The LoHud Yankees Blog

Asked what he would love to get out of Phil Hughes tonight, Joe Girardi gave his standard answer: Pitch well and go deep into the game. Innings limit or no innings limit, Girardi said, he’ll take seven strong innings any day.

But with Hughes, there is something to be said for taking a quick lead and getting him out of there after five.

“That would be great,” Girardi said. “First of all I’d love to have a big lead after five, then we’d worry about the rest of it later. If you get an opportunity to do that – especially with the day off tomorrow and our bullpen’s in pretty good shape – it would be great.”

One or two innings doesn’t seem like much, but it also doesn’t seem like Hughes is on track to go too far over his limit. The Yankees have kept the actual innings limit a secret, even from Hughes himself, but they’ve acknowledged that it’s a higher limit than the one Joba Chamberlain faced last season. The Yankees have not announced a plan to have Hughes skip a start completely, and it seems vaguely possible that he won’t have to.

“If you can do it (limit his innings) three or four, maybe five times in starts,” Girardi said. “Maybe even two innings in a start. It adds up. It definitely adds up.”

• Nick Swisher has been scratched. Our friend Jack Curry says Curtis Granderson has been bumped to No. 2 in the lineup. Brett Gardner will bat eighth.

• Alfredo Aceves will make another rehab appearance on Friday. Girardi said this one will be with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. “As long as he’s healthy, I think he’s going to be fine,” Girardi said. “He’s going to make another appearance on Friday and that will be the 27th. You can definitely expand rosters on the 1st. We’ll just continue to watch him pitch and get him back.”

• Damaso Marte was supposed to throw a bullpen yesterday but did not. He’s still feeling a little bit sore so the Yankees are going to give him a few more days off before he throws again. Girardi said there’s some slight concern that Marte might not make it back, but it sounds like they ultimately expect him. “There’s some concern about that,” Girardi said.

• Girardi said Javier Vazquez’s relief role could be as a long or a short reliever. Whether he would need extra work to stay stretched out depends on how long he’s out of the rotation. “He threw a bullpen the other day,” Girardi said. “If he’s to miss one start, that’s not going to make a big deal. It’s only if you don’t pitch for a long time that it becomes an issue. When he skipped the one start and came back, we didn’t really change his pitch count.”

• The good thing with Marte is that he doesn’t need to be stretched out at all. Girardi indicated that as long as he works up to a simulated inning, he should be able to come back.

• Friday’s bullpen will be a short one for Andy Pettitte (20 to 25 pitches). After that, he’ll probably need to throw another bullpen and then a sim game before he would be ready for a rehab start.

UPDATE, 6:28 p.m.: Still haven’t seen an official lineup change for the Yankees. It’s going to happen, it just hasn’t been announced. Here’s the Blue Jays lineup.
Fred Lewis LF
Yunel Escobar SS
Jose Bautista RF
Vernon Wells CF
Adam Lind DH
John Buck C
Lyle Overbay 1B
Aaron Hill 2B
Edwin Encarnacion 3B

Associated Press photos of Hughes and Swisher with Girardi

In the visiting dugout of the Rogers Centre this afternoon, Joe Girardi had already talked about Phil Hughes and Alfredo Aceves and Nick Swisher when he suddenly had an oh-by-the-way moment.

He stopped the conversation to make this announcement: Nick Johnson is having wrist surgery again.

Girardi didn’t know any of the details, and frankly the details could not have mattered less. Johnson is a heckuva nice guy and he’s been a good hitter in his career, but a second surgery was hardly stop-the-presses news. I don’t think anyone was expecting him back at this point, anyway.

Pretty stunning when the Yankees Opening Day designated hitter has a second surgery, and no one is caught off guard.

That didn’t take long. The Yankees lineup just went up.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Austin Kearns LF
Curtis Granderson CF
Eduardo Nunez 3B

Still no Yankees lineup here in Toronto. Also no sign of Nick Swisher. Wonder if those two things could be related.

Joe Girardi could be waiting to check on his right fielder before deciding on a lineup.

It’s been more than two years since Ross Ohlendorf was a part of the Yankees organization — which is more time than he actually spent in the Yankees organization — but I still find that I click on stories about him and pay attention when his highlights are on television. He’s an interesting, easy-to-like guy who was part of two significant Yankees trades. When his name pops up, you notice.

It looks like Ohlendorf is going to miss the rest of the year because of a strain behind his right shoulder. It some ways, it puts him out of his misery. He has a perfectly respectable 4.04 ERA, but he’s 1-11 as the Pirates ace.

The other guys sent to Pittsburgh in the Nady/Marte trade:

• Dan McCutchen is tonight’s Pirates starter. He has solid Triple-A numbers, but a 6.65 ERA in the big leagues. He’s pitched 16 times — seven starts — and has allowed 11 home runs.

• Jeff Karstens was supposed to be tonight’s starter, but he’s being skipped because of arm fatigue. He has a 4.98 ERA, but twice as many wins as Ohlendorf.

• Jose Tabata is playing well in his first big league season. He’s hitting .310 with three homers. He also hit three homers in Triple-A giving him six for the year. Most he ever hit in a season with the Yankees was five.

The other guys brought to New York in the Randy Johnson trade:

• Steven Jackson made six big league appearances this year but ultimately lost his spot on the Pirates 40-man roster. He has a 4.01 ERA in Triple-A, getting a lot of ground ball outs but not many strikeouts.

• Alberto Gonzalez is hitting .276 as a utility man with the Nationals. He has 123 at-bats and four RBI. Ramiro Pena has 121 at-bats and 16 RBI.

• Luis Vizcaino hasn’t pitched since last year.

Since we’re on the subject of the Pirates and former Yankees:

• Chan Ho Park has pitched seven times for Pittsburgh: 7.2 IP, 11 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. He’s allowed two homers.

• Randy Winn is hitting .250 with three home runs and four stolen bases as a part-time player in St. Louis.

• Mark Melancon has made three scoreless appearances since joining Triple-A Round Rock in the Astros minor league system. Jimmy Paredes is hitting .290/.313/.409 in Class A with the Astros. It’s almost identical to his .282/.312/.408 pre-trade line with Charleston.

• Zach McAllister was assigned to Triple-A Columbus in the Indians system. In his debut last night he went 6 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. All five runs came in the second inning.

Through his first four minor league rehab outings, Alfredo Aceves had a pretty good pitching line — 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K — but two days ago Joe Girardi insisted Aceves needed to get better. “Not quite sharp enough,” he said.

And so Aceves made another rehab appearance last night: 1.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K. Five of the hits were doubles. Not one of the guys who doubled off him is hitting better than .272 in Double-A. George Kontos stranded a runner for him.

Not a good night, but as Girardi has said more than once, this is basically spring training for Aceves. He hadn’t pitched since May 8, and you can bet he’ll make at least one more rehab outing before being activated.

Chad Gaudin pitched really well until last night, Sergio Mitre has a .230 opponents batting average this season and the Yankees are planning to carry 13 pitchers the rest of the way. They can afford to wait.

The Yankees hit five home runs once before this season. It was earlier this month, and Alex Rodriguez hit three of them. With their regular clean-up hitter on the disabled list tonight, the Yankees did it again.

Mark Teixeira went deep. Then Marcus Thames. Then Jorge Posada, Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter. Five home runs from five different Yankees.

“It’s going to be a team effort,” Mark Teixeira said. “One person isn’t going to carry any team. It’s just really important for all of us to do what we did tonight. Be aggressive, when we get good pitches don’t miss them and hopefully score a lot of runs.”

It was Teixeira’s seventh home run of the month, Granderson’s fourth home run in 11 games and Posada’s third home run since Saturday. Oddly enough, it was only Thames’ second homer off a lefty this season.

The surprise was Jeter. It was his 10th of the season, giving him 15 straight years with double digit homers, but Jeter had not hit a home run since his inside-the-parker on July 22. He hadn’t hit a ball over the fence since June 12.

• Nick Swisher fouled a ball off his left knee in the seventh inning. He tried to stay in, but Joe Girardi eventually went to pull him in the middle of the at-bat. “I feel fine,” Swisher said. “It’s just swollen up a little bit. I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow and see how it feels.” Swisher had a considerable limp in the clubhouse.

• The at-bat ended with pinch hitter Brett Gardner looking at one pitch for a strikeout that was credited to Swisher. “I’ll get him on the bus,” Swisher said.

• Dustin Moseley has won four of his six spot starts in place of Andy Pettitte. Tonight he retired the first eight batters he faced, and when he got into trouble later in the game, he did a good job limiting the damage against a lineup that can put up big number in a hurry. “I started picking at the zone a little too much and falling behind in some counts,” Moseley said. “Against a lineup like that, you can’t do that.”

• Remember when the Yankees couldn’t beat lefties? They’re now 15-5 in their past 20 games against left-handed starters. They’ve won five in a row.

• The Rays are still playing — and winning at the moment — but tonight’s win assured the Yankees will wake up with at least a share of first place. “It will mean something at the end,” Girardi said. “There’s a lot of baseball left.”

Associated Press photos of Teixeira and Moseley

YANKEES (77-48)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Austin Kearns LF
Curtis Granderson CF
Eduardo Nunez 3B

RHP Dustin Moseley (3-2, 4.76)
Moseley vs. Blue Jays

BLUE JAYS (65-59)
Travis Snider LF
Yunel Escobar SS
Jose Bautista RF
Vernon Wells CF
Adam Lind DH
Aaron Hill 2B
Lyle Overbay 1B
John Buck C
Edwin Encarnacion 3B

LHP Marc Rzepczynski (1-1, 4.76)
Rzepczynski vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:07 p.m. / MY9

UMPIRES: HP Mark Wegner, 1B Dan Iassogna, 2B Dale Scott, 3B Jerry Meals

WEATHER: The roof is open right now. It’s been a really gorgeous day here in Toronto.

BATTLING BAUTISTA: Jose Bautista has six home runs and a .919 slugging percentage against the Yankees this season. He is 0-for-4 in his career against Dustin Moseley. “We have a plan on how to get him out, but the bottom line is you have to execute,” Joe Girardi said.

STILL PRETTY GOOD: Despite allowing a run and taking the loss last night, the Yankees bullpen still has a combined ERA of 1.53 since July 26. They have 70 strikeouts with an opponents batting average of .182 during that stretch. The pen has allowed eight earned runs — 1.29 ERA — through the past 18 games.

VERY QUICK BIRTHDAY WISH: Just for him, I’ll try to make this fast… HappyBirthdayBrettGardner.

UPDATE, 7:14 p.m.: RBI single by Mark Teixeira and the Yankees have a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first.

UPDATE, 7:18 p.m.: Jose Bautista’s first at-bat, Moseley gets him to go down swinging. That’s a 1-2-3 first inning for Moseley.

UPDATE, 7:35 p.m.: The Yankees added another run in the second when Eduardo Nunez beat out a potential double play. Weird play with Thames at the plate earlier in the inning. He knocked the ball out of the catcher’s glove, but home plate was blocked and John Buck tagged Thames before he could go back to step on the plate.

UPDATE, 7:48 p.m.: That was a bomb by Teixeira. Jeez. People here are talking about how far Bautista hits his home runs. Teixeira just matched him at the very least. It’s 3-0 Yankees.

UPDATE, 7:54 p.m.: Solo homer by Teixeira. Two-run shot by Thames. Now a solo homer by Posada. It’s 6-0 Yankees. They’re beating the Blue Jays at their own game.

UPDATE, 8:30 p.m: After roughly a half hour of off-and-on Internet, the Yankees lead is now 10-1 in the fifth. Moseley allowed a run on two hits and a walk in the fourth, but Curtis Granderson hit a three-run homer here in the fifth. Now Jeter has gone deep. That’s Jeter’s 10th.

UPDATE, 9:08 p.m.: I promise I won’t keep complaining, but the internet here is really driving me crazy. Anyway… The Jays added a run in the sixth, but thanks to an assist from Granderson, Moseley was able to get out of the inning with just the one run scoring. It’s 11-2.

For at least one more turn through the rotation, Ivan Nova will work as a Yankees starter. Javier Vazquez has been bumped to the bullpen and will be available in relief tomorrow. Nova will start in his place on Sunday.

“After that I’m not sure what we’ll do,” Joe Girardi said. “Last time we skipped Javy a start, it seemed to kick start him. We’re going to put the kid back out there. We liked what we saw last night.”

Beyond Sunday, Girardi left just about every option open. Vazquez isn’t going to start Monday, but it’s possible he’ll miss only one start. Nova has a spot in the rotation right now, but it’s hard to say how many starts he’ll get.

“If a guy gets hot, you’re going to look at him every time and maybe send him out there every five days,” Girardi said. “This gives us a plan through Sunday and it gives us some time to talk about it and evaluate what we want to do.”

It’s possible this could, at some point, affect Phil Hughes. It sounds like Hughes is not especially close to his innings limit, but Girardi said there are not enough innings left for Hughes to pitch seven innings every time out through the end of the season. If the Yankees have to skip Hughes once, either Nova or Vazquez — depending on how you want to look it — could take that spot. Of course, Andy Pettitte is coming back at some point too.

“We might determine that maybe we need to skip someone else,” Girardi said. “There’s a lot of things that go into this. It’s not all tied into Nova… We’ll be flexible with Hughes as we’re moving down the stretch here because you never know what he’s going to give you every night. You don’t want to get too locked in, but (this rotation change) might give us an opportunity to shorten his game a lot one time or even skip him, but I don’t have a plan right now to do that.”

• Girardi said the Yankees will “probably” go with 13 pitches through September 1.

• Girardi said once again that he has no plans of using a six-man rotation.

• Derek Jeter has a slightly sore leg. Of course, Jeter said it’s a complete non-issue. When Mark Feinsand asked which knee was bothering him, Jeter literally said to write about whichever leg would be easier to write about. “His leg’s been a little sore, but all our guys legs are a little sore,” Girardi said. “It doesn’t really hurt him except to slow down. Not sprinting, not when he’s going after balls.”

• Sitting Jeter yesterday, Girardi said, was because of the 17 games in a row, not because of the leg. The problem is kind of at the top of the shin, on the outside of the leg, near the knee. It’s not related to the heel problem from earlier this season.

• Johnny Damon is not going to Boston.

• Any innings limit for Nova? “If he does, I haven’t heard about the Nova rules,” Girardi said.

UPDATE, 6:15 p.m.: Blue Jays lineup
Travis Snider LF
Yunel Escobar SS
Jose Bautista RF
Vernon Wells CF
Adam Lind DH
Aaron Hill 2B
Lyle Overbay 1B
John Buck C
Edwin Encarnacion 3B

Associated Press photo of Nova

Just got out of Joe Girardi’s pregame session. There is a change of plans in the rotation.

Ivan Nova will start on Sunday. Javier Vazquez will move to the bullpen. Vazquez will be available in relief beginning tomorrow.

For now, Girardi said the move is for this one turn through the rotation. He hasn’t made a decision about the rotation spot beyond Sunday.