The LoHud Yankees Blog

Lance Berkman had his first defining moment with the Yankees. Andy Pettitte had only his most recent. Berkman gave the Yankees the lead twice, first with a home run then with an RBI double. It was enough for another Yankees comeback against the Twins, a 5-2 win that was Pettitte’s 19th career postseason victory. Looking like the all-star he was in the first half, Pettitte rolled through seven innings to put the Yankees one win away from yet another series sweep.

Associated Press photo of Berkman

YANKEES (1-0)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada C
Lance Berkman DH
Brett Gardner LF

LHP Andy Pettitte (11-3, 3.28)
Pettitte vs. Twins

TWINS (0-1)
Denard Span CF
Orlando Hudson 2B
Joe Mauer C
Delmon Young RF
Jim Thome DH
Michael Cuddyer 1B
Jason Kubel RF
Danny Valencia 3B
J.J. Hardy SS

RHP Carl Pavano (17-11, 3.75)
Pavano vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 6:07 p.m. / TBS

UMPIRES: HP Hunter Wendelstedt, 1B Greg Gibson, 2B Brian O’Nora, 3B Gary Darling, LF Chris Guccione, RF Jerry Crawford

WEATHER: Temperatures in the low 70s and upper 60s through most of the game.

GOOD AND BAD: For the Yankees, there is good news and bad news about pitching Andy Pettitte tonight. In his career, Pettitte has held Jim Thome to a .214 average with no home runs. He’s held J.J. Hardy to one hit in 15 at-bats. On the other hand, Delmon Young has hit Pettitte to the tune of a .579 batting average and .737 slugging percentage in 19 at-bats. Michael Cuddyer has hit .389 with a home run and two doubles off Pettitte.

FAMILIAR FACE: Counting tonight, Carl Pavano’s past four playoff outings have been against the Yankees. He pitched out of the Marlins bullpen in Game 2 of the 2003 World Series, started Game 4 of the 2003 World Series and he lost the decisive Game 3 of last year’s Division Series. Between the 2003 World Series and 2009 Division Series, he spent four years with the Yankees but never once pitched for them in the playoffs.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: Last night was the third straight Yankees postseason game vs. the Twins in which the Yankees hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning or later.

IT’S THE RUNS THAT MATTER: Mark Teixeira has scored a run in six consecutive playoff games, tied for the fifth-longest streak in franchise history behind Babe Ruth (9), Elston Howard (8), Reggie Jackson (7) and Lou Gehrig (7). Last night he hit his second postseason go-ahead home run in the seventh inning or later, becoming the fourth Yankee with more than one such homer (Bernie Williams had three, Mickey Mantle and Alfonso Soriano  each had two). That’s all according to Elias.

ALREADY ON TOP: Pettitte is already baseball’s all-time leader with 18 career postseason victories.

UPDATE, 6:23 p.m.: Andy Pettitte was clearly trying to get Derek Jeter killed, but Jeter made the nice turn at the bag to get a double play here in the first inning. Pettitte pumped his fist then quickly turned to look at the Captain. Ummm, my bad.

UPDATE, 6:45 p.m.: Could have been worse. Pettitte had the bases loaded with one out and got out of it with only one run scoring. It’s a 1-0 Twins lead. The Yankees are going to have to come from behind again.

UPDATE, 7:06 p.m.: The Yankees are finally hitting the ball hard off Carl Pavano. Three hits and a sac fly in the fourth inning have tied the game at 1 and put runners at the corners for Nick Swisher.

UPDATE, 7:18 p.m.: Home run by Lance Berkman, who had just one homer for the Yankees in the regular season. Amazing how quiet this place got when the ball landed in the bullpens. They called it 423 feet. He got a lot of it.

UPDATE, 7:55 p.m.: Orlando Hudson’s home run has tied the game at 2, but I think the Yankees would have signed up for six innings and two runs out of Pettitte. He gave them what they needed, now the offense need another run.

UPDATE, 8:25 p.m.: Had a chance to break the game open, but the Yankees will have to settle for two runs in that seventh inning. Also, I’d say Lance Berkman finally has his defining moment as a Yankee.

Mariano Rivera threw 21 pitches last night. He got a four-out save that was essentially a five-out save. Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Rivera is absolutely available tonight, but probably not for more than one inning.

“I would prefer not to do it tonight,” Girardi said. “But I said that last night.”

There can be no doubt that there’s a certain comfort that comes with Rivera. Like Girardi said this afternoon, there’s no fair comparison. No one has been this good for this long in this role. It’s such a track record that, even at 40 years old, bumps in the road don’t mean much.

Rivera struggled down the stretch, one of two periods of three or four outings when he wasn’t himself.

“It wasn’t his mechanics, it was his hand position on the ball,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “When you show the player – they can feel something – and when you show them, it kind of clicks.”

Based on the all the broken bats last night, it seemed Rivera had clearly made the adjustment. Everything clicked, just like it’s clicked time after time since the mid-90s.

“Command was better, everything was better, and the result was better,” Rivera said.

Girardi doesn’t want to use his closer for more than three outs tonight, but in a crucial situation — no matter how good Kerry Wood has been since the trade deadline — it’s hard to imagine anyone the Yankees would rather have on the mound.

“He’s tremendous to have because you know the situation isn’t going to affect who he is,” Girardi said. “Mo’s been doing it so long, I think he enjoys the situations and I think he thrives in them.”

• A day after the blown call in right field, Girardi once again gave his position on instant replay in baseball: “As long as it doesn’t slow the game down,” Girardi said. “The thing about expanded replay for me is, could they have reviewed that play as quick as they talked about it? Probably. It’s the same amount of time. It might even be less time.”

• Was Nick Swisher bunting on his own last night? Girardi wouldn’t say, at least not with words. There could be no doubt, based on his physical reaction to the question, that Girardi certainly didn’t call for the bunt. Someone said that Rob Thomson seemed to talk to Swisher very quickly after the failed bunt attempt, and Girardi only nodded. Bottom line: I wouldn’t expect to see Swisher laying down a bunt in the early innings tonight.

• There seems to always be some frustration from the fan base whenever Brett Gardner gets to first base and doesn’t try to steal. He had a chance to run last night and didn’t do it. “You just can’t run reckless where you get picked off and you take yourself out of an inning,” Girardi said. “You’ve got to make sure you’re able to read a guy’s move that you’re able to get a good jump, and those are the things that he does.”

• Derek Jeter hit some balls hard last night, continuing a trend that started in the last month of the season. “I think his at-bats have been a lot better,” Girardi said. “I think he’s hitting the ball harder. When he was in his rut, he was getting jammed a lot and hitting some weak ground balls. You see him hitting the ball to right field and center field with authority, and that’s good.”

• Girardi said he wasn’t worried about taking his only lefty out of the game in the seventh inning last night. In his mind, there were two innings to play and — lefty or righty — he knew the two pitchers he was going to use. “We’ve talked about Woody being our eighth-inning guy, and that’s probably where we’re going to use him,” Girardi said.

• Girardi said he plans to stick with Curtis Granderson as his everyday center fielder throughout the playoffs, regardless of lefty or righty starting pitcher. Last night might have reinforced that, but had Granderson taken an 0-for it wouldn’t have changed Girardi’s opinion. “This is a guy who for two months has hit off of lefties,” Girardi said. “So I don’t make a determination by one game.”

• One of Girardi’s many bullpen rules in the regular season was a refusal to use relievers four out of five days. He said that ban could be lifted in the postseason. “There’s a possibility we can use some guys four out of five nights if we had to,” he said.

• The Twins used Brian Fuentes for five batters last night, but manager Ron Gardenhire said Fuentes is available tonight.

• Girardi on the fact he’s in the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame and Jim Thome is not: “They have made a mistake. Jim was, you know, a little bit younger than I was, and I never had a chance to play against him growing up. But I did in the big leagues. Somehow we grew up in the same area and I got like 1/20th of his power. I’m not sure what happened.”

Associated Press photos of Rivera with Posada, and of Teixeira’s game-winning home run last night

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

TWINS
Denard Span CF
Orlando Hudson 2B
Joe Mauer C
Delmon Young LF
Jim Thome DH
Michael Cuddyer 1B
Jason Kubel RF
Danny Valencia 3B
J.J. Hardy SS

One thing I like about Andy Pettitte: He seems to put more faith in his talent than his track record. Experience counts, there’s no doubt, and Pettitte’s track record is a very real reason the Yankees have faith in him going into tonight’s Game 2 in Minneapolis.

But Pettitte knows all the experience in the world means nothing if his stuff isn’t sharp tonight.

“Obviously the experience isn’t going to help you as far as if you can’t find it, your stuff or whatever,” he said. “But just for me, I know emotionally, whatever happens I am mentally not going to get out of the game. You know what I’m saying? So I think that the experience will be able to help me as far as that.

“If I don’t locate and I don’t get the ball where I want it to be, no matter how much experience I have out there, it’s not going to help because I am going to get knocked around probably.”

Pettitte’s command wasn’t very good in his last two regular-season starts, but it was better in his last start than in his next-to-last start. It’s his command that’s going to make a difference tonight.

“The command is what I would say that, if anything, was in my mind as a worry for me,” he said. “Because my command was so good the whole first half of the season before I got injured, and obviously that has a lot to do with my mechanics and how comfortable I was feeling with them. My release point (was) right where I needed to be all year long, the beginning first half of the season, and I just had a little trouble making those adjustments since I come back off the DL. So hopefully, like I said, hopefully we can get going tomorrow and make the adjustments that I need to make during the course of the game, and be able to put together a good start for us.”

Associated Press photo

Alex Rodriguez is one of the baseball’s great players, but he’s also one of baseball’s great observers. Immediately after a game, he remembers the individual plays and the pitches. He pays attention when he’s on the field, and you can bet he was paying attention when Dave Robertson struck out Jim Thome last night with two-on and two-out in the seventh.

“That was a beautiful sequence,” Rodriguez said. “He came with the fastball then threw him three nasty breaking balls. That was a big key at-bat.”

Postgame, it was Ben Shpigel who asked Robertson about the very same thing I was thinking after that Thome at-bat. Robertson had walked the previous hitter, and to get Thome he seemed to throw two completely different curveballs: A small one for a called strike, then a big one in the dirt for a swinging strike three. Obviously they were both curveballs, but they seemed like different versions. Robertson said, no. Same pitch, location just made them look different.

It worked against Thome. One looked like a ball, and Thome took it for a strike. One looked like a strike, and Thomes couldn’t hit it.

“Just couldn’t find the strike zone for a little bit,” Robertson said. “I had to bear down and find the zone. I found it when I had to.”

Obviously the Yankees always want the bullpen to make it look easy, but sometimes there are nights like Wednesday, and those nights are just as good. Boone Logan got his first two hitters, but Joe Mauer fought through an eight-pitch at-bat to single. Robertson walked the first guy he faced, then got that huge strikeout against the Twins top home run threat. Kerry Wood threw some gas to Michael Cuddyer, but ultimately put two runners on without the ball leaving the infield. Even Mariano Rivera started his night with three straight balls before retiring five four in a row.

Not one of the Yankees relievers was perfect,* but all four did more good than bad. They were right up there with Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira in giving the Yankees the early series lead.

“It was just a battle of the bullpens,” Rodriguez said. “And we like our chances at that point.”

—

* Granted, Rivera was pretty close to perfect. He was especially impressive considering the rocky way his season ended. “There are times when he gives runs up,” Derek Jeter said. “But I wouldn’t want anyone else out there.”

Associated Press photo

Joe Girardi goes by the book. For better or worse, he keeps a massive three-ring binder on every team, and he seems to treat it as gospel. He likes matchups. He likes numbers. He likes to believe that history will repeat itself.

Tonight he threw out the book in favor of Curtis Granderson. The Yankees center fielder had been brutal against Francisco Liriano in his career, but Girardi saw enough in the final month and a half of the season to give Granderson the start. In return, Granderson delivered one of the biggest hits of the night.

“I always looked at it as the season is definitely not over until we finish game 162,” Granderson said. “Everything will go ahead and work itself out. Knowing that I was getting consistent balls at-bat after at-bat and not able to do something with that caused the (mechanical) change. It wasn’t a confidence thing. It wasn’t even the matter of not getting hits. It was the fact I wasn’t allowing myself to be able to put the ball in play to give myself the best chance possible to get a hit. That’s when Kevin Long and myself decide to sit down a little bit and discuss a slight change.”

It was a different sort of faith that Girardi showed in Mark Teixeira. Early this season, when Teixeira simply could not hit through the season’s first two months, Girardi trusted his numbers. Teixeira would hit, he had always hit, and he eventually did hit.

Down the stretch, though, it was Teixeira’s health that caused the problems. He got a shot, got some rest, and got going again. Granderson gave the Yankees a lead that was squandered. Teixeira gave them a lead that lasted.

“Our lineup is so deep there is never a reason to give up,” Teixeira said. “There are some teams where maybe two or three guys carry the team, and if you’re in a big hole, it’s just tough to get out of. But with our lineup, we can be down four, five, six runs and we have a chance to score seven or eight.”

Here’s Girardi’s postgame press conference.

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• Pitching coach Dave Eiland on what caused CC Sabathia to suddenly walk three batters in the sixth inning, including one with the bases loaded. “His front shoulder was flying open, getting under and around the ball,” Eiland said. “It’s something that we’ve had to address before off and on the past two years. We’ll make the address it and this next time throu”gh, we’ll make the adjustment.”

• As for leaving Sabathia in the game to face — and walk — Danny Valencia: “He’s our No. 1 starter,” Eiland said. “You dig a hole for yourself and we give you a chance to get out of it.”

• Interestingly, this was Ron Gardenhire’s reasoning for leaving Liriano in to face Granderson in the top of the sixth: “I think Liriano deserved the chance to get Granderson out. He hits like .180 off him. You take your starter out in a situation like that, it’s not the right thing to do.”

• In a game that basically became a battle of the bullpens, the Yankees pen went three scoreless innings. They weren’t the easiest ten nine outs, but the Yankees relievers got the outs they needed. “We’ve been contributing a lot this year,” Dave Robertson said. “This game we all had to work hard to get our outs and keep the lead.”

• Greg Golson caught that ball in the ninth inning. Replays showed it, but none of the Yankees actually seemed especially upset at the missed call. Mark Teixeira said he knew right away, but Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Joe Girardi all said they couldn’t tell. “It’s not like (the umpires) were out of position or anything,” Girardi said. “They hustled out there, it just happens.”

• Eiland said Mariano Rivera was, “as good as he’s been in quite a while command-wise.” Rivera agreed, and when he was asked why his command suddenly returned, Rivera gave a very greatest-closer-ever response. “Playoffs. Playoffs says everything,” he said.

• As for Girardi’s announcement before the game that he would hesitate to use Rivera for more than three outs. “I thought it was time to go to Mo,” Girardi said. “It’s one thing to sit up here three hours before the game and talk about what you might do and might not do. You get in a situation and you look at a matchup and I said, it’s a good matchup for Mo.”

• Liriano looked unhitable through the first five innings. Nick Swisher said it was partially because the Yankees came into the game expecting to see a lot of fastballs. “He really went to his offspeed pitches tonight,” Swisher said. “We made a little adjustment.”

• Sabathia got his sixth postseason win. Rivera got his 40th — 40th! — postseason save. The pitcher with the second-most postseason saves is Brad Lidge who has 16. Rivera passed Curt Schilling for sole possession of eighth place in career postseason innings.

• Jorge Posada moved into sole possession of sixth place all time with his 91st career postseason hit. This was Posada’s 112th post season game, tying David Justice for third all-time. Posada tied Mickey Mantle for ninth all-time with 40 postseason RBI.

• Granderson hit his second career postseason triple. The first came against the Yankees in 2006.

• I honestly think this place was just as loud as the Metrodome. I couldn’t believe all the people packed into every bit of open space. “It felt like we were in the ninth inning and we were in the third the place was so electric tonight,” Swisher said.

Associated Press photos of Jeter, Sabathia and Cano

Just like in every one of last year’s Division Series games, the Yankees fell behind tonight, but a big home run turned the tide and sent them to a 6-4 win against the Twins. Mark Teixeira hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning, making up for a bases-loaded walk that had tied the game a half inning earlier. CC Sabathia gave an uneven performance, but the Yankees finally got to Francisco Liriano and rallied for a 1-0 lead in the series.

Associated Press photo of Teixeira and Rodriguez

YANKEES (0-0)
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 CC Sabathia (21-7, 3.18)
Sabathia vs. Twins

TWINS (0-0)
Denard Span CF
Orlando Hudson 2B
Joe Mauer C
Delmon Young RF
Jim Thome DH
Michael Cuddyer 1B
Jason Kubel RF
Danny Valencia 3B
J.J. Hardy SS

LHP Francisco Liriano (14-10, 3.62)
Liriano vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 8:37 p.m. / TBS

UMPIRES: HP Jerry Crawford, 1B Hunter Wendelstedt, 2B Greg Gibson, 3B Brian O’Nora, LF Gary Darling, RF Chris Guccione

WEATHER: Temperatures in the low 60s for first pitch, dropping well into the 50s during the course of the game. Pretty much zero chance of rain. Nothing but blue skies all day today.

MORE OF THE SAME: The Yankees are looking to repeat last year’s Division Series when they came from behind in all three games to sweep the Twins. The Yankees starters allowed just three earned runs in 19 innings in that ALDS, and the Yankees out-homered the Twins 6-0.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT: The Yankees are not hoping to repeat their previous wild card berths. They’ve been the wild card three times before this season and never advanced to the ALCS. The Yankees 95 wins matched their third-most in a season in which they did not finish in first place.

GOLDEN: According to Elias, the Yankees primary infielders combined for a .944 fielding percentage and just 27 errors. That’s the fewest of any Major League team at those positions.

THE CAPTAIN: Derek Jeter has reached base in 48 of 53 career Division Series games. He’s reached in 122 of his all-time record 138 career postseason games.

UPDATE, 8:56 p.m.: Scoreless through the first inning. This place is beyond packed. I can’t believe how many people are here, literally standing in every available space. It’s very loud.

UPDATE, 9:04 p.m.: Scoreless top of the second for the Yankees, but the last three batters showed some signs of getting to Liriano. Thames drew a walk, Posada got enough of a ball for a single and Granderson ripped a ball that would have been a double if it were a little closer to the line. Not a good inning, but better than the first for the Yankees.

UPDATE, 9:10 p.m.: It’s basically impossible to hit a home run to center field in this park. Cuddyer just smoked the ball to dead center for a two-run shot and a 2-0 Twins lead.

UPDATE, 9:43 p.m.: Hudson breaking for third base reminded me of Damon in last year’s World Series. That’s a heads up play, and it led to a run. It’s 3-0 Twins in the third.

UPDATE, 10:10 p.m.: Liriano is dealing. He’s through five scoreless, and he’s been pretty economical in his past two innings. It’s still 3-0.

UPDATE, 10:34 p.m.: RBI singles by Cano and Posada have gotten the Yankees back in the game. It’s still a 3-2 Twins lead in the top of the sixth. Two outs, two on and Granderson at the plate.

UPDATE, 10:36 p.m.: Raise your hand if you hated Curtis Granderson three months ago.

UPDATE, 10:52 p.m.: Robertson warming in the Yankees bullpen after Gardner very nearly made a great catch on what turned out to be a two-out double in the sixth. Runners at second and third for Kubel.

UPDATE, 10:55 p.m.: Didn’t see that coming. Kubel walked to load the bases for the rookie Valencia, who was 0-for-2 with two strikeouts against Sabathia tonight. Sam and I were just saying that we’d leave CC in to face the kid. Girardi seemed to agree with us, and Sabathia walked in the trying run, and did it on four pitches.

UPDATE, 11:37 p.m.: Huge strikeout by Robertson. That’s the at-bat when you’d like to have a second lefty, but Robertson gets Thome swinging to strand two and keep the Yankees in front 6-4. Kerry Wood in the eighth. Mariano Rivera in the ninth.

Curtis Granderson is a career .182 hitter against Francisco Liriano. He’s hit well against nearly every other pitcher on the Twins staff, but Granderson has struggled against tonight’s starter.

Whether to play Granderson, though, was never a debate for Joe Girardi.

“I don’t look at his numbers in the past,” Girardi said. “He’s a different hitter now, we think. You look at what he did the last two months in his at-bats against left-handers. He was a different guy for us. I know there was a lot of talk about him against left-handers in the beginning of the year and coming into the year, (but) his at-bats against left-handers were good.”

Granderson seemed to hit everyone in September. He had nine home runs and 23 RBI. His .278 batting average was the highest for a single month since May, when he had only 15 at-bats because of injury. It had to come as a relief for the Yankees, who traded three players — including a Rookie of the Year candidate — for what they expected to be a long-term solution in center field, not just a platoon player with disappointing numbers.

“We believed he was capable of doing it,” Girardi said. “You look at the past years, he had some OK years against left-handers. Always very good against right-handers. It’s good to see. It’s great to see as a guy matures he continues to get better. He made a minor adjustment that made a big change for him, and that’s always encouraging.”

Girardi said he considered starting Austin Kearns tonight, but the decision was between Kearns and Brett Gardner. Kearns numbers area what they are, and Gardner is a career .333 hitter with a triple and three RBI in nine at-bats against Liriano. Kearns is 2-for-5 with two doubles off Liriano.

“We just thought we’d go with Gardy,” Girardi said. “He played well all year for us. Kearnsy struggled a little bit down the stretch with the injuries.”

Here’s Girardi’s pregame press conference. He does two sessions during the postseason, one with the small group of beat writers and one for any reporter who wants to ask a question. This is the bigger session.

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• Turns out Mark Teixeira had a shot in his bruised hand. This was around the time he sat out two games in Baltimore. Girardi said he shot came after the Baltimore series when the Yankees got back to New York, but Teixeira never sat out any of those games at Yankee Stadium, and it’s hard to believe — given how cautious Girardi was with injuries in September — that Teixeira would have played immediately after getting a cortisone shot in his hand. Girardi either misremembers when the shot happened, or rolled the dice for a game or two against the Rays.

• Girardi said A.J. Burnett’s only bullpen limitation is that he wouldn’t pitch two days in a row. Girardi would prefer not to ask him to come into a game with runners on base, “but it may come to that,” Girardi said.

• Dustin Moseley would be limited to around 40 pitches tonight.

• Greg Golson seems to be the Yankees top pinch-running option, but Girardi said he would be more likely to use Ramiro Pena if he were pinch running for one of his infielders late in a game. Sounds like Golson would be the guy to run for Nick Swisher, Jorge Posada or Marcus Thames.

• With only one left-handed reliever, Girardi said he’ll use matchups — imagine that! — to decide which of his right-handers would face some of the Twins tough lefties if/when Boone Logan has already been used. “I’m not afraid to use any of those guys against lefties,” he said.

• One more note about only one lefty in the bullpen: Girardi said some of the thinking in not carrying Royce Ring was that, with lefties starting four of five games, he didn’t expect to need a left-handed situational lefty until late in the game, which should make it easier to get through with only Logan.

• Girardi said he would be hesitant but not completely against using Mariano Rivera for more than three outs tonight. Would he be hesitant using him for two full innings? “Right now, maybe,” Girardi said.

• Twins manager Ron Gardenhire on Randy Moss being traded to Minnesota: “I don’t have Moss on my fantasy team, so I wasn’t worried about him. And I couldn’t get Favre, somebody took him before my team drafted, so I don’t really give a flip.”

• Tomorrow, I want Girardi to say he doesn’t give a flip about something.

Associated Press photos of Granderson, and Rodriguez, Jeter and Posada