The LoHud Yankees Blog

Tonight
RHP Ivan Nova (0-0, 0.00)
vs.
RHP Brandon Morrow (9-6, 4.45)
7:07 p.m., YES Network

Tuesday
RHP Dustin Moseley (3-2, 4.76)
vs.
LHP Mark Rzepczynski (1-1, 4.76)
7:07 p.m., MY9

Wednesday
RHP Phil Hughes (15-5, 3.90)
vs.
LHP Brett Cecil (10-6, 3.90)
7:07 p.m., YES Network

Associated Press photo of Hughes

After taking five of seven at home, the Yankees are back on the road this week, making their first trip to Canada since the first weekend of June.

That was back when Toronto was still one of the surprisingly good teams in baseball. Alex Rodriguez was hurt on that trip, Chad Gaudin allowed a walk-off single and the Yankees lost two of three.

At this point, the Blue Jays have fallen off, but their pitching can still cause problems. The Yankees have to face Brett Cecil and Brandon Morrow on this trip. Those two combined for 15 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB and 13 K the last time the Yankees were in Toronto.

Some things to keep in mind.

• The Yankees beat up on Morrow the past two times they faced him in New York, but they got only one win out of it.

• Cecil has pitched very well against the Yankees twice this year, but this team has gotten much better against lefties. Austin Kearns is making a big difference, and when Cecil last pitched at Yankee Stadium, it was while Marcus Thames was on the disabled list.

• Ivan Nova could give the Yankees some rotation options for the final month of the season, and he might give them something to think about for next year. When I’ve seen him, Nova’s been at his best when he’s keeping the ball on the ground. That would certainly be true against a home run hitting team like the Blue Jays.

• Just a guess, but there’s a chance you’ll see both Ramiro Pena and Eduardo Nunez in the same lineup this series. Might be good to give Derek Jeter at least a DH day on that turf.

Associated Press photo of Nick Swisher

Much of the talk after the Yankees’ 10-0 win was about their MVP candidate and their Cy Young candidate. But both Robinson Cano and CC Sabathia are more focused on team goals, which certainly helps the cause.

Cano has played in all but one game and is hitting .325 with a career-high-tying 25 homers and 86 RBI after delivering a grand slam and a career-high six RBI. Plus, he has made only three errors.

“I’ll let you guys decide anything about myself,” Cano said to the reporters surrounding his locker. “In my mind, I want to go back to the World Series.”

Cano is now one of just three Yankees second basemen with multiple 25-homer seasons, joining Joe Gordon and Alfonso Soriano. Cano said Alex Rodriguez is like a big brother to him. Joe Girardi said that Cano has taken off since A-Rod sat him down for a 45-minute chat in spring training about situational hitting. Now Cano has taken Rodriguez’s place in the cleanup spot while he’s on the DL, and he feels a responsibility to live up the high standards.

“The guy who was there is a guy who every year has 100 RBI, 30 home runs, always does his job with men on base,” Cano said. “Now it’s time for me to step it up and help the team win games.”

Sabathia is 17-5 with a 3.02 ERA. He leads the AL in wins and is tied for the major-league lead. He could be in line for to win 20 for the first time and claim his second Cy Young.

“I’d rather win a World Series than win a Cy Young,” Sabathia said.

Good luck beating him at Yankee Stadium. He’s undefeated in his last 20 starts here dating to the 2009 All-Star break, winning 15 decisions and posting a 2.17 ERA.

At first he said, “Give my wife credit for that — home cooking,” Sabathia said. But he added that he really can’t explain his home dominance. He broke Ron Guidry’s 1978 record today with his 16th straight quality start, so he’s pretty good home and away.

Mark Teixeira was given a free pass to load the bases for Cano in the fifth, and Cano hit his grand slam. When will teams learn not to walk Teixeira to load the bases? It almost never works. In these last two years, it has happened 10 times. The batter behind Teixeira is 7 for 8 with a walk, a sac fly, four homers and 25 RBI. …

So now the Super Nova hits Toronto. Ivan Nova will make his first big-league start Monday night against the Blue Jays.

That’s it from here tonight.

Update, 1:42: Finally a base runner for the Mariners with Mark Teixeira botching that slow bouncer for an error. The M’s are still looking for that first hit with no outs in the third. CC Sabathia looks like he has dominant stuff again. But his is a very weak lineup outside of Ichiro and possibly Russell Branyan.

Update, 1:53: The Yankees aren’t getting anything done against lefty Luke French, despite having a least one on in all three innings. They blew that bases-loaded one-out chance in the second. So we’re scoreless going to the fourth.

Update, 2:01: The Mariners look like they will be lucky if they get one hit today. They are totally overmatched against Sabathia so far. No hits through four.

Update, 2:05: Austin Kearns continues to be a good pickup. The solo homer extends his season-high hitting streak, now 11 games. It’s 1-0. Wonder if that’s enough for Sabathia the way he’s going.  But now it’s starting to rain.

Update, 2:09: Maybe we spoke too soon. There’s a leadoff double for Franklin Gutierrez past the third-base bag in the fifth.

Update, 2:12: Great throw by Nick Swisher to cut down Gutierrez at the plate. Nice play by Posada as well. We’re one out from an official game.

Update, 2:19: It’s official.

Update, 2:23: Bases loaded, one out for Robby Cano.

Update, 2:25: Cano cleans up. Grand slam. That’s 25 homers, 84 RBI. It’s 5-0. That was his fourth career slam and second of the season. That’s 10 slams for the team, and that matches the club record set in 1987. It’s raining hard again.

Update, 2:38: Rain delay. Wondering how long the plate ump, Sam Holbrook, was going to let this go on. Do we think the Mariners are going to come back from 5-0 down even if they resume? They play the fastest games in the majors on average because they don’t hit.

Update, 3:11: The grounds crew is starting to take the tarp off.

Update, 3:14: They’re saying we will start again around 3:30. That would make it a delay of more than 50 minutes. The Yankees still have to hit in the sixth, so you would think CC is done. But we’ll see. Luke French is done for Seattle. Lefty Chris Seddon is warming in the bullpen.

Update, 3:34: We’re playing. The delay was 57 minutes. CC appears finished. Kerry Wood is warming.

Update, 3:38: That was an interesting double for Eduardo Nunez. His grounder into right died in the wet grass and he hustled to second. It set up a sac fly by Derek Jeter, so it’s 6-0.

Update, 3:45: Cano is up with the bases loaded. Grand slams in consecutive innings?

Update, 3:50: Cano will take a two-run single. That’s a career-high six RBI. It’s 8-0, and Seddon is coming out. Brian Sweeney, the Yonkers native, is in to pitch.

Update, 3:55: Sabathia allowed three hits and no walks while hitting one and fanning eight over six. It’s Wood’s baseball now.

Update, 4:06: That’s No. 15 for Posada, and it’s 9-0.

Update, 4:17: Wood was extended enough for one day, going 1 2/3. First and second, two outs in the eighth. Joba is on. Sergio Mitre is warming. The forecast was for scattered showers this afternoon. It was accurate. It’s raining yet again.

Update, 4:21: Nice glove work by Swisher at first, looking like Teixeira. Bottom of the eighth, 9-0. Brandon League is on to pitch.

Update, 4:24: The Yankees are going to be a season-high 30 over .500, at 77-47. CC is going to be 17-5, the AL’s first 17-game winner. That ties him for the major-league lead. He will be 15-0 in his last 20 starts at Yankee Stadium.

Update, 4:31: It’s hard to believe now that this was supposed to be the year that the Mariners were going to unseat the Angels and win the West. Marcus Thames’ single makes it 10-0. Seattle is going to drop to 26 under, at 49-75.

Update, 4:45: Yankees win, 10-0. A combined six-hitter. They win their second straight series after going 0-2-3 in the previous five series.

Greetings, Brian Heyman here for Chad today for this series finale.

Ivan Nova just arrived, jumping from Triple-A right into the middle of a pennant race. He will make his first major-league start Monday night in Toronto. He’s right on turn as well, having allowed one earned run in  6 2/3 for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Colorado Springs on Wednesday. He has been throwing the ball well all season, going 12-3 with a 2.86 ERA in 23 starts. He tossed three scoreless innings of relief in two games when he was up in May. He has four pitches, adding a slider to the mix. 

“This know it’s a  big opportunity for me,” Nova said. “I’ve got to be relaxed.”

Joe Girardi had no word yet on whether he will try to split up the inconsistent righties in the rotation, A.J. Burnett and Javy Vazquez. The Yankees have an off day Thursday to play with. For now, Nova is just giving everyone an extra day’s rest.

Girardi said that his plan right now is go with a platoon of sorts at third with Eduardo Nunez and Ramiro Pena while Alex Rodriguez is on the DL, although he reserved the right to change his mind and go with the hot hand, if there is one. Nunez drove in the go-ahead run with his first big-league hit Saturday and is in the lineup again.

The Yankees are 11-0 without A-Rod in the lineup. …

CC Sabathia is undefeated in his last 19 starts at Yankee Stadium, dating to last year’s All-Star break. He’s 14-0. It’s the longest current home winning streak in the majors. He also owns the longest undefeated streak of starts at one stadium since Johan Santana was going 24 starts without a loss for the Twins at the Metrodome from Aug. 6, 2005 to April 2,  2007.  

“I think he understands the ballpark, but more importantly, CC usually is ahead in the count. … He can make the hitters hit his pitch,” Girardi said.

Here are the lineups:

Yankees

1. Derek Jeter SS

2. Nick Swisher RF

3. Mark Teixeira 1B

4. Robinson Cano 2B

5. Marcus Thames DH

6. Jorge Posada C

7. Austin Kearns LF

8. Brett Gardner CF

9. Eduardo Nunez 3B

CC Sabathia P

Mariners

1. Ichiro Suzuki RF

2. Chone Figgins 2B

3. Russell Branyan DH

4. Jose Lopez 3B

5. Franklin Gutierrez CF

6. Casey Kotchman 1B

7. Adam Moore C

8. Matt Tuiasosopo LF

9. Josh Wilson SS

Luke French P

Clearly a lack of zip on the fastball makes things worse, but Javier Vazquez said the same thing today that he said yesterday: It’s his location, not his velocity, that’s causing most of his problems. I don’t remember him sounding more frustrated.

“It’s my command right now,” he said. “Falling behind in the count. When that happens, you’re going to have bad games.”

The first Ichiro Suzuki home run was a 2-0 pitch. The Russell Branyon monster into the fourth deck was a 3-1 pitch. The second Ichiro home was a 1-0 changeup. When Vazquez allowed four straight batters to reach base in the third inning, the counts were 2-1, 1-1, 1-0 and 3-2 (after falling behind 3-1 on three straight balls).

“I feel better than I did at the beginning of the season,” Vazquez said. “I’m just not making good pitches, and I’m falling behind a lot.”

For now, the Yankees say Ivan Nova is joining the rotation to give all five starters an extended rest, but Thursday’s off day was going to do that anyway. Can’t help but wonder if Nova might also be coming up to limit Phil Hughes’ innings or to audition for Dustin Moseley’s role or to serve as an alternative to Vazquez.

The Yankees have said none of those things — and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think Moseley has done anything to lose his spot — but it’s easy to make that sort of speculation, especially after an outing like this.

“At times, (Vazquez’s) first couple of fastballs in an inning are slower than others,” Joe Girardi said. “It seems maybe it just takes him a little bit to get going. I’m sure part of it is just feeling like you’re going to make that pitch, and you have conviction in that pitch. But when he was winning games, he was throwing fastballs at those velocities the first pitch of an inning too. It’s just right now he’s a little off.”

• The championship belt went to Eduardo Nunez, but the start of the game was probably Chad Gaudin, who pitched two innings yesterday but was strong enough for three scoreless today. “It’s a gutsy performance by Chad,” Girardi said. “The big thing in these two days was he didn’t throw a lot of pitches yesterday, and he didn’t throw a lot of pitches today. He threw a lot of strikes. He was ahead in the count.”

• Good day for the bullpen as a whole, even with Mariano Rivera allowing a meaningless run in the ninth. Boone Logan had a scoreless inning, and Dave Robertson got the first two outs in the eight on strikeouts. Robertson hasn’t allowed a run in 19 straight appearances. “We, as a whole, are doing well,” Gaudin said. “We accept the responsibility and are accountable for what our spots are. That’s why we’ve been successful.”

• Girardi didn’t go into much detail about why he went to Rivera in the eighth or left him in for the ninth. “We talked about the situation and if we got in that certain situation, I was going to go to Mo,” he said. And that’s all he said about the decision.

• This was Rivera’s 25th save. He has reached that number in 14 straight years, passing Lee Smith for the most consecutive 25-save seasons since saves became an official stat in 1969. This was his first save of more than one inning this year.

• What changed about Alex Rodriguez’s status between pregame and postgame? “It was a discussion with (Brian Cashman),” Girardi said. “Alex was not here yet when I met with you (this morning). It was a discussion that Cash and I had. Cash talked to the doctors and trainers. We just all felt that it’s probably in the best interest to put him on the DL.”

• For now, there are no plans to call-up another third baseman. It’s Nunez and Ramiro Pena filling the hole. “Both of those guys have done a pretty good job filling in,” Girardi said.

• Mark Teixeira on realizing Rodriguez might be out longer than a few days: “When you take a few days off and it’s not better, then there’s something wrong there. Alex plays through a lot, so for him to not be able to play through this, we knew something was wrong.”

• Branyan became the first player to hit a home run into the upper deck at the current Yankee Stadium. He is also the only player to hit the glass of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar in center field.

• The Yankees are 16-4 in games immediately following a shutout.

• Logan has retired 30 of the past 36 batters he faced. He has retired 23 of the past 25 lefties. This was his first win as a Yankee.

• Austin Kearns extended his hitting streak to 10 games, a season-high for him. This is his longest hitting streak since a 16-game streak in 2003.

• Casey Kotchman’s error in the eighth broke a streak of 274 errorless games at first base, an all-time major league record.

• Don’t forget you can always check out pictures in our online Yankees photo gallery, updated daily.

Associated Press photos of Vazquez, Nunez and Jeter

Eduardo Nunez has been in the big leagues for three days now. He showed up Thursday afternoon, made his major league debut Thursday night and got in as a defensive replacement on Friday.

Before his first big league start, Nunez got some advice from the Yankees captain.

“I told him to cut his hair,” Derek Jeter said. “He had that mohawk. I said, ‘Get rid of that and you’ll be alright.’”

“He’s so nice,” Nunez said.

Maybe the haircut did the trick. Nunez’s first major league hit — he’s fifth Yankee to get his first big league hit this season — stood as the game winner, scoring Austin Kearns and sparking a three-run seventh inning. When he got to first base, Nunez pumped his fist to the Yankees bench, where every player had come to the front of the dugout to cheer. When the ball came in from the outfield, Nunez kissed it before it was sent for safe keeping.

“I’ll give it to my mom,” Nunez said. “I was so excited. I don’t know what I did.”

The Yankees will remember. With Alex Rodriguez heading for the disabled list, Joe Girardi said right now the plan is to stick with Nunez and Ramiro Pena at third. Girardi could have pinch-hit Brett Gardner for that seventh-inning at-bat, but he said he was happy with Nunez’s at-bats earlier in the game.

“I know how nerve wracking it is to be a rookie and trying to get your first hit and make a good impression on your teammates,” Mark Teixeira said. “He did all of it in one swing.”

Associated Press photo of Jeter and Nunez

The Yankees have a plan for Ivan Nova. That plan is to start him on Monday. After that, everything is a great unknown.

Very few questions can be answered fully, but here’s what is known at this point.

Will Javier Vazquez make his next start?
Girardi: I haven’t changed the rotation yet. We’re just pushing everybody back.

Will this become a six-man rotation?
Girardi: I don’t think so right now. We do have an off day and we don’t have any stretches like this the rest of the year. It might be something we have to look at but sitting here right now, it’s not what I’m assuming we’re going to do.

Will the Yankees split Vazquez and A.J. Burnett (so Cervelli can catch both of them)?
Girardi: That’s something that I will look at.

Will this impact Phil Hughes’ innings?
Girardi: I’m not really looking at that. We just feel that the guys could use an extra day. Obviously we hope that he pitches very well and he can be impactful for us, but that’s getting a little too far ahead right now.

Will Nova stick around for more than one start?
Girardi: I just met with (Brian Cashman) and then I came in here. We didn’t talk about it for a half an hour. The greatest problem would be that he pitches extremely well Monday.

Alex Rodriguez will go on the disabled list because of that calf injury.

“We’re going to play it safe,” Joe Girardi said. “We don’t think he’s any worse than the time before.”

Ivan Nova will take the open roster spot and start on Monday. Everyone in the rotation will be pushed back a day.

A lot of good things about this afternoon’s game. Only one negative. The Yankees bullpen was outstanding, the offense rallied with five late runs and Eduardo Nunez’s first big league hit put the Yankees in front in a 9-5 win against Seattle. Everyone picked up the slack for starter Javier Vazquez who struggled through three innings, allowing four runs, three of them on solo home runs.

Associated Press photo of Jorge Posada after his first-inning home run