The LoHud Yankees Blog

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

The third front-line starter swirling through trade rumors has finally been traded. Ken Rosenthal reports that the deal is done sending Roy Oswalt to the Phillies for J.A. Happ and two minor leaguers.

Now that Oswalt, Dan Haren and Cliff Lee are off the market, the rotation options seem limited to second-tier guys like Ted Lilly. Unless the Yankees are extremely concerned about Andy Pettitte’s groin or Phil Hughes workload, I don’t see why that sort of addition would interest Brian Cashman, but what do I know? I guess anything makes sense at the right price.

Most days, the last player to show up in the clubhouse is the starting pitcher. On the days they pitch, starters have their own schedules.

Part of Dustin Moseley’s pregame schedule this afternoon included bumping into me at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I could quite literally have spent half my day in that place. Maybe all day if my friend Jonathan were with me. But given tonight’s game and the trade deadline, I limited myself to no more than two hours. It was enough time to see Robbie Roberton’s hand-written lyrics to The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and John Lennon’s original lyrics to Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, so I left happy.

As for Moseley, he and I talked about people we know who are much better guitar players than we are — his brother, my friend John — then we went our separate ways.

Moseley walked off along a semi-chronological exhibit about the different genres of popular music. As he was walking through the crowd, a huge group of Yankee fans in t-shirts and hats stood talking about the start of Motown, completely oblivious to the fact tonight’s Yankees starter was standing two feet behind them, looking over their heads at the pictures and old records on the wall.

Back in 2000, Dustin Moseley was a supplemental first-round pick out of a high school on the Arkansas side of Texarkana. He thought he’d made it to the big leagues to stay after a strong 2007 season, but that winter he had surgery to repair his ulnar nerve. He struggled in 2008, spent most of last season in Triple-A, and had hip surgery last August. It was the same procedure Alex Rodriguez went through last spring.

In some ways, it’s the only reason he’s with the Yankees today. Brian Cashman was the only general manager willing to give him a direct invitation into big league camp this spring.

“Most every team wanted to see me throw bullpens previous to coming into camp,” Moseley said. “These guys said, you know what, we’ll bring you in, and if you’re not 100 percent yet, we’ll work with you. You take your time. That was a big thing for me.”

At this point, Moseley isn’t guaranteed more than one start, and he’s fine with that. “I’m so past trying to control my life and my career,” he said. “I roll with it.”

Here’s Moseley talking before yesterday’s game. The conversation started just as Moseley and A.J. Burnett were joking with one another about two Arkansas boys making back-to-back starts for the Yankees.

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June 7 might have been the low point for Mark Teixeira. After an especially brutal series in Toronto, his batting average was down to .211 with eight home runs, 10 doubles and several calls for him to be knocked out of the No. 3 spot in the lineup.

On June 8, Teixeira had two hits and his first two RBI since May. Since that day he’s hit .331 with 15 doubles, 12 home runs and 38 RBI.

Curtis Granderson might be working toward a similar turnaround. In his past 16 games, Granderson is hitting .339 with three doubles, three home runs, six RBI and 12 runs. Most of his power has come in the past eight games (two doubles, three homers).

“He’s just having good at-bats,” Joe Girardi said. “He’s swinging the bat well. He’s driving the ball. He drove a ball into left-center tonight. That’s a good sign. Take away those first few days after the break, the last two and a half weeks, he’s been pretty good.”

Teixeira’s low point came after 57 games. Because of his early injury, Granderson’s recent hot spell came after his 60th game of the season. His season slash line is up to .250/.318/.437, which isn’t far from last year’s line of .249/.327/.453.

Associated Press photo

A.J. Burnett had plenty of chances to blow up again tonight. He could have gotten himself frustrated and let the Indians keep pace with that early Yankees onslaught, but despite letting the lead-off man reach base in each of the first five innings, Burnett held Cleveland scoreless through 6.1 innings.

“It’s the most I’ve felt like A.J. in a long, long time,” he said. “That’s probably because I was able to throw a curveball for a strike.”

The curveball was terrific tonight. Burnett called it, “the best it’s been in a long time.” And when his curveball is good, everything about Burnett is just a little bit better.

“A lot of it does depend on that,” he said. “You can ask guys probably in this room, when A.J. doesn’t have his curveball it’s going to be a tough night. I left a couple up early that they hit, but for the most part, it came out of the same window every time.”

After that winless month of June, Burnett is 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA through his five starts in July. That’s counting the two-inning, four-run debacle last weekend. Burnett said a lot of it has to do with tempo, about not being too quick with his delivery, something he said he was conscious of all night.

“This is probably the best I’ve felt in a long time as far as staying within myself and my delivery,” he said. “Two or three or four isn’t going to cut it. We need to keep a good run going and take it into my next start.”

Here’s Burnett after the game.

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• Alex Rodriguez on his sixth-inning double, when the base popped out of the ground: “I thought the milestone was doubles so I took the base with me.”

• Francisco Cervelli took a pitch off the elbow in the third inning, but he stayed in the game. “He said his arm was asleep, so I think it got him on his funny bone,” Joe Girardi said.

• Because his previous two starts were short, A.J. Burnett was on a strict 115 pitch limit. Andy Marte was his last hitter no matter what.

• Girardi said he went to Joba Chamberlain in the seventh because he didn’t want to bring Sergio Mitre into the middle of an inning. “That’s not what he’s used to doing,” Girardi said. After Chamberlain stranded a runner in the seventh, Mitre pitched the eighth and ninth. “He threw more breaking balls for strikes today, and he got some outs with them,” Girardi said. “His velocity was better. We just need to get him built back up.”

• Brett Gardner went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBI, two runs and a stolen base. It was his 30th multi-hit game this season. The Yankees have five hitters with 30 multi-hit games, the only team in the majors with that many.

• The Yankees have won 12 of their past 15 road games.

• Derek Jeter was the only Yankees starter without a hit tonight. Gardner, Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson each had two hits. The bottom three hitters in the Yankees order had five hits and five runs, all in the first three innings when they had combined for six at-bats.

• With the game well in hand, Rodriguez said he did not feel “Not really,” he said. “You’re just trying to go out and win a game. The more I can think about the team and how I can help out the team win and be productive, the better it will be for the team and everyone.”

Associated Press photos of Burnett on the mound, Rodriguez with the base and the pair of Cervelli and Rodriguez waiting for Gardner to score after Teixeira’s two-run single in the second.

When he’s been good, A.J. Burnett has been outstanding. He’s made seven starts without allowing an earned run this season, the most in the American League, and he did it again tonight in an 8-0 win against Cleveland. Behind him, the Yankees scored all eight runs in the first four innings. Five of those runs were scored by the bottom third of the order. Alex Rodriguez played his part with two hits and an RBI, but he made the last out in two of the first three innings and — obviously — did not hit home run No. 600.

Associated Press photo of Curtis Granderson’s slide in the first inning

YANKEES (63-36)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Francisco Cervelli C
Brett Gardner LF

RHP A.J. Burnett (8-8, 4.77)
Burnett vs. Indians

INDIANS (42-58)
Trevor Crowe CF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Shin-Soo Choo RF
Carlos Santana C
Travis Hafner DH
Austin Kearns LF
Matt LaPorta 1B
Andy Marte 3B
Jason Donald 2B

RHP Fausto Carmona (10-7, 3.51)
Carmona vs. Yankees

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

UMPIRES: HP Dale Scott, 2B Jerry Meals, 3B Mark Wegner, 3B Dan Iossogna

WEATHER: Rain. It’s supposed to clear out, but right now it’s coming down and Mark Feinsand has declared that the sky looks like Independence Day… The movie, not the national holiday.

SO LONG JHONNY: Jhonny Peralta is only 2-for-11 in his career against A.J. Burnett, but one of those hits is a home run and he has 6 RBI in those at-bats, the most of any Indians hitter. The only other Indians with more than one career hit against Burnett are Trevor Crowe (2-for-4) and Travis Hafner (6-for-18 with a homer).

FROM LEFT FIELD: Brett Gardner has eight outfield assists, the most on the Yankees. Four of those assists have come in July. He is tied for the third-most outfield assists in the Majors. Only Jose Bautista has more in the American League.

STILL THE BEST: Despite CC Sabathia taking the loss last night, the Yankees still have the top three individual winning percentages in the American League with Andy Pettitte (.846), Phil Hughes (.800) and Sabathia (.765).

UPDATE, 7:04 p.m.: The tarp is just now coming off the field. Looks like we’ll start fairly soon, but we still haven’t been given a time.

UPDATE, 7:07 p.m.: First pitch at 7:40.

UPDATE, 7:55 p.m.: It’s not a home run, but a two-out single by Rodriguez has given the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Personally, I think he’ll hit it today. I’m going to guess sixth inning.

UPDATE, 8:18 p.m.: Terrific slide by Curtis Granderson to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Granderson, Cervelli and Gardner had three straight hits, and Granderson cashed in with a slide that wrapped around the tag and left just enough room for his hand to slap the plate.

UPDATE, 8:28 p.m.: Teixeira has been awfully good since that bad series in Toronto. That’s a two-out, two-run single for a 4-0 Yankees lead. Oh, and Rodriguez still hasn’t hit 600. He just popped out.

UPDATE, 8:50 p.m.: Hit by a back swing last night. Now a pitch to the elbow. Francisco Cervelli has awful, awful luck. No one needs that big helmet more than he does. Meanwhile, a triple by Granderson and double by Gardner have pushed the lead to 6-0.

UPDATE, 9:05 p.m.: Rodriguez strikes out with the bases loaded, but the Yankees got three runs in the third to chase Carmona and take a 7-0 lead.

UPDATE, 9:12 p.m.: Robinson Cano has his 19th home run for an 8-0 Yankees lead. Keep an eye on that Cano kid. He’s going places.

UPDATE, 9:37 p.m.: A 1-2-3 inning means Rodriguez will get his fourth at-bat in the sixth inning. My prediction has a chance.

UPDATE, 9:59 p.m.: Well, I was close. Rodriguez one-hops the wall for a double, then pulls second base out of the ground on his slide into the bag.

UPDATE, 10:25 p.m.: Another very good start from A.J. Burnett. It’s now Joba Chamberlain on to pitch with one out and one on in the seventh inning.

UPDATE, 10:54 p.m.: Chamberlain pitched around a balk, Sergio Mitre pitched a scoreless eighth and we’re mercifully into the ninth inning. Even without that rain delay, this would have been a long game.

Jorge Posada said this afternoon that his left knee has been bothering him since 2006. He has a cyst behind his knee, and late in the season, it starts to get stiff from time to time.

“It just comes and goes,” Posada said. “There’s not a specific that I do. I have to just keep treating it for now.”

Asked when he last felt it, Posada said simply. “It’s been there.” It happened to bark a little more than usual yesterday, and so he took the night off. Tonight he’s back in the lineup at designated hitter, and there seems to be a solid chance he’ll be able to catch tomorrow.

“I thought we had a pretty good rotation going there,” Joe Girardi said. “He was pretty much catching three out of the five guys, and then DHing on the other days. I’d like to get back to that. I just think of this as something we’ll have to deal with for a couple of days and then it’ll settle down to where it’s more manageable.”

• Seventy-one hours before Saturday’s trade deadline, Joe Girardi said his day-to-day interactions with general manager Brian Cashman have not changed. “It’s pretty normal for me to talk to him a couple of times a day anyway,” Girardi said. “I’m not really talking to him any more now than I normally would. I’m sure if something heated up, it might become more.”

• Alfredo Aceves said he felt good today, and the Yankees are prepared for him to throw another bullpen on Friday. “When we get through Friday we’ll see where we’re at,” Girardi said. “If Friday goes good, we could be looking at pushing this along a little bit more than just bullpens.”

• Rain is possible tonight in Cleveland, though Girardi said he was told it’s more likely to come between now and first pitch. Sergio Mitre is available out of the bullpen, as is Chad Gaudin, to pitch multiple innings if there’s a delay.

• Of course, the last time A.J. Burnett started, his outing was cut short by rain. “I liked what I saw,” Girardi said. “He got a lot of ground ball outs. He was ahead in the count. His curveball was good. His fastball had good location. Just needs to come out and do it again.”

• One more answer from Girardi about how he plans to use Joba Chamberlain: “Do I have a theory set in stone? No I don’t. I’ll look things over and make a decision.”

• Damaso Marte is scheduled to play catch again, but he’s not ready for a bullpen session.

• Girardi said he expects to DH Alex Rodriguez before the end of this road trip, but he doesn’t expect him to need a full day off.

• Someone asked Girardi if he pays attention to trade rumors. “I get my rumors from Brian,” he said. Pretty solid source.

UPDATE, 6:08 p.m.: Here’s the Cleveland lineup. By the way, the tarp is coming back on the field. Based on the clouds that just rolled in, we’re all going to die. Mark Feinsand just said it looks like Independence Day, and he’s right.

UPDATE, 6:22 p.m.: For the second time in a week, the Yankees are facing a team that has suddenly traded its starting third baseman just before game time. The Indians just sent Jhonny Peralta to the Tigers.

UPDATE, 6:33 p.m.: Here’s the new Indians lineup.

INDIANS
Trevor Crowe CF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Shin-Soo Choo RF
Carlos Santana C
Travis Hafner DH
Austin Kearns LF
Matt LaPorta 1B
Andy Marte 3B
Jason Donald 2B

Associated Press photos of Posada and the Yankees dugout, with Chamberlain and — I believe — Robertson sitting at the top.

Not sure why I’ve had such trouble posting the lineup today. A signal is tough to come by in the clubhouse, but I’ve found one in the dugout. So here it is, most of the regulars with Jorge Posada at DH.

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