The LoHud Yankees Blog

For nearly a week, all of the ALCS hype centered on Cliff Lee. Tonight, he did not merely live up to those expectations, he exceeded them. Through eight shutout innings, the Rangers ace shutdown the Yankees offense and silenced Yankee Stadium. He sent the Rangers to an 8-0 win that gave them a 2-1 lead in the series. Andy Pettitte was nearly as good, but Josh Hamilton’s first-inning home run gave the Rangers and early lead, and they added six runs off the bullpen in the ninth. 

Associated Press photo of Jeter

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

LHP Andy Pettitte (1-0, 2.57)
Pettitte vs. Rangers

RANGERS (1-1)
Elvis Andrus SS
Michael Young 3B
Josh Hamilton CF
Vlad Guerrero DH
Nelson Cruz LF
Ian Kinsler 2B
Jeff Francoeur RF
Bengie Molina C
Mitch Moreland 1B

LHP Cliff Lee (2-0, 1.13)
Lee vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 8:07 p.m. ET / TBS

UMPIRES: HP Jim Reynolds, 1B Angel Hernandez, 2B Fieldin Culbreth, 3B Brian Gorman, LF Gerry Davis, RF Tony Randazzo

WEATHER: It’s not warm. Temperatures in the 50s. Very slight chance of rain. 

TWO IN A ROW: The Yankees have lost consecutive ALCS games just three times. In 1980 they lost three straight against the Royals, in 1998 they lost two straight against the Indians and — of course — in 2004 they lost four straight against the Red Sox. They are 23-6 when winning the first game of a best-of-seven series.

LEANING LEFT: The Yankees lost their final nine regular-season games against left-handed starters. In the postseason, they are 3-0 against lefties.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: The Yankees have outscored opponents 12-1 over the final three innings — seventh inning and later — in this postseason. they have outscored the Rangers 16-0 from the seventh inning on in 12 postseason games between the two clubs.

HOME SWEET HOME: The new Yankee Stadium is the third stadium in history, and the first in the American League, to host a League Championship game in each of its first two seasons. The Pirates hosted NLCS games in 1970 and 1971 at Three Rivers, and the Braves hosted the NLCS at Turner Field in 1997 and 1998.

UPDATE, 8:16 p.m.: Two-run home run by Josh Hamilton. The guy can hit the ball a long way. It’s a 2-0 Rangers lead before Cliff Lee has thrown a pitch.

UPDATE, 8:30 p.m.: Jeter saw six pitches and drove the ball to right, but it’s still a 1-2-3 first inning forLee.

UPDATE, 8:59 p.m.: Pettitte seems to have settled in a little bit, but Lee hasn’t given the Yankees many chances. He’s hitting corners, throwing a lot of strikes that aren’t good pitches to hit.

UPDATE, 9:22 p.m.: Since pregame introductions, the loudest this stadium has gotten was for the final pitch of Swisher’s 11-pitch at-bat. That’ a great at-bat, but it ended with a strikeout.

UPDATE, 9:58 p.m.: I had some technical difficulties for a while, but I’m back up and running. Meanwhile, Pettitte has been dialed in since that Hamilton homer. He’s through the sixth inning, still 2-0 heading into the bottom of the inning. The Yankees offense has shown some life the past two innings, seeing 22 pitches in the fourth and getting their first hit in the fifth.

UPDATE, 10:13 p.m.: Cliff Lee is the first pitcher to have 10 strikeouts in three games in a single postseason.

UPDATE, 10:19 p.m.: Bengie Molina. Not fast. Still a nice play by A-Rod.

UPDATE, 11:01 p.m.: Based on the crowd here at Yankee Stadium, I’m guessing an RBI single in the ninth is the time to throw in the towel. Fans are heading for the exits pretty quickly now that the Rangers have added a run against the Yankees bullpen. It’s 3-0 in the top of the ninth.

Marcus Thames has odd career numbers against Cliff Lee. Thames is a career .147 hitter with 15 strikeouts against the Rangers ace, but of his seven hits, three have been home runs and two have been doubles. Thames has a career .500 slugging percentage against Lee.

There is a lot of good and a lot of bad in those numbers, and in some ways, that makes Thames exactly the kind of hitter the Yankees want in the lineup tonight.

“The guy’s got good stuff, but when he’s made some mistakes, Marcus has got him,” Girardi said. “We talk about a guy that, when he makes mistakes, you’ve got to get him. Marcus is that type of guy.”

The Yankees have a patient lineup. Brett Gardner is off-the-charts patient. Nick Swisher is patient. Girardi singled out Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada as hitters who show quite a bit of patience from time to time. Against Lee, Girardi said, those hitters need a slightly different approach.

The Yankees plan to be more aggressive tonight. Not aggressive to the point of always swinging at the first pitch, but to the point of always being ready to swing at the first pitch.

“We have guys that will go up, take a pitch and try to work the count,” Girardi said. “When we say ‘Be aggressive,’ it’s being ready to hit the first pitch. If it’s not your pitch, don’t swing at it. But just be ready to hit the first pitch… Chances are you’re not going to get (a seven-pitch at-bat) off of him.”

The Yankees came from behind against Lee back in August. The rallied a little bit against him in Game 5 of last year’s World Series. How did they do that?

“We had good at-bats,” Girardi said.

• Girardi has not decided who will catch A.J. Burnett tomorrow. “We’ll worry about that tomorrow,” he said.

• Any chance he changes his mind about the Yankees Game 4 starter? Girardi laughed. “We are on rotation is probably the easiest way for me to put it,” he said.

• Lance Berkman is a career .375/.375/.625 hitter in eight career at-bats against Lee, but Girardi said he never considered taking Thames out of the lineup. “Marcus has been our DH against lefties this whole time,” Girardi said. “He’s done a good job. I don’t see any reason why we would change.”

• While he stood by his decision to go with Burnett in Game 4, Girardi said A.J.’s somewhat wild sim game might have been a product of his time off. “I think it played into it,” Girardi said. “The only thing he had done was some light bullpens. He couldn’t really get the work he would normally get in between starts because he was active in the bullpen for us. He couldn’t throw a 35-40 pitch side session, because he wouldn’t have been available the next day for us.”

• Ron Washington said he went with Mitch Moreland at first base today, “Simply because of the at-bats he’s been giving me, how he’s been hanging in there.”

• Washington, doing his best John Sterling impression: “You are very reassured that you have a guy like Cliff Lee, but as I said, it’s tough to predict baseball. You can have your very best out there and things don’t go your way. You can always do things right in this game, and you still get bad results.”

• The Yankees have been pitching very carefully to Josh Hamilton ever since Hamilton homered in his first at-bat of this series. “We all know the numbers he put up against right-handed pitchers,” Girardi said. “He hit over .400 from June to August, and those three months are probably as good as any player has ever had. You have to be careful.”

• Girardi talked pregame with Hal Steinbrenner. He said the conversation was nothing out of the ordinary, just a general chat about the state of the team. “It was a good conversation,” Girardi said.

• Have the Yankees always had the POW/MIA flag, the Purple Heart flag and the City of New York flag at the top of the stadium in right field? They’re there now, which seems new, but I might simply have never noticed them.

• Tino Martinez is here to throw out the first pitch.

Associated Press photos of Cano, and of Martinez with Reggie Jackson

To celebrate the life of Freddy “Sez” Schuman, the Yankees will ask for  a moment of silence before tonight’s ALCS Game 3. The Yankees will also have some of Schuman’s memorabilia on display inside Game Gate 4 prior to the game. Some of Schuman’s clothes and signs will be on display, along with his pan and spoon, which fans will be able to bang together.

The items will remain on display throughout the postseason, and they will eventually become part of the New York Yankees Museum in Yankee Stadium.

“Freddy ‘The Fan’ Schuman was an iconic Yankees fan who brought life, youthful exuberance and cheer to Yankee Stadium,” the team said in a released statement. “The energy and excitement that resonates throughout the Stadium during a Yankees game is made that way by our fans, and Freddy was one of the conductors that could be counted on to bring our orchestra of fans together. Freddy endeared himself to all those he came in contact with, and we send our deepest condolences to his family and his thousands of friends.”

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

RANGERS
Elvis Andrus SS
Michael Young 3B
Josh Hamilton CF
Vlad Guerrero DH
Nelson Cruz LF
Ian Kinsler 2B
Jeff Francoeur RF
Bengie Molina C
Mitch Moreland 1B

5:00 p.m.
Gates open to the public

5:20-6:20 p.m.
Yankees batting practice

6:20-7:10 p.m.
Rangers batting practice

7:42 p.m.
Baseline introductions

7:52 p.m.
Giant Flag introduction: West Point Cadets

7:53 p.m.
Presentation of Colors: West Point Color Guard

7:54 p.m.
National Anthem: Kristin Chenoweth

7:58 p.m.
Ceremonial first pitch: Tino Martinez

8:02 p.m.
Umpires and Managers to home plate

8:05 p.m.
Yankees take the field

8:07 p.m.
First pitch

* Haley Swindal will again perform God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch.

Associated Press photo of Jeter

There were a total of 11 questions asked during Joe Girardi’s postgame press conference on Saturday night. Six of them were some version of a Cliff Lee question, either asking about Lee specifically or working to get information about the Yankees plans should Lee beat them in Game 3.

“The guy that’s getting lost in this is Andy Pettitte,” Girardi said. “And he’s pretty good.

Lee has referred to Pettitte as, “the best postseason pitcher of all time,” and Pettitte looked like it in the division series against the Twins. He wasn’t perfect, but Pettitte has never been about perfection. He’s been about winning, and making the big pitches when he’s needed them.  

“Cliff, we’ve seen him before,” Derek Jeter said. “And Andy we have a lot of confidence in.”

Cliff Lee is going to get the bulk of the attention leading into this game. You have to know that going in. I’m sure he’ll be all over the pregame show, and there will be pretty of columns — both in New York and in the national media — written about him. 

Who’s written and talked about after the game, is yet to be decided.

“Let’s not forget that we have a pretty good guy on the mound, too,” Girardi said. “(Pettitte) has won a lot of post-season games and has won a lot of clinchers in his career. I can go back to catching him in 1998 when he won the clincher against San Diego. He’s been doing it a long time.”

Associated Press photo

As Mark Teixeira stood in front of his locker after Saturday’s game, he seemed ready for the question. Cliff Lee had been the topic of discussion ever since the Rangers clinched a spot in the American League Championship, and the second Robinson Cano made the final out of Game 2, it was officially time talk about Game 3.

“It’s finally here,” Teixeira said. “Everyone’s been waiting for it. Cliff deserves all the accolades and all the attention. At the same time, we have a job to do, and we’re going to try to beat him.”

I understand why there was some frustration about Lee’s name being brought up from the very beginning of this series, but I also understand why he has always been such a significant part of the storyline.

Last year’s World Series. The near trade in July. The looming free agency in the winter.

Lee is too talented to ignore, and even without that talent, he’s significantly woven into the Yankees recent past and possible future. Fans are going to discuss him, and reporters are going to write about him, but that doesn’t mean the Yankees bought into the hype or similarly shifted their focus.

“I haven’t seen anyone watching video of Cliff Lee,” Teixeira went on to say. “I haven’t seen a scouting report. We’ve seen him enough. We know what he throws. We know what he’s going to do. We expect him to be on top of his game, so we have to be on top of our game.”

I’m sure that’s changed now. As of Saturday night the Yankees hadn’t studied Lee, but I’m sure they spent significant time studying him yesterday, and they’ll probably do the same this morning and afternoon.

“The thing about Cliff Lee is you talk about being patient against him,” Joe Girardi said. “If you’re patient on Cliff Lee, a lot of times you’re going to be 0-2. The only way to be patient against Cliff Lee and get his pitch count up is to foul a lot of balls off, and then get a base hit. He’s aggressive. He throws a lot of strikes. He knows how to move the ball in and out, up and down, change speeds. You have to look at that one mistake and you have to hit it.”

Associated Press photo of Lee with a group of Rangers pitchers during yesterday’s workout

Freddy Schuman, known forever to Yankees fans as “Freddy Sez,” has died, according to the Daily News. He was 85.

I know there are people out there who have been going to Yankee games for a lot longer than I (or Chad) have, but all it took was one visit – one time hearing that plink-plink-plink – to know about Freddy. There are a lot of special things and people that have become pieces of the Yankee fabric over the years, and Freddy was most assuredly one of them.

He’ll be missed.

The forecast is now looking better for Tuesday night. So A.J. Burnett is your Game 4 starter, barring something unforeseen at this point.

“He’s going to get the ball,” Brian Cashman said. “He’s capable of doing a good job and we believe he’s going to do a good job.”

Cashman said no discussions about changes have taken place since the rotation was set for the series. The Yankees don’t want to have to push up everyone else on short rest. 

“The schedule is the way it is,” Cashman said. “No wiggle room.”