The LoHud Yankees Blog

YANKEES (86-50)
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Greg Golson RF
Ramiro Pena 2B

RHP Phil Hughes (16-6, 4.10)
Hughes vs. Blue Jays

BLUE JAYS (69-66)
DeWayne Wise RF
Aaron Hill 2B
Jose Bautista 3B
Vernon Wells CF
Lyle Overbay 1B
John Buck C
Adam Lind DH
John McDonald SS
Travis Snider LF

LHP Brett Cecil (11-7, 3.74)
Cecil vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m. / YES Network and TBS

UMPIRES: HP Fieldin Culbreth, 1B Jim Wolf, 2B Gary Cederstrom, 3B Ed Hickox

WEATHER: Temperatures in the mid-70s with nothing but sunshine in the sky. It’s a good day for the game.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL: The Yankees are 28-15 in series finales this season. They’ve won 13 of their past 15 finales. A win today would give them their second straight series sweep, and their seventh sweep of the season.

NOT EVERYDAY WINS: Ivan Nova and Javier Vazquez were pulled after 4.2 innings in the past two games, and the Yankees won both. According to Elias, the last team to win two consecutive games when its starter was removed with a lead after 4.2 innings was the 1961 Pirates. But I’m sure most everyone remembered that.

GOOD THAMES: Marcus Thames is rolling, and today he’s facing Blue Jays starter Brett Cecil. In his career, Thames is 3-for-6 with a home run and a double against Cecil. That’s a tiny sample size, but it’s also a .500 batting average with a 1.167 slugging percentage. Both of those extra-base hits came the last time the Yankees faced Cecil.

UPDATE, 1:15 p.m.: A couple of random Greg Golson observations: Apparently he recorded his intro at some point, because he just did the whole “Right field. No. 27. Greg Golson. No. 27″ routine during the video introductions. It wasn’t an in-house voice calling his name, it was an actual video of Golson. Second, during roll call, he did Swisher’s salute. The Creatures seemed to like it.

UPDATE, 1:16 p.m.: Putting guys away has occasionally been a problem for Phil Hughes, and it was an issue again on an 0-2 pitch that Vernon Wells just hit for a two-run homer.

UPDATE, 1:47 p.m.: Another 0-2 home run for the Yankees. This time it was Aaron Hill who took Hughes deep. This was a better pitch than the one to Wells in the first inning, but the result was the same. It’s now a 4-0 Toronto lead.

UPDATE, 1:56 p.m.: When Golson leads off with a hard-hit double and Pena follows with a bunt single, it’s a good time to take advantage. Up to the top of the order to get some runs in this inning and cut into the Blue Jays lead.

UPDATE, 2:05 p.m.: Sac fly from Brett Gardner scored Golson, but that’s all the Yankees could do in the bottom of the third. It’s a 4-1 game.

UPDATE, 2:26 p.m.: Not a bad throw from Golson, but it wasn’t quite in time and the Blue Jays added one more run on the sac fly. It’s 5-1 after the top of the fifth. Still no action in the Yankees bullpen.

UPDATE, 2:47 p.m.: Phil Hughes is through six innings, but he’s allowed another home run and it’s a 6-1 Blue Jays lead. Albaladejo is getting loose.

UPDATE, 3:00 p.m.: Posada doubled in a run, cutting the lead to 6-2. Now the Yankees are heading into the seventh with Sergio Mitre coming in to pitch.

UPDATE, 3:12 p.m.: Sergio Mitre just walked in a run. He hasn’t pitched since August 27, but it’s hard to excuse a bases-loaded walk.

UPDATE, 3:37 p.m.: I’m not sure one more run in the seventh inning would be considered chipping away, but the Yankees did cut the lead to 7-3. Red-hot Marcus Thames came to the plate with two on and two out, but he popped up to end it.

UPDATE, 3:50 p.m.: Not sure who’s going to play right field, but Nick Swisher is pinch hitting for Greg Golson here in the eighth. Maybe they’ve decided Swisher’s knee is good enough to play the field for one inning.

Alex Rodriguez is back, and indications are that Andy Pettitte is on his way.

After his simulated game yesterday, and after going through some drills this morning, Rodriguez is back in the lineup exactly 15 days after he went on the disabled list with a calf injury.

“The simulated game gave him a comfort level that he was ready to go,” Girardi said.

Pettitte said he felt normal soreness — “I’ve felt sore after every step,” he said — and he was cleared to play catch this morning. He’s planning to throw a regular bullpen tomorrow. Girardi said he’ll meet with Pettitte and the training staff at some point today, and the team should have a full plan in place by the end of the day.

“We are holding pretty firm on trying to throw in a game on Wednesday,” Pettitte said.

That would be a rehab game, not a major league game, and there seems to be a good chance Pettitte will need only one rehab outing before being activated. He should be around 60-65 pitches on Wednesday, and Girardi has said he would be fine with activating Pettitte when he’s stretched out to only 75 or so pitches.

• Girardi said he has no long-term concerns about Nick Swisher’s knee injury, but obviously it’s a short-term concern. This is the second day in a row that the Yankees thought Swisher had a chance to play, only to determine he’s not quite ready.

• Even with some off days coming up, Girardi said he has no plans of skipping anyone in the rotation. That includes Javier Vazquez. “Right now I have no plans of doing that,” Girardi said.

• That also includes Phil Hughes. Girardi said outright that he has no plans of having Hughes skip a start before the end of the season. It could happen, but right now that’s not in the plans. “We’ll look at how he’s doing each start,” Girardi said. “If we feel that we need to skip him — right now, I don’t have any plans on doing it — but if we have to, we’ll make that adjustment.”

• Girardi did not announce the fact Robinson Cano would be out of the lineup, but I assume it’s just a regular day to rest.

That’s a cell phone picture of Rodriguez from yesterday’s simulated game.

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Greg Golson RF
Ramiro Pena 2B

Just a few minutes ago Joe Girardi specifically said it would be either Nick Swisher or Thames in right. Now it’s Golson. You can’t predict lineups.

Alex Rodriguez is here and going through drills.

“I’m anticipating he will be (in the lineup),” Joe Girardi said.

Still no lineup, but Girardi said he is also waiting to check on Nick Swisher. He’s going to give Austin Kearns another day. Right field will be either Swisher or Marcus Thames.

The Yankees clubhouse just opened to reporters, and to no surprise, there’s no lineup on the door.

The Yankees will need to check with Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher and possibly Austin Kearns before settling on a batting order. It’s a late report and the only one of the three I’ve seen is Kearns.

Familiar questions resurfaced this afternoon, but the Yankees seem to have moved on to bigger and better things. The questions are the same — Will there there be even more changes to the rotation? Should there be? — but the questions seem less pressing when the team has won eight in a row.

The lineup is producing, and that’s obviously crucial, but the Yankees bullpen has been just as important, making up for many of the rotation’s inconsistencies.

“The guys are fired up,” Mariano Rivera said. “There are ready to go. It doesn’t matter the situation. They’re just happy to be there.”

Since July 27, the Yankees bullpen has a 1.57 ERA with 98 strikeouts and a .183 opponents batting average. That’s more than a month of dominance, during a span when the rotation was in flux. Rivera has been his old self, Boone Logan has been a revelation and both David Robertson and Joba Chamberlain have clearly picked up their games since shaky beginnings to the season.

But it seems little coincidence that this run of success coincides almost perfectly with Kerry Wood’s arrival. He gave the Yankees another hitless inning this afternoon and has allowed just one earned run in 16 innings since coming over from Cleveland.

“Our scouts had filled us in,” Joe Girardi said. “We had seen him a little bit this year. I was somewhat familiar. I watched tapes of him. I think until you actually see him on a daily basis you’re not going to know exactly what he has… He seems to be getting better and better for us.”

Here’s Girardi’s postgame.

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Speaking of Girardi’s postgame: He spoke quite a bit about today’s fifth-inning bullpen decision.

On his decision to turn to Dustin Moseley over Javier Vazquez with the lead on the line, when just three days ago he had decided he’d rather have Vazquez as his starter: “I was going with the fresh arm. That’s why I made the decision.”

On his decision to use Moseley instead of Boone Logan to face left-handed hitter Lyle Overbay: “Nope (never considered Logan). There’s a guy also behind Overbay that crushes left-handers.”

That guy behind Overbay was John Buck, who ultimately made the final out of the inning. Also of note about the Overbay decision: Overbay was 1-for-4 in his career against Logan, 0-for-7 against Moseley. His left-right splits are minimal this season.

• Turns out Austin Kearns is out with a thumb injury, which helps explain how Marcus Thames wound up playing the field. “(Kearns) took some extra BP and bruised it a little bit,” Girardi said. “He’s day-to-day. I asked him after yesterday, are you feeling OK. He said it’s a little sore so I decided to give him a day off. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.”

• Thames knew what to expect when he went to the plate in the seventh. “Slider,” he said. “They threw me all sliders all day. The first one (of the at-bat) I got out in front of it a little bit. I knew he was going to throw me one so I sat slider on the next pitch and didn’t miss that one.”

• Speaking of home run sliders, both Blue Jays home runs were on mistake sliders from Vazquez.

• And speaking of Thames, the Yankees should have Alex Rodriguez back tomorrow, and Lance Berkman is hitting pretty well lately, but Girardi said he’ll find ways to keep Thames and his hot bat in the lineup. “Oh, we’ll find at-bats for Marcus,” he said, and it was definitive.

• Jose Bautista took great exception and was ejected for arguing a called strike three against Joba Chamberlain in the seventh. “I thought it was a good pitch,” Chamberlain said, with a smile. “That’s what we were going for.”

• The Yankees are now 19-6 in their past 25 games against left-handed starters. They’ve won eight of their past nine against lefties.

• After his two-run double in the third inning, Robinson Cano is hitting .600 with three doubles, two home runs and 23 RBI in 15 bases-loaded at-bats.

• Francisco Cervelli is hitting .600 in his past three games. Today was the first two-double game of his career.

• Brett Gardner has walked in his past nine games in which he’s had a plate appearance. According to Elias, that’s the longest such streak by a Yankee since Jason Giambi in 2006 (also nine games). Elias also made a note that Gardner has now tied five others for the longest such streak in the majors this season.

• Since making those mechanical changes in Texas, Curtis Granderson is hitting .414 with three doubles and two home runs against lefties.

• Chamberlain got his second win of the year, and his first since May 14 in Minnesota.

Associated Press photos of Cervelli, Vazquez and Thames

After several weeks of back-and-forth with the rotation, Joe Girardi said he plans to stick with his starting five for now. That means, according to the current plan, Javier Vazquez will make his next scheduled start.

“My plan is for him to stay in the rotation,” Girardi said. “I can’t tell you exactly what’s going to happen. There are no guarantees in this game. When you start making guarantees as a manager, that’s when you get into trouble, but my plan is for him to pitch for us.”

Clearly frustrated, Vazquez didn’t seem so certain.

“Hopefully,” he said.

Vazquez said he couldn’t remember his reaction to being pulled in the fifth inning, but he said he was “very disappointed” to see Girardi coming out of the dugout. Almost immediately Vazquez threw his hands in the air, clearly upset at the inevitable decision.

“I really don’t remember what I did,” he said. “But if I did, I guess I was just surprised… Sometimes as a player you don’t agree with the decision that your manager makes, but he’s still the manager and you have to respect him.”

Girardi said more or less the same. He said he expected Vazquez to want to stay in the game, but he wanted a “fresh arm” in that situation.

“I don’t mind guys being competitors and wanting to stay in games,” Girardi said. “I would have a problem if Javy was calling me out to take him out. That I would have an issue with.”

Here’s Vazquez postgame.

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Associated Press photo

Until the seventh inning, Blue Jays reliever Jason Frasor had not allowed a home run to a right-handed hitter this season. That ended when Marcus Thames went deep, a two-run shot that was his 11th of the year and gave the Yankees a 7-5 win at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees have now won eight in a row, a season-high, and Thames has homered in seven of his past eight starts. The Yankees late-inning relievers were once again dominant, making up for a shaky start from Javier Vazquez and a game-tying hit off Dustin Moseley.

Associated Press photo of Thames and Frasor

YANKEES (85-50)
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Marcus Thames RF
Lance Berkman DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Eduardo Nunez 3B
Francisco Cervelli C

RHP Javier Vazquez (10-9, 4.86)
Vazquez vs. Blue Jays

BLUE JAYS (69-65)
Dewayne Wise RF
Aaron Hill 2B
Jose Bautista 3B
Vernon Wells CF
Lyle Overbay 1B
John Buck C
Adam Lind DH
John McDonald SS
Travis Snider LF

LHP Marc Rzepczynski (1-3, 6.03)
Rzepczynski vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m. / YES Network

UMPIRES: HP Ed Hickox, 1B Fieldin Culbreth, 2B Jim Wolf, 3B Gary Cederstrom

WEATHER: Beautiful day. Not too hot. A lot of sunshine. The flags up top are showing a hard wind blowing out. It’s supposed to be pretty windy today, so it could get interesting.

FAMILIAR SPOT: For the second year in a row, the Yankees are the major’s first team to reach 85 wins.

WELCOME BACK: Javier Vazquez is returning to the rotation, having pitched his way back after a demotion to the bullpen. “I’m sure he’s thought about it, and he’s doing what he’s accustomed to doing, which is starting ball games,” Joe Girardi said. “I wouldn’t put too much pressure on this one start. It’s not something I want him to do. We want him to be a starter for us and we just thought we’d have him take a little break and work on those things he did out of the bullpen, and it seemed to really help him. I’m not going to make too much of today’s start.”

MINOR SUCCESS: High-A Tampa locked up a playoff spot last night, meaning the Yankees top three affiliates will advance to the postseason.

HARD TO BEAT THAT: This is part of an email I received from Russell late last night:

Has there ever been more (Scrabble) value in two opposing pitchers? They BOTH have two Z’s in their last names and Javy has a Q to boot. Rzepczynski has 40 points to his last name. Vazquez has 37 points. I have no idea how to search for higher scrabble point totals by last name — baseball-reference does not yet have that feature. But I find it hard to imagine you could find another matchup in MLB history worth more than 77 points.

So, you know, there’s that.

UPDATE, 1:31 p.m.: Not a lot of boos but a few when the Blue Jays first hit of the day left the park for a solo homer to right. It’s 1-0 on the Overbay solo shot.

UPDATE, 1:34 p.m.: Few more boos now that McDonald got a ball off the foul pole for a two-run shot that has given the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.

UPDATE, 1:44 p.m.: Dustin Moseley getting loose after a lead-off walk in the third inning.

UPDATE, 2:03 p.m.: RBI double by Jeter. Two-run single by Cano. It’s a 3-3 game in the bottom of the third.

UPDATE, 2:34 p.m.: RBI ground out by Gardner. Run-scoring wild pitch. Just like that, it’s a 5-3 Yankees lead. A couple of doubles by Francisco Cervelli have made a huge difference today.

UPDATE, 2:50 p.m.: For the second day in a row, Girardi goes to the bullpen with two outs in the fifth inning. Vazquez was clearly not happy to see Girardi come out of the dugout. Here’s Moseley to try to strand runners at the corners.

UPDATE, 2:54 p.m.: A curious move for Girardi, and it doesn’t work out at all. Moseley allowed a two-run double that has tied the game at 5.

UPDATE, 3:30 p.m.: Bautista seemed to have a legit gripe there. He’s ejected after arguing a called strike three that was clearly outside, and that could be a break for the Yankees. Not facing him in a tied game seems to be a good thing.

UPDATE, 3:31 p.m.: Chopper up the middle and off Joba Chamberlain’s glove for an inning-ending double play. Another good break for the Yankees.

UPDATE, 3:43 p.m.: Marcus Thames. Again. A two-out, two-run home run for a 7-5 Yankees lead in the seventh. Even the most optimistic Thames supporter could not have predicted he’d have this kind of impact.

UPDATE, 3:48 p.m.: Ramiro Pena to third. Greg Golson to right.

Nothing but good news coming out of the simulated three-innings of Team Pettitte against Team Rodriguez.

Andy Pettitte
“I felt better each inning I went out there,” Pettitte said. “I felt like the last inning I turned it up pretty good and wasn’t worried about anything at all.”

No one seems certain what comes next, but Pettitte would ideally throw a bullpen on Monday and make a rehab start on Wednesday. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has a playoff game on the road that day. Not sure about Trenton.

Pettitte threw 50 pitches today and would probably be allowed to throw about 65 in a rehab start. He might not need a second one.

“If he can only give me 75 pitches his first start, that’s not a huge concern of mine,” Girardi said. “The big thing is to get him back and get him back in the mix and making starts every fifth day. That’s the important thing for us.”

Alex Rodriguez
“It was a fun day,” Rodriguez said. “It was a chance to do everything. I love to work. We were out here early and nobody was around. I had an absolute blast… I felt comfortable with the way I ran.”

Rodriguez had a couple of hits off Pettitte, including a line drive to center field. Pettitte said it was a cutter that hung up. Whether Rodriguez plays tomorrow will depend entirely on how he feels when he wakes up.

“I wouldn’t say he was running 100 percent, but I’d say he was pretty close to where he’s going to be,” Girardi said. “I don’t think it’s because of his calf that he wasn’t running 100 percent, I just think he was being smart about it the first day he’s really run sprints around the bases.”

Rodriguez said the Yankees training staff has told him to focus on making “choppy steps” out of the box for the first few days, just to be careful.

• Nick Swisher showed up planning to play, but when he tried to run pregame he felt the same left knee soreness. He’s available to pinch hit. “Other than that, I’ll be with Geno,” he said. Sounds like it’s the kind of thing that he could try to play through, but Swisher said he’s looked at the upcoming schedule and doesn’t want to risk anything right now for fear of missing those big games coming up.

• Why Lance Berkman at DH and not Austin Kearns in right field? I have no idea. We didn’t get a chance to talk to Girardi after the lineup change.

• Chad Moeller on Pettitte’s sim game: “He could have definitely gotten outs today.”

• Despite basically two weeks in he bullpen, Javier Vazquez is not really limited today. He can go 100 pitches, Girardi said.

• The rotation is staying as is. Ivan Nova will make his next scheduled start on Wednesday.

• Waiting at Joba Chamberlain’s locker when he got here this morning: A UCLA jersey of Mike Harkey’s son, who plays tight end for the Bruins.

• Pettitte said he would actually be more nervous to pitch in a minor league playoff game than in a major league playoff game. He knows all the big league guys, he said. He’d be worried about messing up for people he doesn’t know. “I feel like I’m going to go down there and ruin all these kids’ season,” he said. He was mostly joking, but you could tell it’s legitimately something that’s on his mound. He doesn’t want to be rusty for whatever team will be counting on him.

That’s a Chad Jennings iPhone original at the top, and an AP shot of Swisher at the bottom. I’m sure you can’t tell the difference.