, especially his. They’re pretty big.”

• How does losing Pettitte affect Phil Hughes and his pitch limit? “The way we treat Phil is going to be the way we treat Phil whether Andy is healthy or not,” Joe Girardi said.

• Albaladejo has been used primarily as a long-ish reliever when he’s been in New York. That might not be the case this time. “He gives us another option considered more of a one-inning guy,” Girardi said. “Maybe you push him a little bit beyond that, but as a closer down there, that’s basically what he’s been doing.”

• Another day, another question about Joba Chamberlain. “At times he doesn’t get out there as far as he needs to get out there (in his delivery),” Girardi said. “What happens is his fastball drifts and he doesn’t have the depth on his slider. So we need to make those mechanics more consistent.”

• There aren’t many specifics about Pettitte’s road back from this groin injury — he hasn’t met with Dr. Ahmad yet — but Girardi did give an idea of what makes this injury different from a pitcher, who has to worry about striding toward the plate over and over again. “The difficult thing with a groin strain for a pitcher is, not only does it have to heal, but then you have to build it back up,” Girardi said.

• No move has been made to fill Albaladejo’s spot in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

UPDATE, 6:06 p.m.: Angels lineup

Erick Aybar SS
Howie Kendrick 2B
Bobby Abreu RF
Torii Hunter CF
Hideki Matsui DH
Mike Napoli 1B
Juan Rivera LF
Maicer Izturis 3B
Jeff Mathis C

RHP Sean O’Sullivan (0-0, 1.29)

Scranton Times-Tribune picture of Albaladejo.

Andy Pettitte came in for treatment on his injured left groin yesterday, but the Yankees have not gotten into specifics about how long he’ll have to rest or when he might start a throwing program. Pettitte has heard the estimates that he’ll be out four to five weeks, but he’s hoping it’s a little shorter than that.

“I’m thinking three,” Pettitte said. “When I hear four to five I’m like, oh gosh. I really don’t know what to say except I hope it’s not that long. I hope I heal up quick. I hope it’s not that long. I don’t know if that’s realistic but we’ll see.”

Pettitte said he still feels it a “tiny bit” when he walks, but it feels significantly better than it did two days ago. He believes he’ll be able to do some pool work in the coming days, and he wants to start throwing as soon as possible.

“I’m going to throw as much as I possible can to keep my arm in shape,” he said. “That’s going to be the biggest thing because I don’t want to have to start completely over. Hopefully my leg heals up enough quick enough where I can at least get out there and start long tossing and playing catch and keeping my arm strength where it needs to be.”

Here’s Pettitte.

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

Jonathan Albaladejo has been called up to take Andy Pettitte’s spot on the roster. This is Albaladejo’s first call-up of the year following a terrific run as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre closer.

For the season, Albaladejo has 31 saves and a 0.96 ERA. Since June 25 he’s pitched 11 times, allowing no runs, no walks, six hits and 16 strikeouts.

Whatever he’s done in the past, he’s earned a shot. Can’t help wondering if he’s put some things together and become a different pitcher than the one New York has seen the past two years.

I don’t think there will be any shortage of links to the blog’s registration page, but just in case, here’s one more.

Go here to register. It’s quick, easy and free. And you might win an autographed baseball. What’s not to love?

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