The LoHud Yankees Blog

The Yankees expected big things from Mariano Rivera this year. They expected small contributions from Marcus Thames. In so many ways, both have done more than the Yankees could have hoped.

One night after taking his first loss since May 18, Rivera was perfectly not perfect. He gave up a lead-off triple in a one-run game, then retired three all-stars in a row. Austin Kearns made a nice catch against Michael Young, Josh Hamilton chopped an inside pitch back to the mound and Vlad Guerrero grounded to third.

“I’m thinking, we’re in a tough spot here, but if anyone can do it, Mo can,” Joe Girardi said.

Thames was hitting third for two reasons: 1. Mark Teixeira is gone and 2. The Rangers had a left-handed starter on the mound. Thames biggest hits came after that lefty was gone, when Thames was the best option against right-handed relievers.

“I know my role,” Thames said. “But if I’m in there against a righty late in the game, I’m going to grind it out and try to have a good at-bat, try to do something to help the team… I’m not going to put any pressure on myself and go out and try to be Tex.”

• Girardi said nothing has changed regarding Teixeira. Barring some unexpected change, Teixeira will be with the team in Kansas City.

• Rivera on his reaction to the lead-off triple: “I don’t think about it. I just have to focus on the guy at the plate. That’s the one that’s going to do damage, not the guy at third base.”

• Good job by pinch runner Curtis Granderson to getting to third base on that wild pitch in the ninth. “That ball came off the wall hard,” Girardi said. “Without that speed, that’s probably a different play.”

• Javier Vazquez admitted being frustrated by his lack of velocity, but his fastball was slightly higher than it was in his last start, which Girardi called encouraging.

• Girardi on the misplayed rundown in the fourth: “We just botched it. I don’t’ know any other way to describe it. We messed it up. One late throw. Jorge held onto it just a second too long.”

• Cliff Lee seems to pitch a complete game every night, but the Yankees got him out after 6.1 innings tonight. He’d thrown a complete game in two of his previous three starts against the Yankees, and he’s lasted at least eight innings in his past 10 starts overall. “You start looking at his pitch count,” Girardi said. “His pitch count was starting to get up there, it was hot and you start wondering, maybe he’ll make a few mistakes and maybe we can get him out of there.”

• It will go largely overlooked, but the Yankees bullpen — even before Rivera — was terrific. Sergio Mitre gave them 1.2 hitless innings, then Kerry Wood went 2 scoreless.

• The Yankees truck out 17 times, tying a franchise record.

• Neftali Feliz blew a save for the first time since May 11, ending a streak of 20 consecutive save opportunities.

Associated Press photo of Rivera and Brett Gardner

After squandering chances in the seventh and eighth, the Yankees finally rallied in the ninth to beat the Rangers 7-6 and boost their lead in the American League East to a game and a half. Mariano Rivera allowed a lead-off triple in the bottom of the ninth, but retired the next three batters to get the save.

Associated Press photo of Thames

YANKEES (69-43)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Marcus Thames DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Austin Kearns LF
Lance Berkman 1B
Brett Gardner CF

RHP Javier Vazquez (9-8, 4.63)
Vazquez vs. Rangers

RANGERS (65-47)
Elvis Andrus SS
Michael Young 3B
Josh Hamilton CF
Vladimir Guerrero DH
Nelson Cruz RF
David Murphy LF
Bengie Molina C
Mitch Moreland 1B
Cristian Guzman 2B

LHP Cliff Lee (10-5, 2.44)
Lee vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 8:05 p.m. / YES Network, ESPN

UMPIRES: HP Paul Emmel, 1B Bill Hohn, 2B Gary Darling, 3B Mike Estabrook

WEATHER: Still hot. Should be in the 90s throughout the game, with 100 very possible at first pitch.

SMALL SAMPLE: Joe Girardi indicated yesterday that he would start Curtis Granderson against Cliff Lee because of solid career numbers against the lefty. Granderson was 12-for-40 for a .300 career average against Lee. Now that he’s tweaking his swing, Granderson has been replaced by Brett Gardner, who’s a .400 hitter against Lee (though only 2-for-5).

NOT MUCH EXTRA: After last night, the Yankees are 4-3 in extra-inning games this season. They have played the fewest extra-inning games of any major league team, tied with Cleveland, Detroit and Toronto.

WINNING SCHEDULE: The Yankees will play 33 of their final 50 games against teams with winning records. After tonight’s game, they’ll play 11 in a row against losing teams (Kansas City, Detroit and Seattle). The Yankees are 40-31 against teams with winning records this season.

PERFECT STRETCH: Derek Jeter has played 47 straight games without an error. According to Elias, that’s the longest streak of his career, passing a streak of 46 straight games in 2004. Jeter leads all major league shortstops with a .990 fielding percentage.

UPDATE, 8:30 p.m.: Vazquez allowed one hit in the first inning, but it was home run to the smallest part of the ballpark for a 1-0 Rangers lead.

UPDATE, 9:05 p.m.: RBI double by Alex Rodriguez has sent this crowd into a booing frenzy and pulled the Yankees into a 1-1 tie.

UPDATE, 9:30 p.m.: Just like the last time Lance Berkman played first base, it’s hard to watch him and wonder if Mark Teixeira might have gotten balls that got past Berkman. A two-run single off Berkman’s glove makes you wonder just that. It’s now 3-1 Rangers.

UPDATE, 9:40 p.m.: After back-to-back singles to open the fifth inning, Sergio Mitre is now getting loose in the bullpen… Make that three straight hits as Josh Hamilton gets an RBI double through the right side. It’s 4-1 Rangers.

UPDATE, 9:48 p.m.: Not a good rundown for Posada, who didn’t get the ball to third base in time for the out. That left the bases loaded for David Murphy, who singled in two runs. It’s now a 6-1 game with Mitre coming in to pitch.

UPDATE, 9:50 p.m.: Very nice throw by Swisher to end the fifth inning, but the damage has been done.

UPDATE, 10:19 p.m.: Hit the ball hard, good things happen. Lance Berkman just lifted a deep fly ball between the center fielder and right fielder. It probably shouldn’t have dropped, but it did, bouncing over the wall for an RBI ground rule double that has cut the lead to 6-3.

UPDATE, 10:22 p.m.: Not sure it’s enough to knock him out of his recent funk, but that’s a big hit for Brett Gardner, who lined a single up the middle to score Kearns, pull the Yankees within 6-4 and chase Lee from the game.

UPDATE, 10:35 p.m.: The bullpen doesn’t have to pick up Lee very often, but it did here with back-to-back strikeouts to strand the tying run at second base.

UPDATE, 10:48 p.m.: Marcus Thames just crushed that solo home run to left. It’s now a one-run ballgame, and Thames has more than pulled his weight in that No. 3 hole.

UPDATE, 11:28 p.m.: Missed chances in the seventh and eighth, the Yankees finally capitalize with an single that went over the pitcher’s glove, under the second baseman’s glove and scored Granderson to tie the game at 6.

That sound you hear is the slow death of every running game story in the Texas press box.

Grown tired of his bad season numbers, Curtis Granderson came to hitting coach Kevin Long yesterday and asked to make a change.

In a drastic mid-season move, the Yankees began a “total reformation” of Granderson’s swing. It’s the reason he was kept out of the lineup tonight against Cliff Lee. Long specifically asked Joe Girardi for one more day to work with his center fielder.

“To do something like this, it’s a stretch,” Long said. “But it’s a stretch that I think is not going too far and I think he feels the same way… He’s had length to his swing for a long, long time. He’s been an all-star with length to his swing, but we’ve both decided at this point we want to shorten it as much as we can.”

After batting practice yesterday, Long and Granderson went through an intense session of mechanical changes. They were going to do it again after the game, but Granderson was a late-inning replacement and so they put off that session until today. After BP, Granderson and Long will get to work again, then they’ll go through the same stuff tomorrow before the series opener in Kansas City.

Long and Girardi both compared the changes to those of Nick Swisher in the offseason. It’s basically an attempt to quiet Granderson’s swing. It’s not an unheard of series of changes, but making them this late into the season is certainly an unusual move.

“His stance is going to be a lot more square,” Long said. “His hands have changed their position. He’s holding on with two hands. His load to where he gets to contact, we’ve eliminated a lot of movement there. This takes time to do something like this, but we’re going to have five or six complete sessions. He did get into the game yesterday and had what I would call a pretty good at-bat.”

As Long said, Granderson has yet to get going for an extended period of time. He said Granderson told him at one point, “How much worse could it get?” The changes have worked wonders for Swisher, and Long said he’s been encouraged by how well Granderson had adapted in the early stages.

“His eyes were lighting up,” Long said. “He was excicted. I was excited.”

Here’s Long talking about the changes.

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• Mark Teixeira will be back with the team tomorrow.

• This is the first time Posada has caught Javier Vazquez since May 1. Girardi said he texted Posada this morning to make sure his shoulder felt strong enough to play tonight.

• Girardi said he expects Francisco Cervelli to stick with A.J. Burnett, but Cervelli might not have another specific starter who he catches every time. Cervelli will be with Burnett, and then mix-and-match to give Posada additional days off.

• Alfredo Aceves will make his next rehab appearance on Friday with Trenton, because Scranton will be on the road. Girardi said he would like to see Aceves get stretched to 40 or 45 pitches before activating him, “but if he doesn’t, he doesn’t,” Girardi said.

• Girardi said he’s not especially worried about Vazquez’s recent dip in velocity. “In the beginning of the year he wasn’t able to pitch well with his velocity down,” Girardi said. “Now he’s figure out how to do it. So it’s not a huge concern.”

Associated Press photo of Granderson

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Marcus Thames DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Austin Kearns LF
Lance Berkman 1B
Brett Gardner CF

The Yankees saw Cliff Lee twice in the World Series, and they couldn’t beat him either time. As they prepare to face him tonight in Texas, Lee looms large as a reality they are surely to face — in one form or another — in this year’s postseason.

Lee is one of the top pitchers in baseball, but every contender in the American League — including the Yankees — has a left-handed ace at the top of the rotation.

David Price in Tampa Bay. Jon Lester in Boston. Francisco Liriano in Minnesota. John Danks (and Mark Buehrle) in Chicago. They aren’t all Lee-level pitchers, but the Yankees are almost certain to face a very good lefty at least once, maybe twice, in both the division series and the ALCS.

“I like the lineup that we throw out against lefties,” Joe Girardi said yesterday. “That’s why we made some of the moves, getting Kearns and some of the things that we did. Our lineup can score a lot of runs off anyone.”

Austin Kearns and Marcus Thames are on the roster specifically to help against guys like this. Tonight’s game won’t be an accurate test because Mark Teixeira won’t be here and Jorge Posada seems unlikely to start, but this is the kind of the matchup the Yankees are going to have to deal with in October.

Did anyone guess last night’s lineup correctly? Thanks to Marc Carig, we had some idea that Mark Teixeira might not be in there, and sitting Curtis Granderson against the lefty made sense. But no one seemed to know about Jorge Posada’s bad shoulder until postgame, and Robinson Cano being sick enough to sit it out came as a surprise.

Ultimately, last night’s lineup included only one of Opening Day’s 2 through 7 hitters.

Although Nick Johnson is the only guy on the disabled list, the Yankees seem to be going through one of their phases of minor injuries/incidents that leave a handful of guys on edge between available and unavailable. Of the nine position players in the Opening Day lineup, six have at least a issue worth keeping an eye on.

Mark Teixeira – Staying in New York with his wife following the birth of their son. Will almost certainly miss tonight’s game, and there’s no absolute return date for the upcoming series in Kansas City.

Robinson Cano – Probably available after pinch hitting last night, but he’s been battling a cold for two days now, and you never know when this sort of thing could become worse than expected.

Alex Rodriguez – Back to regular duty after a few games considered day-to-day because of that fluke batting practice injury.

Jorge Posada – Add a “cranky” shoulder to the long list of relatively minor injuries that have cost Posada time this season. Probably wouldn’t be catching tonight anyway with Javier Vazquez on the mound.

Curtis Granderson – With Austin Kearns providing a right-handed alternative, Granderson’s at-bats against left-handed starters might be diminishing. That said, Joe Girardi hinted that Granderson will be in there tonight. He has good numbers against Cliff Lee.

Nick Johnson – Out indefinitely after wrist surgery.

Without those back-to-back singles, nothing else in the 10th inning would have mattered. There would have been little chance of an intentional walk to Nelson Cruz, falling behind to David Murphy would have been no big deal and a base-hit to the gap would not have ended the game.

If not for those barely there singles, everything would have been different.

“A hit is a hit, no matter how they are,” Mariano Rivera said. “… Still, they are hits. Can’t do anything. Just try to make your pitches, and I tried, and it didn’t work tonight.”

The bigger mistake might have been falling behind 3-0 to Murphy. According to baseballreference.com it was Rivera’s ninth 3-0 count of the season, and the only one that ended with a base hit. “I couldn’t work him,” Rivera said. “I had to make sure the pitches had to be around the plate.”

Said Derek Jeter: “Not too many guys hit too many balls hard off Mo. You tip your hat to them because they had some good at-bats, and they were able to get that big hit there at the end.”

Here’s Rivera.

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• The base hit by Murphy was supposed to be a fastball away. “I don’t know if it got away, though,” Rivera said.

• A.J. Burnett on his back: “It was in my mind all night. I had to really not overdo it out there and try to stay within myself. I tried to stay out there as long as I could… It never was an issue, but it’s always in the back of your mind.”

• Burnett’s only significant mistake was also to Murphy, a first-pitch fastball that was — like Rivera’s pitch — supposed to be away. “It’s the only pitch that I’d take back tonight,” Burnett said.

• Boone Logan and Dave Robertson continue to impress at the back of the bullpen. Big outs from both of them tonight, especially Robertson.

• Even after the game, Joe Girardi was a little fiery about the overturned call on Lance Berkman at first base. “Never seen that overturned,” Girardi said. “It’s a tough call for both guys because the first-base umpire is going to be somewhat blocked out, and I don’t see how the home-plate umpire sees it either.”

• Girardi had no problem with Nick Swisher’s approach to that play at the plate in the fifth inning. He kind of did a half slide, half leap thing. Whatever it was, didn’t work. “I was OK with it,” Girardi said.

• Girardi was prepared to use Rivera for two innings, “if the first inning was easy.”

• Francisco Cervelli is hitting .317 with runners in scoring position after going 1-for-3 tonight.

Associated Press photos

Jorge Posada was available only in an emergency tonight after feeling discomfort in his throwing shoulder yesterday.

“He said it felt it kind of funny yesterday when he made the odd throw on the pitch out,” Joe Girardi said. “Just give him a day.”

Girardi said he considered using Posada to pinch hit for Francisco Cervelli in the eighth inning, but Posada’s shoulder combined the fact he was 1-for-10 with five career strikeouts against Rangers reliever Frank Francisco led Girardi to keep Posada on the bench. He’s hopeful a day of rest will do the trick.

“He said it doesn’t really hurt,” Girardi said. “He felt a little something. (It’s) a little cranky.”

YANKEES (69-42)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Marcus Thames DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Austin Kearns LF
Lance Berkman 1B
Francisco Cervelli C
Brett Gardner CF
Ramiro Pena 2B

RHP A.J. Burnett (9-9, 4.93)
Burnett vs. Rangers

RANGERS (64-47)
Elvis Andrus SS
Michael Young 3B
Josh Hamilton CF
Vladimir Guerrero DH
Nelson Cruz RF
David Murphy LF
Jorge Cantu 1B
Bengie Molina C
Cristian Guzman 2B

LHP C.J. Wilson (10-5, 3.30)
Wilson vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 8:05 p.m. / MY9

UMPIRES: HP Mike Estabrook, 1B Paul Emmel, 2B Bill Hohn, 3B Gary Darling

WEATHER: It has cooled to 99 degrees. It’s hot. Really hot.

BRIDGE STABILITY: Dave Robertson has not allowed a run in his past 13 appearances, the longest such stretch of his career according to Elias. Boone Logan has retired 21 of the past 24 batters he faced, and Joba Chamberlain hasn’t been charged with a run in any of his past seven outings.

OUT OF TEXAS: Mark Teixeira will not play for the first time this season. He’s reached base in 53 of the past 55 games, dating back to June 6.

THREE OF THE BEST: Since it opened in 1994, the all-time leaders in home runs at this stadium are Rafael Palmeiro (130), Juan Gonzalez (115) and Ivan Rodriguez (108). Until Teixeira was scratched, this series was going to feature three of the next four on the stadium’s all-time list. Rodriguez has the fourth-most home runs at this stadium (96) followed by Hank Blalock (90), Teixeira (87) and Michael Young (87).

ACE IN SCRANTON: Alfredo Aceves threw two-thirds of an inning in his rehab start for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He walked two, struck out one and allowed no hits. He was pulled after 19 pitches, 10 of them strikes. He was scheduled for one inning.

UPDATE, 8:29 p.m.: You don’t see an overturned call very often, but it looks like they got it right in the end.

UPDATE, 9:14 p.m.: I have finally emerged from the world of finishing early stories for tomorrow’s newspaper. Not surprisingly, the press dining room doesn’t have much left when you look for food in the fourth inning. Anyway, it’s still a scoreless game and the Yankees haven’t taken advantage of a pair of Rangers errors.

UPDATE, 9:17 p.m.: As a general rule, I’m all for patient hitters who work the count, but I make an exception for Vlad Guerrero. I love watching that guy hack at everything.

UPDATE, 9:18 p.m.: Two-out RBI double by Nelson Cruz has given the Rangers a 1-0 lead in the fourth.

UPDATE, 9:35 p.m.: Nick Swisher matches the two-out RBI double and now the game’s tied again.

UPDATE, 10:02 p.m.: Francisco Cervelli just singled up the middle to score Austin Kearns and give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

UPDATE, 10:08 p.m.: I’ve known Brett Gardner for a long time, and I think that’s the most frustrated I’ve ever seen him. He’s really been struggling lately, and he’s all too aware. Meanwhile, here’s Cano pinch hitting for Pena with two on and two out in the sixth.

UPDATE, 10:14 p.m.: Cano nearly got a single through the middle of the infield, but Andrus got to it and ended the inning with the Yankees leading 2-1.

UPDATE, 10:19 p.m.: A good start for Burnett just came apart with a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth. A half inning after taking the lead, the Yankees now trail 3-2.

UPDATE, 10:43 p.m.: The fans in Texas really don’t like Alex Rodriguez. He just went deep to center field to tie the game at 3.

UPDATE, 10:26 p.m.: Dave Robertson is dangerously close to allowing his first run since July 2. With a runner at third and two outs, he’s intentionally walked Mitch Moreland to face Andrus. This is the biggest at-bat of the game, obviously.