The LoHud Yankees Blog

I pity the fool.

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

Tonight
LHP Andy Pettitte (11-2, 2.81)
vs.
RHP Josh Beckett (5-5, 5.71)
7:05 p.m., YES Network

Saturday
RHP Ivan Nova (1-0, 4.37)
vs.
LHP Jon Lester (18-8, 3.06)
4:10 p.m., FOX

Sunday
RHP Phil Hughes (17-8, 4.31)
vs.
RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-6, 4.86)
8:05 p.m., ESPN

The Yankees have a half game lead in the American League East, but they don’t exactly hold their own destiny. If the Yankees win out and the Rays win out, the teams will finish with the exact same record. The Rays won the head-to-head series.

“It’s over with. It is what it is,” Joba Chamberlain said. “We don’t see them again, and we have to focus on Boston. They’re a tough ball club. We still have nine tough games left. We can’t worry about what happened here.”

The schedules are not remotely even the rest of the way.

Yankees
Sept. 24-26: Three games vs. Boston
Third place in the AL East, 84-68
Sept. 27-29: Three games at Toronto
Fourth place in the AL East, 77-75
Oct. 1-3: Three games at Boston
Third place in the AL East, 84-68

Rays
Sept. 24-26: Three games vs. Seattle
Last place in the AL West, 58-94
Sept. 27-29: Three games vs. Baltimore
Last place in the AL East, 61-91
Sept. 30 – Oct. 3: Four games at Kansas City
Fifth place in the AL Central, 63-89

“We have to worry about ourselves,” Mark Teixeira said. “If we’re going to get to the promised land and win another championship, we have to beat the best. If we’re going to complain about having a tougher schedule, we don’t belong in the playoffs anyway. It’s going to be a tough road, but when we get to the playoffs it’s going to be the same thing, so maybe it’s better that we’re going to get tested these last nine games.”

When CC Sabathia walked off the mound tonight, he wasn’t yelling at home plate umpire Andy Fletcher, but he was certainly having a conversation. Sabathia’s last pitch had been a bases-loaded walk that brought in the go-ahead run, and Sabathia wanted to know where it missed. It seemed even he couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“I thought it was a tough pitch,” he said. “But I went and looked at it and he made the right call. It was a ball.”

The Yankees took a two-run lead into the sixth inning, and had Sabathia on the mound. That’s usually a pretty good situation for the Yankees, but Sabathia just wasn’t good in that inning. His night fell apart in a big way, and the Yankees fell with him.

Joe Girardi pointed to the at-bats that came after the infield single that drove in the first run — “He started getting into long counts and that’s when he got into trouble,” Girardi said — but Sabathia didn’t seem happy about any part of that inning. The fact he walked the No. 9 hitter to let the Rays take the lead pretty much tells the story.

“Tonight I definitely felt bad because these guys battled and scratched some runs across, and I’m supposed to be able to go out there and put up some zeroes. I wasn’t able to do that in the sixth… I feel like I kind of deflated the team at that point.”

Here’s the bulk of Sabathia’s postgame. It was absolutely a case of not having a lot to ask the guy. He knew what happened. We knew what happened. There wasn’t much to be said.

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• Even more bizarre than Sabathia walking in a run? How about Javier Vazquez hitting three batters in a row, two of them with curveballs. It was in his first inning of work, and Vazquez was trying to prepare himself. “Coming in from the pen, I started the inning from the stretch,” he said. “That’s something that coming from the pen I was trying to work on, just working from the stretch every time out. After that I went to the windup again.”

• Girardi’s take on Vazquez: “Very uncharacteristic of Javy to have control problems like that. In all the years, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Javy like that. Just strange.” After that, Vazquez actually settled in and pitched pretty well.

• Vazquez is the first Yankee ever to hit three consecutive batters, and he’s the eighth major leaguer to do it. Jeff Weaver did it most recently with the Dodgers in 2004.

• The Yankees had the bases loaded in the fifth and again in the sixth. In the end. Might have been a different game if they’d taken advantage of either situation.

• Sabathia hasn’t been especially sharp in his two starts since that eight scoreless innings battle against David Price in Tampa Bay. Has Girardi seen any lasting impact from that game? “I know he threw about 120 pitches that game in Tampa, but not necessarily, no,” Girardi said. For what it’s worth, Sabathia said he physically felt good, just had a bad night.

• Jorge Posada was high on Sabathia. “I thought he did everything possible to give us the win,” Posada said.

• The big hit of the game was B.J. Upton’s double off Joba Chamberlain, who said he was trying to get Upton to roll over a fastball and hit the ball on the ground.

• Doubled checked with Brett Gardner after the game. He’s fine. Just got a day off against a lefty.

• Speaking of that day off, big day for his replacement Greg Golson who doubled off Price in the fifth inning and finished 2-for-4. Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano also had two hits.

• Derek Jeter has a 12-game hitting streak.

• Mark Teixeira was hitless in his last 19 at-bats before his third-inning double.

Associated Press photos of Sabathia on the mound and Marcus Thames with Cano

Unless I’m overlooking a box score, the last time CC Sabathia allowed six earned runs in an inning was April 16, 2008, when he was pitching for the Indians and pitching against Marcus Thames and the Tigers. Tonight, Sabathia got in and out of trouble for five innings but his night completely fell apart in the sixth. It was a seven-run inning for the Rays, six of them belonged to Sabathia and it carried Tampa Bay to a 10-3 win that left the Yankees division lead at only a half game.

Associated Press photo of Sabathia

YANKEES (92-60)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Greg Golson LF

LHP CC Sabathia (20-6, 3.05)
Sabathia vs. Rays

RAYS (90-61)
B.J. Upton CF
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Evan Longoria 3B
Ben Zobrist 1B
Rocco Baldelli RF
Willy Aybar DH
Kelly Shoppach C
Sean Rodriguez 2B

LHP David Price (17-6, 2.79)
Price vs. Yankees

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

UMPIRES: HP Andy Fletcher, 1B Tim McClelland, 2B Mike Everitt, 3B Adrian Johnson

WEATHER: Last-minute decision to throw a pullover in my bag? Good call. It’s not remotely cold, but there’s a little bit of a breeze and it’ll be a little chilly by the end of the night.

TWO OF A KIND: CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes are the first pair of Yankees starters to win at least 17 games in a season since Chien-Ming Wang and Randy Johnson in 2006. The last time the Yankees had two 17-game-winners 30 or younger was 1978 (Ron Guidry and Ed Figueroa).

ALL HE DOES IS WIN, WIN, WIN: According to Elias, Derek Jeter has now played in 1,376 regular-season wins, tying Mickey Mantle for the most in Yankees history. The only active player with more wins than Jeter is Omar Vizquel with 1,477.

WHAT’S LEFT: The Yankees have now lost their past five games against left-handed starters. That comes after a stretch when the Yankees won nine of 10 games against left-handed starters.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Today is Joba Chamberlain’s 25th birthday.

UPDATE, 7:43 p.m.: Aside from the decision to bring back Andy Pettitte, it’s hard to come up with a better offseason move for the Yankees than the signing of Marcus Thames. He’s just gone deep off Price for a 2-0 Yankees lead in the second inning.

UPDATE, 8:33 p.m.: There really hasn’t been much to add to this game. Both Price and Sabathia has pitched well, but Thames’ homer stands as the difference. Tampa Bay has put runners on base — at least one runner in four of five innings — but Sabathia’s shut them down in every inning but the third. Even then, it could have been worse than a one-run inning. It’s 2-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth.

UPDATE, 8:40 p.m.: A lead-off double by Greg Golson has kick started the Yankees offense in the bottom of the fifth. Nick Swisher just singled in Golson, and the Yankees have two on with no outs for the 3-4-5 hitters. It’s a 3-1 game.

UPDATE, 9:02 p.m.: The Rays have strung together some hits of Sabathia here in the sixth, getting two runs to tie the game at 3. There are still runners at the corners with one out and the bottom of the order coming up.

UPDATE, 9:14 p.m.: Sabathia hit some kind of wall in the sixth. He got only one out, walked in the go-ahead run and left the bases loaded for Joba Chamberlain. It’s 4-3 Rays.

UPDATE, 9:17 p.m.: The Rays just got the big hits the Yankees couldn’t get in the fifth. B.J. Upton doubled in two runs, Carl Crawford singled in two more and it’s an 8-3 Tampa Bay lead.

UPDATE, 9:44 p.m.: A walk and three straight hit batters. I can absolutely say I’ve never seen that. What a bizarre turn of events. It’s now 10-3 Rays.

UPDATE, 9:59 p.m.: The Rays just turned a 5-4-3 double play, with the play starting with an underhand toss. It’s that kind of night for the Yankees.

New defense for the Yankees: Miranda 1B, Russo 2B, Nunez SS, Pena 3B, Golson CF, Curtis RF, Thames LF, Moeller C

UPDATE, 10:03 p.m.: For those of you scoring at home — or even still watching at home — the new Yankees lineup:

Nunez SS
Curtis RF
Miranda 1B
Pena 3B
Vazquez P
Thames LF
Moeller C
Russo 2B
Golson CF

The Yankees have started their internal conversations about how to set their postseason roster and rotation.

“You can daydream into what October looks like and how you want to line it up,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “We’ve had those internal discussions.”

The Yankees, as you might expect, aren’t ready to announce any sort of decisions, but there are some plans beginning to take shape. And the use of Royce Ring last night, and Javier Vazquez on Tuesday, was about more than trying to win baseball games.

“(Using Ring) was based on conversations we had earlier in the day,” Cashman said. “The day before, same thing with Javy Vazquez. We’re trying to get things lined up. See what we have. See what our choices are.”

Cashman did not go into detail, but he said there’s a definite plan for Phil Hughes in this last week and a half. He also said Ring could pitch his way onto the postseason roster.

“I think it would be unfair to make a decision today because there are a lot of things that could change,” Joe Girardi said. “We will continue to evaluate everybody. Obviously you have guys that you expect to be there, but we’ll continue to evaluate everyone in case we have to make changes.”

• Dave Robertson played catch this afternoon and said everything felt good. “Feeling a lot better today,” he said. “I think I’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

• Although Andrew Brackman said he doesn’t expect to pitch during this late call-up, Cashman said he’s specifically told Girardi to use Brackman whenever he wants. “I think you’ll see Brackman before it’s all said and done,” Cashman said.

• Girardi on his use of Chad Gaudin last night: “That was the guy we were going to in that situation. A lot of the other guys that we could have gone to were not experienced.” Joba Chamberlain, Dave Robertson and Boone Logan were not available, and Girardi said he was saving Kerry Wood for the eighth inning.

• Cashman made a point of mentioning Romulo Sanchez’s name. He seemed to indicate that we’ll see Sanchez pitch before we see Brackman.

• There was apparently some talk that Damaso Marte might not be finished for the season afterall. Girardi squashed that rumor. “I don’t think we’re getting him back,” Girardi said.

• The Yankees still have no discussed when they’ll do a locker room celebration: After they clinch the division or clinch a playoff berth.

• Jesus Montero and Dellin Betances joined the Yankees today but will not be added to the active roster. They’re both just here to workout with the team and get a feel for the big leagues. And they are apparently here to make everyone else look small. I’d never seen Betances in person. He’s a tall, tall kid.

Associated Press photo of Hughes, headshot of Robertson

I was just talking to Brett Gardner as the lineup was posted. There is no indication that Gardner is injured. Probably just getting a day with a lefty on the mound.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Greg Golson LF

Joe Girardi said Dave Robertson feels better today than he did yesterday, but there’s still no word on when he might be ready to pitch again.

“I have to see what Geno allows him to do today,” Girardi said. “Maybe he’ll play some catch.”

No lineup yet because the Yankees have a late report time and Girardi wants to check with everyone.

Still no lineup posted, but there’s a massive power forward walking around the Yankees clubhouse.

Andrew Brackman is here, joining Ivan Nova, Romulo Sanchez, Dellin Betances and Jonathan Albaladejo in the corner of tall pitchers.

Royce Ring’s locker is, of course, on the other side of the room.