The LoHud Yankees Blog

It was hard to miss A.J. Burnett’s black eye tonight.

“I’m not going to comment, but I understand you have to ask,” Burnett said. “I think there’s more important things going on right now than my eye.”

Joe Girardi also refused to comment.

Burnett said he has nothing else physically wrong, and he did not need any sort of medical treatment. There was “no doubt” he was going to make tonight’s start.

On the verge of another disappointing loss, the Yankees were down to their last strike when Alex Rodriguez hit his second home run of the night for a 4-3 Yankees win tonight in Baltimore. Rodriguez also hit a solo home run in the second inning, accounting for all of the Yankees offense. The Yankees had stranded 10 runners in the game, and Rodriguez had a 2-2 count with two outs in the ninth when he hit his game-winner.

Associated Press photo of Derek Jeter

YANKEES (88-58)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Lance Berkman DH
Austin Kearns RF
Brett Gardner LF
Francisco Cervelli C

RHP A.J. Burnett (10-13, 5.13)
Burnett vs. Orioles

ORIOLES (58-88)
Brian Roberts 2B
Nick Markakis RF
Ty Wigginton 1B
Luke Scott DH
Felix Pie LF
Adam Jones CF
Matt Weiters C
Robert Andino 3B
Cesar Izturis SS

RHP Kevin Millwood (3-15, 5.30)
Millwood vs. Yankees

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

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

WEATHER: I feel like we’ve been lucky in Baltimore this year. A lot of really nice nights like this one. Temperatures in the low 70s. A few clouds but almost no chance of rain. It’s just a nice night.

ONE AWAY: Derek Jeter’s next run will be his 100th of the season, giving him 13 seasons with at least 100 runs scored. That would tie Lou Gehrig for the most such seasons with the Yankees. Among active players, only Alex Rodriguez has as many 100-run seasons. That’s all from Elias.

NEW ADDITION: Single-A Charleston hitting coach Greg Colbrunn has ben added to the major league staff and will be with the team through Thursday.

THE ONES THAT COUNT: Of the Yankees 178 home runs this season, 73 have either tied a game or put the Yankees in the lead. That’s 41 percent.

THE BEGINNING OF THE ARM: Greg Golson is celebrating his 25th birthday today.

UPDATE, 7:24 p.m.: Alex Rodriguez just opened the second inning with a towering home run to left-center. It’s a 1-0 Yankees lead on No. 24 for A-Rod.

UPDATE, 7:41 p.m.: The Yankees went on to load the bases in the second, but Derek Jeter lined out to end it. That’s tough luck. The more frustrating at-bats had to be the Austin Kearns and Francisco Cervelli strikeouts. Still 1-0.

UPDATE, 7:56 p.m.: Good second inning for A.J. Burnett. He put the first two batters on base, then retired the next three to get out of it without a run. Seems like those are the kind of innings he never has on a bad night. He’ll have a bad night with some 1-2-3 innings, but his problem often seems to be limiting damage and getting out of trouble.

UPDATE, 8:29 p.m.: I remember seeing Adam Jones in spring training and thinking he might win the MVP award while playing for a sub-.500 team. He just looked unstoppable. His numbers are bad this season, but he’s still a dangerous hitter who’s solo home run in the fourth has given the Orioles a 2-1 lead.

UPDATE, 9:05 p.m.: Sorry, I’ve been writing a lot during this game. Not that very much has happened. Burnett has been solid. I think you’ll take six innings, two runs, but the Yankees offense is still scuffling. With one out in the seventh, Jorge Posada is pinch hitting for Cervelli.

UPDATE, 9:24 p.m.: That’s the first home run of the season for Robert Andino.

UPDATE, 10:05 p.m.: Well that changes things. Down to his last strike, Alex Rodriguez just hit a three-run home run that’s given the Yankees a 4-3 lead in the ninth. This game was over until Rodriguez crushed his second home run of the night.

A lot going on pregame, which is why the note took some time. There was no huge news coming out of the Yankees clubhouse, just a lot of tracking down reaction to the manager situation in Los Angeles and checking on various bumps and bruises on the roster.

And then there was Brian Cashman. The Yankees general manager doesn’t come around all that often on the road, but he’s with the team in Baltimore having watched them lose eight of the past 10. Would he be here if the team had won eight of 10?

“Probably not,” he said. “My style, quite frankly, is out of sight out of mind unless we start to struggle. When we start to struggle, then you’ll see a little bit more of me… This is just to engage them and our staff. We’re fine. I honestly think we’re fine. It happens to be Baltimore. It’s a three or four-hour drive (from New York). I went to high school and college just down the block in D.C. There are a lot of reasons that I’m here. We’re struggling so it’s good for me to be around it.”

His assessment of the past week and a half or so…

“I feel that Joe’s done a lot of good things here in the last week,” Cashman said. “He had to make some tough choices with some guys dealing with some ailments. You can either push the medal to the metal and ask them to give a little more despite the ailments because of who we’re playing right now or because of where we’re positioned. The bigger picture is the ultimate goal of trying to become a world champion. Back off and give the Swishers and the Gardners the time necessary. Don’t overtax the bullpen. Hopefully still win your games because there’s a lot of talent here.

“Obviously the winning side didn’t work out here in this most recent stretch, but it’s September 17 and we’re a lot healthier today than is you asked me where we were on September 12. I think we’re healthier and in a better position to repeat going into tonight’s game than we were at any time last week. I think we’ll be better for it in the long run, even though short-term pain…”

It was at that moment that Cashman paused for a just a second, as if searching for the right word.

“Sucks,” he said.

• Andy Pettitte is with the team and ready to go on Sunday. He threw a bullpen yesterday, came through it fine and said he feels healthy and excited to get back on a big league mound.

• Nick Swisher is available to pinch hit. “We had Swish hit today,” Joe Girardi said. “He felt fine, so he’s available to me as a pinch hitter. We had him run the bases, and he’s still not 100 percent running the bases, so what I don’t want to do is I don’t want to go backwards again where we don’t have him for four or five days. He is a lot closer, though.”

• Girardi said the staff could see Swisher still dragging his left leg a little bit while he’s running.

• Brett Gardner took early batting practice and came through it with no problems. He’s more or less back to 100 percent.

• Romulo Sanchez is here. He could go more than one inning, but he wrapped up the Triple-A season in the bullpen and Girardi said the Yankees see him more as a short guy than a long man.

• Girardi said Jorge Posada will certainly catch tomorrow, and it sounds possible that he’ll catch Sunday’s day game after the night game. “I’ll talk to him about the next two games, to see what we do Saturday and Sunday,” Girardi said. “We want to get him back there, that’s for sure.”

• The Yankees are on rotation for the Tampa Bay series. Girardi said he’ll go with Ivan Nova in the opener, then Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia.

• This is the first time I remember Dustin Moseley being listed once again as a reliever on the Yankees lineup card. Throughout the Tampa and Texas series, Moseley was still listed among the starter, unavailable out of the bullpen. Today he was listed in the pen.

There is a Sanchez listed as an available reliever, which I assume means Romulo is here.

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Lance Berkman DH
Austin Kearns RF
Brett Gardner LF
Francisco Cervelli C

Just minutes ago, with manager Joe Girardi, trainer Steve Donohue and strength coordinator Dana Cavalea standing around the cage, Nick Swisher broke out of the box and ran to first base looking much better than he did on Monday. He then went first to third. When Swisher got 90 feet from the plate, the whole group came off the field.

Swisher still seems to be favoring his left leg — it’s more noticeable when he walks than when he runs — and I couldn’t tell whether the group had seen enough to put him in the lineup or had seen enough to give him one more day off. We’ll find out soon, but if nothing else, Swisher looked better than we’ve seen him in the past week and a half.

Also, there’s expected to be an announcement before tonight’s Dodgers game that Don Mattingly will replace Joe Torre as manager next season.

Tonight
RHP A.J. Burnett (10-13, 5.13)
vs.
RHP Kevin Millwood (3-15, 5.30)
7:05 p.m., YES Network

Saturday
LHP CC Sabathia (19-6, 3.03)
vs.
RHP Jeremy Guthrie (10-13, 3.74)
7:05 p.m., YES Network

Sunday
LHP Andy Pettitte (11-2, 2.88)
vs.
RHP Chris Tillman (1-4, 6.32)
1:35 p.m., YES Network and TBS

Sunday will be Andy Pettitte’s first major league start since July 18, which was his first start after the all-star break. In rehab starts with Double-A Trenton, Pettitte had a line of: 9 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. He threw three wild pitches and got two double plays.

Associated Press photo of Pettitte’s last rehab start.

Ever since he addressed the issue last month, talk of Joe Girardi taking over as Cubs manager next season has more or less gone away. But he’s not the only member of the Yankees staff connected to managerial openings.

• The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Tony Pena is a “serious candidate” for the Marlins opening. That job has been open since June 23 when Fredi Gonzalez was fired. The Palm Beach paper also lists former Yankees coach Larry Bowa as one of “a dozen” candidates.

• Jon Heyman is also hearing that Pena will be considered for the Marlins job, and he reports that third-base coach Rob Thomson is “expected to receive consideration” for the Blue Jays job after Cito Gaston retires. Thomson managed the Yankees for three games in 2008, becoming the first Canadian to manage in the big leagues since 1934.

• Speaking of managers, Dylan Heranandez out at the L.A. Times says former Yankees manager Joe Torre has told his wife and GM Ned Colletti what he plans to do next season but will not yet announce it publicly. Torre is in the last year of his contract as Dodgers manager.

I’m sure there will be another mention of this between now and the ceremony itself, but tonight the Yankees announced a few more details about Monday’s ceremony to unveil the George Steinbrenner monument in Monument Park. Here’s the announcement from the team.

The New York Yankees will hold a special ceremony to dedicate and unveil a monument in honor of George M. Steinbrenner III, in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park on Monday, September 20, prior to the team’s game vs. the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Yankees are asking all fans to arrive early and be in their seats by 6:45 p.m. Please also note that Monument Park will be closed to fans prior to Monday’s game.

The ceremony is scheduled to begin at approximately 7:00 p.m. with a special introduction behind home plate, followed by the unveiling of Mr. Steinbrenner’s monument in Monument Park, located just beyond the centerfield wall.

Mr. Steinbrenner’s granddaughter Haley Swindal, who is currently performing in the musical Cabaret at the Surflight Theater in Beach Haven, N.J., will sing God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch in tribute to her grandfather. Frank Sinatra, Jr., will sing the national anthem prior to the game, while the colors will be presented by the West Point Color Guard.

Mr. Steinbrenner’s wife, Joan, and all four of the couple’s children – Hal, Hank, Jennifer and Jessica – are scheduled to be in attendance.

The Yankees announced their preliminary 2011 schedule yesterday. Here it is, thanks to a combination of the Yankees PR staff and our friend Jeff the Tech Guy.