The LoHud Yankees Blog

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Lance Berkman 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher DH
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Austin Kearns RF
Ramiro Pena 3B

All of the Yankees seemed to know the number. They all knew this was win No. 20. They knew CC Sabathia was the first to get there this season. But not everyone realized the significance of this win in Sabathia’s career.

“I didn’t know this was his first time until after the game,” Derek Jeter said. “I just assumed he’d done it before. You feel good for him. Winning 20 games is not easily done. A lot of things have to go right.”

That’s true, a lot of things do have to go right, and that’s largely the reason the statistic is often dismissed and obviously flawed. But in the career of great pitchers, a 20-win season means something. One win might be a fluke. Twenty is a sign of consistency.

“Maybe after the season I can sit back and enjoy it a little bit more,” Sabathia said. “But right now I’m just thinking five days ahead to who I’m pitching against next.”

The Yankees would expect nothing else from Sabathia, and in a lot of ways, that’s what’s made him so perfect for this team. The pressure of this franchise and the weight of each moment seem to have no affect. Sabathia smiled tonight when he was asked what it meant to win 20, then he quickly said it meant no one would ask him about it any more.

The win statistic is a weird one in baseball, but it might be meaningful that on the night Sabathia became the Major’s first 20-game winner, the Yankees became the first team to win 90 games.

“Around here,” Nick Swisher said, “it’s all about the wins.”

Here’s Sabathia’s postgame.

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• Robinson Cano hit his 28th home run, giving him 101 RBI for the season. Cano, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira are the first trio of Yankees infielders to have 100 RBI in the same season.

• Nick Swisher said he feels like he could play the field tomorrow. After two strikeouts and a ground out, he ended his night with back-to-back hits, including a double. “It felt great man,” Swisher said. “First three at-bats I didn’t really get to run much.”

• Brett Gardner had three hits for the sixth time this season. He was one of five Yankees with multi-hit games.

• Great play by Cano going behind the bag at second for the first out of the game. Joe Girardi called it a play that might have changed the game, shutting down an early rally before it started.

• Jeremy Guthrie’s first pitch hit Derek Jeter. Guthrie hit Mark Teixeira in spring training, and hit Jorge Posada in April. In his career, Guthrie has hit 37 batters, 10 of them have been Yankees. “Too many,” Girardi said. “Just too many. I don’t really understand it and I know he likes to pitch inside, but it’s just too many.”

• Jeter, of course, first jokingly asked everyone if replays showed the ball actually hitting him this time. “He’s what do you call it? Effectively wild,” Jeter said. “I don’t think it was on purpose. I don’t why it would be.”

• Jeter had two hits, two runs and two RBI tonight. He’s looked a little better at the plate in the last week or so. “We’re making progress,” he said. “Getting toward the end, so hopefully we’ll keep making strides in the right direction.”

• Robert Andino is a light-hitting Orioles infielder who’s played in six major league games this season. He had a home run on Friday and came a triple short of the cycle tonight. He was the only guy to have an extra-base hit off Sabathia. What is it John Sterling says?

• A win tomorrow would give the Yankees four wins in the last five games of this nightmarish road trip. Still not a great trip, but that would take away some of the sting heading into the Rays series. “It was tough the first two cities we went to and we have a chance to turn it around,” Girardi said. “Tomorrow’s a big day for us because Andy’s going. We’d like him pitch well and come out of it healthy. That would be a big plus.”

Associated Press photos of Sabathia, Rodriguez with Cano, and Jeter

There is a 20-game winner in the Major Leagues, and it’s CC Sabathia. The Yankees ace finally reached the milestone with an 11-3 win tonight in Baltimore. He is the first pitcher to reach 20 wins this season, and it’s the first time he’s reached 20 wins in his career. The Yankees backed him by scoring in seven of nine innings. They got a two-run home run from Robinson Cano and a three-run homer from Curtis Granderson. Brett Gardner had three hits.

Associated Press photo of Sabathia

YANKEES (89-58)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher DH
Lance Berkman 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Brett Gardner LF
Colin Curtis RF

LHP CC Sabathia (19-6, 3.03)
Sabathia vs. Orioles

ORIOLES (58-89)
Brian Roberts 2B
Robert Andino 3B
Nick Markakis RF
Ty Wigginton 1B
Jake Fox DH
Adam Jones CF
Nolan Reimold LF
Craig Tatum C
Cesar Izturis SS

RHP Jeremy Guthrie (10-13, 3.74)
Guthrie vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m. / YES Network

UMPIRES: HP Tony Randazzo, 1B Paul Nauert, 2B Brian Gorman, 3B Ted Barrett

WEATHER: Perfect blue sky here in Baltimore. I said the same thing yesterday: We’ve been lucky in this city. A lot of beautiful nights for baseball.

CLEANING UP: Last night was Alex Rodriguez’s 57th career multi-homer game. He has the most such games of all active players, and the seventh-most all time. Last night was the third time in which he drove in all of his team’s runs in a one-run win. He did it in 1997 and in 2004. That’s all from Elias.

AFTER EIGHT: The Yankees have won six games in which they trailed after eight innings this season. According to Elias, that’s the most such wins in the American League and tied for the second-most in baseball behind Atlanta.

NINETEEN: CC Sabathia, Roy Halladay and Ubaldo Jimenez are the only pitchers in the majors with 19 wins this season. Nineteen, by the way, is also the name of a good Tegan and Sara song. For whatever that’s worth.

THREE WITH 100: Robinson Cano has 99 RBI. When he reaches 100 RBI, he will join Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez as the first trio of teammate infielders with 100 in a season since 2003 (Pujols, Renteria and Rolen with the Cardinals). The last American League team with three 100 RBI infielders was the Athletics in 2001 (Giambi, Chavez and Tejada). The Yankees have never had three infielders get there in a season.

UPDATE, 7:19 p.m.: Jeremy Guthrie hit Derek Jeter with the first pitch of the game — of course he did — and that started the Yankees toward a 2-0 lead, with both runs coming on a two-out single by Jorge Posada off the glove of Ty Wigginton.

UPDATE, 7:37 p.m.: The Yankees were able to take advantage of a leadoff triple by Brett Gardner, getting a sac fly from Jeter for a 3-0 lead after two innings.

UPDATE, 7:53 p.m.: Bases loaded with one out, Sabathia limited the damage to one run on a sacrifice fly. He struck out Brian Roberts to end the second inning and the Yankees are in front, 3-1.

UPDATE, 8:11 p.m.: Robert Andino. Best player ever. After the home run yesterday, he just doubled tonight and scored on another sac fly to tie the game at 2 cut the lead to 3-2.

UPDATE, 8:26 p.m.: Derek Jeter has no hits, but he’s scored a run and driven in two. His RBI ground out in the fourth has given the Yankees a 4-2 lead.

UPDATE, 8:37 p.m.: Robinson Cano goes out to right field, a two-run home run for a 6-2 Yankees lead in the fifth. The Yankees have scored in every inning but the third.

UPDATE, 8:48 p.m.: Seriously, can anyone get Robert Andino out? He had the homer last night, now he’s 3-for-3 and a triple away from the cycle tonight. He just went deep in the fifth to make it 6-3.

UPDATE, 8:58 p.m.: Jeter beat out an infield single — seeing it live, I thought he was legitimately safe — and Swisher followed with an RBI double for a 7-3 lead in the sixth.

UPDATE, 9:32 p.m.: Brett Gardner: Single, stolen base, advance on a ground ball and score on a wild pitch. It’s 8-3 Yankees. Sabathia is in line for his 20th win.

Mark Teixeira has a broken toe that hasn’t healed, and a bone bruise that isn’t back to 100 percent. He’s been banged up since the Chicago series, and the numbers have shown it. He came back from the bone bruise with three big games, but since September 2, he’s hit just .170 with one extra-base hit and three RBI.

“This has been the toughest two- or three-week stretch I think I’ve had in my career playing through pain,” Teixeira said. “The fact is, I haven’t been producing. If you’re out there playing hurt and you’re doing well, then you can deal with it and you play through it. But it’s affecting my swing. It’s affecting me running the bases (and) playing defense. I’ve got to get healthy.”

Joe Girardi is hopeful that getting two out of three days off with help a little, but he also admitted that chances are Teixeira won’t get back to 100 percent by the end of the year. That broken toe isn’t going to heal quickly with Teixeira running and playing defense, and the hand seems to be a lingering issue that just won’t go away.

That said, there are no plans to give Teixeira an extended period of time off. Teixeira said it’s not even a consideration, and Girardi balked at the idea of a full week off.

“When I told him we were going to give him the day off today he was like, ‘Come on!’” Girardi said. “He wanted to play. I don’t know how he would react to four, five, six or seven days.”

The good news is, Lance Berkman is here and he’s hitting well. He gives the Yankees a good first base alternative against right-handed starters. Although it’s rarely noticeable that Teixeira is hurt — you don’t really see him limping — the results suggest he needs a break.

“I hope it’s realistic (that he can get healthy),” Teixeira said. “We haven’t given it a chance. I haven’t taken any days off except the one with the thumb. Maybe a day off here. Let’s go on a 10-game winning streak and (get) a couple more days off at the end of the season, and hopefully I can be healthy for the playoffs.”

Other than Teixeira, there weren’t many noteworthy items from the clubhouse pregame, unless you count Andy Pettitte walking around in a Hip Hip Jorge t-shirt.

• Nick Swisher was pumped this afternoon. “I’m just excited to be playing,” he said.

• Girardi on Swisher: “We saw him run today. He did some agility drills and did some arcs around the infield. He said he could run 100 percent. In a situation where it’s a ground out and he’s out by a lot, we’re not going to ask him to run 100 percent. We’re going to ask him to protect it a little bit.”

• CC Sabathia takes another shot at 20 wins tonight. “It’s not easy,” Girardi said. “There are a lot of things that have to go right. Sometimes you get no decisions. Sometimes you leave games with leads and the bullpen’s not able to hold it. I think if it were easy, you’d see 10 or 15 pitchers do it every year. You just don’t see it.”

• Forgot to mention it yesterday, but Chad Huffman was claimed off waivers by the Indians.

• Girardi told this story: Late last night, after A.J. Burnett had iced and had been sitting in the clubhouse, he came to the dugout after Alex Rodriguez hit the game-winning home run, wearing shorts and a hoodie. Girardi didn’t notice him, but he heard Burnett yelling from the tunnel for Girardi to get A-Rod so Burnett could give him a high-five. He wasn’t supposed to be in the dugout with his uniform. “I just thought that was really neat,” Girardi said. “He came out here and yelled at me to get Al. It was a nice moment. A.J. really cares.”

UPDATE, 6:23 p.m.: Orioles lineup
Brian Roberts 2B
Robert Andino 3B
Nick Markakis RF
Ty Wigginton 1B
Jake Fox DH
Adam Jones CF
Nolan Reimold LF
Craig Tatum C
Cesar Izturis SS

Associated Press photo of Teixeira

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

Out on the other coast, Joe Torre is stepping down and Don Mattingly is stepping in. Torre will leave the Dodgers at the end of this season, and Mattingly will take over as manager, his first managerial experience at any level.

Of course, there was reaction from the Yankees.

On Joe Torre…

Brian Cashman: “Joe Torre the manager is already enshrined in history with us. The memories of him with the Yankees will go on forever. Just because he didn’t resign a new contract doesn’t change the fact that he was as successful and great a manager as he was for us. He’s going to be a Hall of Famer, and he’ll go in with a Yankees cap. He’s welcome here any time.”

Derek Jeter: “I’m happy that he gets an opportunity to do it when he wants to do it. It goes without saying how much he’s meant to the game of baseball, not only as a player but as a manager, here and other places as well. I’m happy he’s decided to do it and I wish him the best.”

Joe Girardi: “I know that he had talked about it. It’ll be interesting to see how he feels in December and if he stays retired. Joe’s been doing it a long time and I’m sure there’s other things he wants to do with his life. I’m not surprised by it. I don’t think I would have been surprised either way, because I know how much he loves managing and I know how much he loves his family. He’s been a great manager for a long time.”

On Don Mattingly…

Brian Cashman: “He’s obviously a great baseball man. We had him here forever as a player. He was one of the most talented hitting people you will ever come across. He’s got an awesome demeanor. He was a candidate for our managerial opening. I’m happy for Donnie. It’s something that he wanted for a long time. He worked hard (and) put himself in a position to do that. For him, I’m glad that it’s paying off for him. They made a great choice.”

Jorge Posada: “His work ethic showed me a lot about Donnie. I couldn’t believe it that Don Mattingly was my hitting coach to tell you the truth. I was a big fan of Donnie growing up. He’d be there at 1 o’clock in the afternoon trying to get us better. It was special for me… Communicating. That’s why I think as a manager he’s going to be good. Things that made him real, real good as a hitter, he remembered those things and tried to tweak my swing a little bit. He tried to get me to get on top of the ball a little bit more. He really corrected my swing a lot.”

Andy Pettitte: “You hate to see (Torre) get out of the game obviously, and not be managing, but it’s a great opportunity for Donnie. As strange as it was to see him in a Dodgers uniform, it will be even be stranger now to see him manage over in that organization. I wish him all the best. I think I’ll do a great job. He’s had a great guy to see and work under, that’s for sure. I’m sure he’ll do a wonderful job for them. I wish him the best.”

Associated Press photo of Torre and Mattingly

Before road games, Joe Girardi often addresses the media from the visiting dugout. There is no press conference room like at Yankee Stadium. Just a bunch of people holding recorders and microphones, perfectly surrounding the Yankees manager.

When Girardi finished speaking on Friday, there was another guy sitting maybe 20 feet away. The group quickly reformed around Brian Cashman, who spoke quite a bit about balancing the value of winning the division against the value of keeping healthy roster into the playoffs.

“Over time you get educated,” Cashman said “You want to all be macho and say, ‘American League East at all cost,’ but hey man, I’ve been part of the Yankees now for a long time. I’ve been beaten by a wild-card Red Sox team in ’04. I’ve been beaten by a wild-card Florida Marlins in the World Series in ’03. I’m not saying give me the wild card. I’m just saying we’ve got to realize perspective. We’re in this to try to win a World Series. If we don’t, people remember that we didn’t more than whatever we did.

“This is about trying to line us up and getting our guys in a position to play at full gear if we can get ourselves to October. We’ve got to get there, but I don’t think the conditions of Swish and Gardner during the Tampa series, I don’t think they would have helped us regardless. But I think we’re in a better position now because we backed off and didn’t try to push them through.”

Here’s Cashman’s audio. He touched on several topics, and toward the end he mentioned that he hadn’t listened to any of the talk about Derek Jeter’s acting job on Wednesday. That’s when radio man Sweeny Murti jumped in with the perfectly timed question: What do you mean you don’t listen?  Very funny.

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Associated Press photo

On the Yankees last day in Tampa, Joe Girardi and A.J. Burnett sat together in Girardi’s office for quite a while. It wasn’t a secret meeting. People were walking back and forth and could see the two of them sitting across from one another talking, but Girardi didn’t say much about it. Only said he was checking in with his player, something he does from time to time.

Burnett said a little more about it last night.

He said Girardi wanted to make sure he’d turned the page. It’s been a bad season for Burnett — one that has included some incredibly good stretches — and Girardi wanted to make sure Burnett wasn’t dwelling on the past.

“I can’t erase my record or my ERA, stuff like that,” Burnett said. “But I can definitely get to where I’m supposed to go.”

The Yankees are going to need Burnett. They’re going to need him to pitch like he did last night in Baltimore. A couple of one-run home runs, they can live with. Complete implosions — like a few of Burnett’s August starts — won’t help them much.

“I made two mistakes,” Burnett said. “I had the one walk. I did hit my normal guy with the curveball, so it’s good to know that’s back. Just delivery-wise, I leaked out on a couple of pitches, but I was able to correct them.

“I guess the main thing of I felt as good as I’ve felt is that whether I hit the guy or gave up the hit or I gave up the homer, it was the next pitch, it was the next hitter. Nothing built up. Nothing escalated. I was very focused on what my job was tonight.”

That’s the Good A.J. Black eye and all.

Associated Press photo

The Yankees were down to their last strike, and the Orioles thought they’d just seen it. It was a 1-2 fastball, and Alex Rodriguez watched it go inside.

“I’m just looking at their whole dugout, and their whole dugout literally jumped out of the dugout, hoping for a strike three,” Rodriguez said. “They started laughing at me, and I started laughing at them a little bit, just having a little bit of fun.”

The real fun, of course, came on the next pitch, a 2-2 fastball that Rodriguez cranked to deep left field. The Yankees haven’t had much fun these past two weeks, but they’ve hit three huge home runs: First Nick Swisher, then Jorge Posada and now Rodriguez. Seven of their past eight games have been decided by one run.

“This is the one that maybe gets us going,” Girardi said. “We’ve been in a tough stretch here, losing some really tough games, but we found a way to get it done.”

Here’s Rodriguez speaking after the game.

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• Rodriguez accounted for all four Yankees runs on two home runs, his 24th and 25th of the season.

• Give a lot of credit to Jorge Posada for opening that ninth inning with a single after an 11-pitch at-bat. “Just keep looking for the next pitch,” he said. “Sometimes you foul your pitch. I fouled a split that stayed up in the zone, I pulled it, and I went out there and tried to look for another pitch up in the zone and I got it.”

• A.J. Burnett gave up the two home runs. He also hit a guy with a curveball, which eventually led to run. But there can be no doubt that he’s pitching better and better. “It’s getting there,” he said. “This is probably the best I’ve thrown in a long time as far as overall, everything. Every time out, not giant steps but they’re steps forward.”

• The difference tonight? “I think I attacked,” Burnett said. “I came out and established both pitches. I only threw one changeup, but I think I stayed on the attack. He gave up the 2-0 homer to Adam (Jones). That last one (the home run to Robert Andino), that ball leaked way over. With two outs you’ve got to get that guy out. I did what I could to keep us in the game.”

• Dave Robertson had a hitless eighth inning for his fourth win of the season. His ERA is down to 3.62. Amazing considering those crazy innings he had earlier in the season, inflating his ERA to 14.21 in May and as high as 6.15 on July 2. Since then, Robertson has pitched 28.1 innings and allowed four earned runs. He’s struck out 35.

• Mariano Rivera. Save No. 31.

• Koji Uehara gave up the Swisher game-winner last week in New York, and gave up the Rodriguez game-winner tonight.

• Speaking of Swisher, he said today was a big one for him. “Confidence-wise, it made you feel a lot better,” he said. He wasn’t quite 100 percent, but after getting the cortisone shot Tuesday and taking Wednesday and Thursday completely off, the difference was huge. He’s thinking one or two more days, and he should be good to go the rest of the year. “We gave it two days, and look how much better it got,” he said.

• Robinson Cano singled twice and has a hit in his past 10 games against the Orioles. He’s hitting .438 with three doubles, four home runs and nine RBI in 16 games against Baltimore this season.

• Rodriguez has 607 career home runs, one behind Sammy Sosa for sixth all-time.

Associated Press photos of Rodriguez and Derek Jeter