The LoHud Yankees Blog

Thank you to the thousands of you who have registered — and are still registering — for the blog. The transition seems to have gone smoothly, and we’re happy to announce the winners of the 10 autographed baseballs from Steiner Sports.

EyeRis: Derek Jeter
Floridayankee: Alex Rodriguez (2009 World Series ball)
yonkel21: Mariano Rivera
bartap: Andy Pettitte
hhd: Robinson Cano
Boston Jim: Brett Gardner
treid23: Reggie Jackson
mark_yankee4life: Whitey Ford (with “CY 61″ inscribed)
Angel Berroa: Yogi Berra
jeff_chernoff: Marcus Thames

Also, please consider this a reminder that today is a day game. It’s a 2:05 start for the Red Sox series finale.

Bad leg and all, Alex Rodriguez had lunch with six high-achieving students from Bronx Preparatory Charter School at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. The kids ranged from eighth grade to 11th, and earned the lunch with A-Rod based on academic achievement, work ethic and volunteerism. The school had 100 percent of is graduating senior class admitted to college each of the past three years.

Associated Press photo

Dustin Moseley was told Saturday night to begin preparing himself to start. It wasn’t a sure thing, but he was almost certainly going to be starting in place of A.J. Burnett.

Moseley read through scouting reports Saturday night, did the same on Sunday morning and showed up at Yankee Stadium earlier than usual to watch video.

“He doesn’t seem to be fazed by too much,” Derek Jeter said. “He has the same personality every day that he comes in. He starts a game or comes out of the bullpen. Gives up the run or strikes a guy out. He’s got the same demeanor, and I think that’s why he’s been able to be successful.”

Let there be no doubt, Moseley was prepared. He retired the first seven batters he faced, including a nifty play of his own for the first out of the game. He seemed legitimately humbled by his standing ovation.

“You felt the energy as soon as you walked out there,” Moseley said. “Even in the bullpen you could feel the energy that was going throughout the crowd with everything. You definitely felt it. I tried my best to keep my composure with everything and just make my pitches.”

I’m from the rural midwest, so I know what Moseley’s talking about when he says there aren’t a lot of people back at his home in Arkansas who get to watch him on television. There’s a reason the Braves, Cubs and Cardinals are so popular in the middle of the country. They’re the only teams on TV.

“It was good knowing it was going to be on ESPN,” Moseley said. “I think my wife sent a mass text to everybody that we knew. I came back to my locker and had like 40 texts, and that’s not normal for me.”

Most of my Moseley audio is broken into different audio files, so here’s Joe Girardi’s postgame.

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• Jeter on passing Babe Ruth on the total hits list: “It means a lot to this organization. It means a lot in baseball, but especially to this organization. Any time you get a chance to pass Babe Ruth, it’s pretty special.”

• Girardi on Moseley’s play for the first out: “I’m not sure we have another pitcher that makes that play. Mo might. A.J. might. But he just kind of set the tone early.” It certainly did start a night full of some very nice plays by the Yankees, including big catches by Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner.

• Alex Rodriguez was pulled in the ninth inning. “He had some stiffness and that was to be expected,” Girardi said. “He was day-to-day. He played today. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.”

• Mariano Rivera threw one pitch to get the final out. Why bring Mo into this game at that time? “It’s a 7-2 game,” Girardi said. “You have two home run hitters coming up (after Marco Scutaro). I wanted to give him two chances to get one out before the tying run came up.”

• Lance Berkman went 3-for-4 with two RBI doubles. The crowd that booed him yesterday was finally cheering. “One of the toughest parts of coming over in the middle of the season is you really haven’t contributed anything to the fact that the team is in first place,” Berkman said. “Until you come up with some big hits and help the team win some games, you can’t really feel like you belong.”

• Berkman said the double down the third-base line is a pretty good indication of what he does when he’s hitting well. “That’s really my strength, not to come off the ball and just stay through a tough pitch,” he said. “That ball was probably off the plate a little bit, down and away, and when I hit a ball like that, that’s closer to where I want to be than a little topper or something like that.”

• Mark Teixeira is the fourth player in baseball history with 25 home runs in his first eight seasons. “I look at a guy like Alex who just hit 600,” Teixeira said. “I still have a long way to go.”

• The Yankees had eight hits through three innings, but scored just two runs. They had three hits in the fifth inning and scored five. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s baseball,” Girardi said.

• Dave Robertson hasn’t allowed a run since July 2, a span of 13 outings. Boone Logan’s been nearly as impressive. He’s allowed one run since joining the team after the all-star break.

• The Yankees are the first American League team to have five players with at least 50 runs and 50 RBI (Cano, Jeter, Rodriguez, Swisher and Teixeira).

• Jeter’s next hit will tie Mel Ott for 38th all time.

Associated Press photos of Moseley, Rivera and Teixeira

A late replacement for A.J. Burnett, Dustin Moseley gave the Yankees 6.1 strong innings and left to a standing ovation tonight at Yankee Stadium. It was one of two standing ovations in a 7-2 Yankees win against the Red Sox. Derek Jeter tipped his helmet at first base after getting career hit No. 2,874, which moved him past Babe Ruth on baseball’s all-time hits list. His 2,875th hit came as part of a five-run fifth inning. The Yankees extended their American League East lead to 2.5 games, their largest lead since July 26.

Associated Press photo of Jeter after his milestone hit

YANKEES (68-41)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Lance Berkman DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Brett Gardner LF

RHP Dustin Moseley (1-1, 4.13)
Moseley vs. Red Sox

RED SOX (63-48)
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Marco Scutaro SS
David Ortiz DH
Victor Martinez 1B
J.D. Drew RF
Adrian Beltre 3B
Ryan Kalish LF
Bill Hall 2B
Kevin Cash C

RHP Josh Beckett (3-1, 570)
Beckett vs. Yankees

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

UMPIRES: HP Mike Winters, 1B Hunter Wendelstedt, 2B Bruce Dreckman, 3B Jerry Layne

WEATHER: Quite a few clouds in the sky. The Weather Channel says only a 10 percent chance of rain — jumping to 25 percent at 1o p.m. — but it does look a little bit like rain could be on its way.

GETTING THERE QUICKLY: Yesterday was CC Sabathia’s 150th career win. According to Elias, he’s the fifth-youngest — 30 years, 17 days — to reach that milestone among pitchers who began their careers in the division era. Dwight Gooden got there at 28 years, 232 days. Bert Blyleven (29 years, 71 days), Greg Maddux (29, 166) and Vida Blue (29, 359) also got there faster than Sabathia.

NO MORE THAN THREE: The Yankees are one of two teams in the big leagues who have yet to lose more than three games in a row this season. The other is San Diego. The Yankees have not lost four straight games since May 2009.

WINLESS BECKETT: This will be Josh Beckett’s fourth start against the Yankees this season. He has yet to get a win in any of those starts, but his nine career wins against the Yankees are his most against any opponent. He has never taken a loss at the new Yankee Stadium.

UPDATE, 8:17 p.m.: Good start for Moseley. He made a nice play on the lead-off swinging bunt, struck out Scutaro and covered for a 3-1 putout that ended the inning.

UPDATE, 8:34 p.m.: Hard to say whether that would have been a home run or a double off the wall, but Nick Swisher made the jumping catch to end the second inning. Six up, six down for Moseley.

UPDATE, 8:38 p.m.: People are actually cheering Lance Berkman. A double down the line does the trick every time.

UPDATE, 8:44 p.m.: Brett Gardner beats out an infield single, and because Bill Hall tried to rush the throw to get him at first, the throw was bad and Berkman scored on the error. It’s 1-0 Yankees.

UPDATE, 8:49 p.m.: Jeter tips his helmet at a standing ovation for passing Babe Ruth on the all-time hits list. His single has scored Gardner and made it a 2-0 game.

UPDATE, 9:25 p.m.: Big exhale from Moseley as a grounder to first gets him out of the fourth inning with the bases left loaded.

UPDATE, 9:42 p.m.: Bill Hall solo homer in the top of the fifth. Mark Teixeira solo homer in the bottom. It’s a 3-1 game.

UPDATE, 9:43 p.m.: Mark Teixeira is the fourth player in baseball history to reach 25 home runs in each of his first eight major league seasons. This is according to Elias.

UPDATE, 10:04 p.m.: The Teixeira home run started a five-run inning that chased Beckett from the game. It’s a 7-1 lead for the Yankees.

UPDATE, 10:15 p.m.: Guess the ankle is OK. That’s the 300th steal of Rodriguez’s career, and his first since May 8. He’s the 10th player in baseball history with at least 1,500 runs, 2,500 hits, 200 home runs and 300 stolen bases.

UPDATE, 10:38 p.m.: Well-deserving standing ovation for Moseley. Joba Chamberlain let an inherited runner score on an infield single, now Boone Logan is in to face David Ortiz with the bases loaded in the seventh. Yankees lead 7-2.

UPDATE, 10:42 p.m.: Logan gets out of it with a grounder to second. He’s really put some things together. Seems like a huge part of the bullpen at this point. Speaking of which, Dave Robertson is getting loose.

Aside from a television spot with ESPN, Alex Rodriguez did not talk to the media before, after or during batting practice. The only update came from Joe Girardi, who popped into the Yankees clubhouse after BP to say his lineup was staying the same. Rodriguez had come through batting practice with no problems.

A.J. Burnett also did not talk pregame, but Girardi explained the decision to bump him back to Tuesday.

“Our feeling is if he goes out and starts and then feels it in the first, second or third inning, that kind of puts you in a little bit of a bind,” Girardi said. “So we’re just going to push him back to Tuesday, and we expect that he’ll be able to make that.”

Burnett shutdown his throwing session when he felt tightness in his back on Saturday. Girardi described it as “some back tightness, spasms, stiffness.” Basically, his back felt funny. Burnett showed up today feeling much better, and asked to make the start, but Girardi decided to sit him.

• Alfredo Aceves is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday. He’ll go one inning that day, then he’s scheduled for two innings Friday. Girardi said he expected that rehab assignment to be with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

• This rotation adjustment leaves Burnett pitching back-to-back with Javier Vazquez. Those are the two pitchers who Francisco Cervelli has been catching, leaving Jorge Posada to catch three days in a row immediately after. Girardi said he hasn’t plotted out any sort of changes to that catching rotation, but it’s hard to believe he would suddenly let Posada catch three straight.

• Girardi filled out his lineup before Rodriguez tested himself during BP. “It’s definitely better than yesterday,” Girardi said. “If he were getting around the same way as yesterday, I would even put his name in there.”

• Girardi said the Yankees decided not to skip Burnett entirely because he was significantly better today than yesterday.

Associated Press photo of Rodriguez’s left ankle.

Joe Girardi just finalized his lineup. Alex Rodriguez came through batting practice with no problems. He’ll be playing tonight.

Alex Rodriguez just walked onto the field with no real limp. He’s now at third base, and the first batting practice grounder hit remotely close to him led the entire group of hitters — led, of course, by Derek Jeter — to scream, “Look out!”

A.J. Burnett has been pushed to Tuesday because of tightness in his back. He felt or yesterday while throwing on flat ground.

“He is much improved today,” Joe Girardi said.

Phil Hughes will start tomorrow. Burnett asked to make the start today, but the Yankees decided to play it safe.

Alex Rodriguez will take batting practice to test his ankle/shin injury. Girardi said the lineup is subject to change.

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

Dustin Moseley is listed as the Yankees starter. Could be a typo. Could be a story.

UPDATE, 4:52 p.m.: It’s true that Moseley is starting. Dave Eiland said he would rather let Joe Girardi explain why. Girardi is meeting with the media in 8 minutes.