The LoHud Yankees Blog

On the day he was drafted, Phil Hughes already had velocity and command of his fastball. There was work to be done, obviously, but the fastball was good from the beginning. He’s always had some sort of breaking ball, too – a slider for a while, then a curveball – and the cutter seemed to come to him in an instant.

The changeup, though, has always been a work in progress, and Hughes is going to need it tonight.

“It’s another weapon, especially in his ballpark to left-handers,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “You need something soft going down and away from left-handers. He’s also used it effectively against right-handers as well. It’s been a big pitch for him and we knew it would be, that’s why we hammered it home so hard in Spring Training.”

To neutralize the Twins left-heavy lineup, the Yankees threw left-handed starters in Games 1 and 2, but there are no lefties left for Game 3.

Right-handed pitchers use changeups against left-handed hitters. That’s just standard procedure, and in a ballpark that’s known to be friendly to left-handed power hitters – the Twins have three good ones – Hughes is going to need his fourth-best pitch.

“I think my change-up has been a big key my last couple of starts in being effective against lefties,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a big pitch for me again (tonight). Obviously, CC with his slider and Andy with his cutter, they can neutralize lefties really well. For me, I have to take a little bit different approach. Maybe some cutters in, fastballs, I think that changeup is going to be a big key for me.”

Hughes threw the changeup a lot in Spring Training. Joe Girardi said the development of that pitch was one of the reasons Hughes won the fifth spot in the rotation. There were times during the season when Hughes hardly used the changeup at all, but we’ve seen it a little more in the past few weeks. We’ll see it tonight when the Yankees look to wrap up a series sweep.

“We did what we had to do in Minnesota,” Hughes said. “Now we have the opportunity to close it out here in Game 3, and we can’t take anything off. We have one more game to win and we know this is a dangerous team. And just because we’re at home, it’s not going to be any easier. So we’re in a good position right now. But we still have one more to get.”

Associated Press photo of Hughes

I will admit that I’m not a frequent listener of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s radio show. I certainly wasn’t listening yesterday, but the Associated Press moved this short story.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is already anticipating another World Series title for the Yankees, and he’s even dreaming about the parade.

The mayor joked Friday on his radio show that he’s so confident in the Bronx Bombers, he’s planning where the parade should start.

Two games into the playoffs, at least the Mayor is confident.

“I hope the Mayor is right,” Joe Girardi said. “I imagine that there’s a lot of planning that goes into something like that. And they just can’t do it overnight. I wouldn’t think they were in major stages of it. But I’m sure they have to have a preliminary conversation when he gets time. I hope he’s right.”

Right now, Lance Berkman and the Yankees are a perfect fit. The Yankees need a designated hitter against right-handed starters, and Berkman needs a place where his veteran bat won’t be wasted on a middle-of-the-pack, no-longer-playing team in the National League Central. Last night was a perfect example of just how well the two fit together.

But this might not be a long-term match.

“I don’t like to platoon,” Berkman told Brian Heyman this afternoon. “If I was the manager, I would platoon me because I’ve been so bad right-handed this year, but I don’t think that’s a permanent problem. I’ve never been as good right-handed as I have left-handed, but I certainly can be a lot more competitive than I’ve been this year. And I like to play everyday. The DH is great, but I like to play the field. I feel like I’ve got something to offer still defensively. I’m not saying I won’t consider coming back as a DH. But I like to play.”

There’s a lot of honesty in those 100 words. Berkman has a $15 million club option for next season, and it’s hard to imagine the Yankees picking it up. Even if the Yankees wanted to bring him back on a different deal, first base isn’t open and it’s been a long time since Berkman played the outfield. This might be a short-term match, and one that really helps both parties.

As for where Berkman ends up next year, the obvious possibility is Houston.

“I would think that they might (have interest), but once you’ve cut ties, they might want to go with a youth movement,” Berkman said. “I don’t know what they’re thinking.”

Associated Press photo

Not a lot of news came out of this afternoon’s workout at Yankee Stadium, just a recurring theme of taking nothing for granted with a two-games-to-none lead in a best-of-five series.

“Our situation, the way we look at it is, tomorrow’s a must-win,” Derek Jere* said. “If you have that approach every game that you play, then nothing changes.”
* Who? Pretty sure that should say Derek Jeter. Worth keeping in because it’s one of my most absurd typos ever.

It’s not hard to make a connection between this and the 2001 division series. The Yankees have seen first-hand that a team can go on the road and still come back from a two-game deficit. The Yankees did it nine year ago.

The 2001 Oakland Athletics were a lot like these Yankees. They had two of the most productive corner infielders in the game. They had a 21-game winner and an 18-game winner in the rotation. This was back when Jason Isringhausen was a pretty reliable closer. That A’s team had the second-best record in the league, but settled for the wild card because it had the misfortune of playing in the same division as the 116-win Mariners.

The biggest difference between that Oakland team and this Yankees team might be experience. The A’s were very good, but also very young. Oakland had been to the playoffs once in the previous eight years. Their best players were in their late 20s.

“We have a lot of experience in here,” Joe Girardi said. “Guys that have accomplished a lot in their careers, and they’ve been through winning series (and) losing series. They understand that when you play in New York, the expectations here, and I think they’ve been through it so many times that they understand what it’s about. There’s nothing that necessarily surprises them when you go on the road. Tickets. Rooms. They understand it. And they understand the magnitude of the games.”

• Girardi said the rotation has not changed. If the Yankees lose tomorrow, CC Sabathia will start Game 4.

• Speaking of the rotation, Phil Hughes gets the ball tomorrow. “Last year (in the playoffs) I kind of viewed it as me struggling in the wrong time,” Hughes said. “I really didn’t think that the playoff sort of atmosphere or anything like that factored in. I just wasn’t making good pitches. I feel like I’m in a good spot now coming into the playoffs. I had a couple of good starts leading into this. I don’t think about that at all.”

• Hughes has better numbers at home than on the road this season, but Girardi said he lined up his rotation so that his two lefty starters would face the Twins twice apiece. Home-road splits took a back seat. “I don’t pay too much attention to that at all,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “If you make pitches you’re going to get hitters out. You’re going to get them out here or any ballpark. I think sometimes that gets to be more of a mental thing. Let’s face it, a lot of routine fly balls leave this ballpark.”

• Hughes has thrown one inning since September 26. “He’s thrown a couple of extra side sessions,” Eiland said. “That’s all you really can do.”

• Andy Pettitte feels good the day after his Game 2 win. “Normal soreness in all the right places the day after a start,” Eiland said. “All systems go with him.”

• Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said he’s considering a lineup change for tomorrow. “I’ve been running a lot of thoughts through, whether we go with speed. Maybe Alexi Cassila in the lineup against a right-hander. Who knows? I’m going to look at it tomorrow, see some numbers and see if we need to move somebody around or not.”

• Girardi did not comment on his lineup. Twins starter Brian Duensing is a lefty, which at least leaves open the option of starting Austin Kearns, though Girardi chose not to use Kearns against lefty Francisco Liriano in Game 1.

• Playing in the AL Central with the Tigers, Marcus Thames and Curtis Granderson have the most regular-season at-bats against Duensing. It’s not much of a scouting report, but here’s what Thames said about him: “Fastball, changeup, slider. Typical guy. Pretty good stuff.”

• The West Point Glee Club will sing the national anthem tomorrow.

• Girardi on whether he felt the need to talk to Hughes to make sure he’s not too anxious or nervous about tomorrow’s start: “It’s not something I’ve had to do the whole year,” Girardi said. “And I think about the experience that he gained last year pitching in important games. You can look at the game where we moved him up to pitch against Boston. He seemed relaxed and he seemed to be himself. I have not been given any indications I’m going to have to talk to him. I’ll look at him tomorrow.”

Associated Press photos of Girardi and Hughes

The Yankees off-day workout is over, but Kevin Long is still on the field throwing extra batting practice to Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano, Ramiro Pena and Francisco Cervelli. It’s that net drill that Long likes so much, the one with the screen on the opposite side of the plate to keep his hitters short and quick to the ball.

When the group finished taking hacks from the right side, the screen was moved for left-handed swings. During the change, Cano seemed to be going over mechanics with Cervelli. I’m not close enough to know what Cano was saying, but he was definitely demonstrating a right-handed swing while talking to the Yankees backup catcher.

My guess: Cano could rake from that side too if he wanted.

When it came time for Cano to take his hacks from the left-handed batters box, he did what he always does during this drill. He crushed balls to right, over and over again, one loud thwack after another.

One more reminder, Sam and I are chatting at 3:15 this afternoon.

Two games into this Division Series, there have already been two controversial calls. There was the catch/non-catch on Wednesday, and the 1-2 pitch to Lance Berkman on Thursday. This is all coming one year after the Joe Mauer non-double in last year’s Division Series between these two teams.

“I think you could look at calls and say, you know, during the course of 150 pitches thrown on each side, that pitchers are going to get some strikes and maybe they don’t get a strike,” Joe Girardi said. “I mean, that’s going to happen. I mean, these umpires aren’t robots and they don’t have X-ray vision. There are pitches that sometimes we think are strikes and we don’t get them, and that’s part of the game, and you have to be able to overcome those things.”

As a general rule, I don’t get too worked up about umpires. It’s a group of guys trying to make the right call on plays that the rest of us get to see in super slow motion on television. But we’re two games into this series, and umpires have been a topic of discussion after each one. There have been similar calls in the other Division Series matchups. Amy K. Nelson has reported that the players union has requested a meeting with the umpires. The situation is hard to ignore.

Last night, Major League Baseball sent someone to get comments from crew chief Jerry Crawford. Reporters weren’t allowed to go, we simply got a piece of paper with Crawford’s quotes. Here is the entire text:

Q. What did Gardenhire say?
JERRY CRAWFORD: Balls and strikes. That simple.

Q. Was there anything said regarding the history between Hunter and Ron that’s been public?
JERRY CRAWFORD: Nothing.

Q. Did Hunter say anything about the pitch, the 2-2 to Berkman?
JERRY CRAWFORD: Nothing.

So obviously that was enlightening.

If he hadn’t already, Lance Berkman certainly arrived last night. It was obviously in the Yankees clubhouse that Berkman was one of the guys in every which way: He was the guy getting clutch hits on the field, and guy being the butt of the joke off the field.

“You know these games are important,” Alex Rodriguez said. “I actually saw him in the weight room a couple of days ago. I almost had a heart attack.”

That’s the kind of thing players don’t say about the new guy. They don’t make jokes about the guy who doesn’t quite belong. They don’t kid unless they know a guy’s playing his part.

“That will bond you to your teammates really quickly when you start getting big hits in the playoffs,” Berkman said. “Let’s say we won the World Series. If you don’t participate, if you are just sitting on the bench and watching and don’t do anything, it’s hard to take as much joy as if you help them win the game.”

For a while now, Berkman has been talking about wanting to make some sort of mark with this team. It’s a brand new situation for him – you think the Astros ever considered batting him eighth? — and Berkman needed to contribute to really feel a part of what’s happening with this team. Last night he had the Yankees two biggest hits: A go-ahead home run in the fifth and a go-ahead double in the seventh.

Berkman’s postgame press conference ended just as Andy Pettitte’s was beginning. Pettitte walked onto the stage, gave Berkman a fist bump and then said: “I told him I hadn’t won a game since he’d been here, and I was going to get rid of him.”

Players only say things like that about one of their own, and it was clear Berkman one of them.

“It’s a good start,” Berkman said. “That’s why I wanted to come over here was just the chance to play in these games. They were going to make the postseason with or without me in the regular season. I just want to be able to contribute and maybe help us win a few games here in October.”

**REMINDER** Sam and I will be chatting at 3:15 this afternoon. It will be a quick on, 30 minutes or so, in the middle of the Yankees workout at Yankee Stadium. See you then.

Associated Press photo of Berkman and Rodriguez

Sam and I are sitting at Gate F-10, waiting for the first of two flights that will eventually get us back to New York. As you can imagine, we’re both really happy to be here. Up next, the Yankees workout at Yankee Stadium. While the Yankees are on the field, Sam and I are going to hold a quick live chat at 3:15 this afternoon.

The Yankees will workout for about an hour. They’ll go home, sleep in their own beds and take their first crack at winning this series on Saturday night.

“We need that third one still,” Jorge Posada said. “Hopefully we’ll get a little bit of time off, regroup again and do it again on Saturday.”

As for the Twins, they seem to reliving last October. They’ve had two leads — both in front of big, rowdy crowds at their new ballpark — and they have nothing to show for it.

“We’ve got a big hill to climb,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “It’s not going to be easy, but it can be done. We’ve seen it done before and this club is never going to quit, and we will give them everything we have when we go to New York. And I am proud of the team for that. But it is very disappointing in front of our fans here to lose two ballgames.”

See you in the Bronx.

Associated Press photo of Derek Jeter

Lance Berkman said he never had any doubt. He’d seen his friend Andy Pettitte pitch in too many big games to worry about some sloppy starts down the stretch. This was the postseason, and Berkman believed Pettitte would be as good as ever.

“That’s who he is,” Berkman said. “I mean, the guy, he will give you a good start, there is no doubt about it. Guys have asked me a lot about, is the postseason different? Postseason is the postseason, and I don’t care, a World Series game is a World Series game, it doesn’t matter where you are playing. The intensity. The adrenaline. Nobody manages that better than Andy. I mean, whether he did it there (in Houston) or here, he’s the same guy. He does it everywhere. He’d do it for the Pirates or the Royals if they happened to make the postseason.”

The first two innings were vintage Pettitte. He had runners on base, but he got the double play in the first and limited the damage in the second.

“That’s Andy, because he has a way to get a double play,” Joe Girardi said. “He gets the double play in the first inning, he has the bases loaded in the second inning with one out, only gives up one run. That’s Andy Pettitte. We have seen him get big double-play balls his whole career and you feel good about that when he is doing that.”

After the walk in the second inning, Pettitte retired 12 in a row. He didn’t allow another hit until that game-tying home run by Orlando Hudson in the sixth. Even then, he stranded a runner at third and his friend Berkman was right there to pick him up in the seventh.

“I think yesterday I told the guys that I have never felt so unprepared going into the playoffs,” Pettitte said. “I felt like I would have a good outing, but it was just so similar (to past starts). I got locked in. Mechanically I just felt great. You know, the ball came out of my hand good. I asked the good Lord to help me get through it whenever I started the game. And Jorgie called a great game. Just so that got me even more in a good rhythm and feeling comfortable.”

Here’s Pettitte postgame.

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CHAT TOMORROW: Almost forgot to mention this, but I’ll add it up here at the top of the notes. Sam and I are doing another chat Friday at 3:15 p.m. We’re going to chat for 30 minutes while the Yankees are having their workout at Yankee Stadium. Can’t go much longer than that because I’ll have to get back down to the clubhouse when it re-opens.

• Pettitte on Berkman: “I have been telling everybody in the clubhouse, this guy can hit the ball so far to the opposite field. He has more power oppo probably than anybody I ever played with, and it hasn’t clicked for him for the last two months. He literally told me he kind of made an adjustment in his stance, him and K-Long the other day, and he said he was launching balls in BP yesterday. He said he felt unbelievable up there and felt like he was going to be able to drive the ball the other way. And I mean, then he goes out and hits a couple of balls oppo like he did tonight.”

• The home run was Berkman’s first in the postseason since 2005. “I was really more excited about the fact that I actually drove a ball to left-center, which is something I haven’t done, which has really been a strength of mine throughout my career,” Berkman said. “In the postseason, you go 1-for-5 with a home run, you feel pretty good about it. But I was really more pleased with, all right, now I feel like I can compete maybe. I’m driving the ball that way.”

• Berkman on hitting eighth: “I never hit eighth before. I can say that I did get pinch-hit for one time in Houston a long time ago, but, you know, it’s different. You have to be willing, but what am I going to do? It makes you feel better when you have A-Rod and Tex and Robby and Grandy. Those are great, great players. And I mean, I don’t expect to hit in front of any of those guys. I am just glad to be in the lineup.”

• Another big inning from Kerry Wood. Both he and Jorge Posada said his stuff was much better tonight than last night, and he needed only 10 pitches — nine strikes — to get through the eighth. “It was nice to actually do it and not have Mo come in for a four-out save,” Wood said.

• Posada scored from first on Berkman’s go-ahead double. “I think Mick Kelleher pushed me to get out there,” Posada said. “I needed that help.”

• Obviously Ron Gardenhire wasn’t happy about the 1-2 pitch immediately before Berkman’s double. The Twins wanted strike three. Berkman and Hunter Wendelstedt thought it was ball two. “That’s a very borderline pitch,” Berkman said. “Sometimes it gets called, sometimes it doesn’t. I felt like Hunter was very consistent all night with not giving anything inside. He was giving probably four to six inches off the outside corner, wasn’t giving anything over the inside corner. So that was the strike zone.”

• Gardenhire on his ejection: “I thought the ball was a strike, he didn’t call it a strike, and I wanted to make sure he knew that. But I wanted to get him away from my guys, because there are a lot of guys full of emotion at that time and I wanted Carl to concentrate. They were going to bunt over and get the outs. That’s what I told my guys on the mound, and then I said what I said to stay.”

• Posada passed David Justice for third place in career postseason games played.

• Alex Rodriguez is hitting .368 with five doubles, seven home runs, 20 RBI and 18 runs in his past 19 postseason games dating back to October 7, 2007.

• Rivera has allowed one run in his past 19 postseason appearances.

*** Sorry for the delay getting these posted. For whatever reason I couldn’t log into the blog after the game. I have no idea what went wrong but it was annoying to say the least.***

Associated Press photos of Pettitte, Rodriguez and Teixeira, and Rivera