The LoHud Yankees Blog

The rain slowed down for a little while tonight, and that’s when Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman joined a group of decision makers in left field. They checked the outfield to make sure it was playable, and found nothing more than wet grass. The dirt itself was solid. The tarp came off and both sides went back inside to prepare for a game.

“We thought we were going to start and then it came back,” Girardi said. “We did everything we could to play this game, and they were great about it… You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. It wouldn’t have been our preference, but there’s nothing we could do. You can’t argue with Mother Nature.”

The Yankees biggest concern is the lineup. Girardi said there are some guys who will be able to play both games tomorrow, but not everyone. He specifically mentioned Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter as guys who he would be worried about playing 18 innings on the next-to-last day of the season.

“You would have liked to have been able to play your guys these three days and see where we end up,” he said. “There are a number of guys you could play both games, it’s just something we’ll have to decide. See how guys feel. They got two days off, Curtis (Granderson) got three, and then you’ve got two days off Monday and Tuesday. Let’s just play it by ear tomorrow.”

• Andy Pettitte will face Tim Wakefield in the first game at 4:10 p.m. A.J. Burnett will face Daisuke Matsuzaka in the second game at 9:05. The Red Sox flipped their starters. The Yankees kept the same order.

• Obviously Jorge Posada will catch only once game. “Probably stick him with Pettitte,” Girardi said.

• The players voted on which day to have the double header. Girardi said Saturday would be an easy choice.

• Girardi said playing a game on Monday’s off day was never an option. It was always a double header, the only question was which day.

• Pettitte never warmed up tonight. Matsuzaka did.

Associated Press photo

The Yankees and Red Sox have been rained out. They’ll play two tomorrow, with the second game beginning at 9:05 p.m.

YANKEES (94-65)
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, 3.17)
Pettitte vs. Red Sox

RED SOX (87-72)
Darnell McDonald CF
J.D. Drew RF
David Ortiz DH
Mike Lowell 1B
Jed Lowrie SS
Jason Veritek C
Bill Hall LF
Felipe Lopez 2B
Yamaico Navarro 3B

RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-6, 4.72)
Matsuzaka vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:10 10 p.m. / MY9

UMPIRES: HP Mike Winters, 1B Hunter Wendelstedt, 2B Brian Runge, 3B Jerry Layne

WEATHER: Sloppy at best. It would be nice to have that Toronto roof down here in Boston tonight.

MOST SINCE THE SKIPPER: Francisco Cervelli has 70 hits, the most in a season for a Yankees catcher other than Jorge Posada since Joe Girardi had 70 in 1998.

TWO PER GAME: Derek Jeter needs six more hits to tie Al Simmons for the 35th most hits all time. Simmons has 2,928. If Jeter can get eight more hits, he’ll tie Jake Beckley and Rogers Hornsby for 33rd place.

ON THIS DATE: It was on October 1, 1961 that Roger Maris hit his 61st home run to establish a new single-season home run record in baseball.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN: This is the third time in history that the Yankees have opened and closed a season by playing in Boston. They did the same thing in 1938 and 1950, two seasons in which the Yankees advanced to the World Series and swept.

IT’S BEEN A WHILE: The previous nine games between the Yankees and Red Sox were played in New York. According to Elias, it’s the first time either New York or Boston played nine consecutive home games in the season series since 1944, when they played 22 times including nine straight in the Bronx.

UPDATE, 9:44 p.m.: Here’s comes the tarp. Not good folks. Not good.

The television in the Yankees clubhouse was tuned to ESPN pregame. The group of players sitting around the television in charge of the remote were all rookies, young guys recently called up. They kept watching as one of the talking heads began ripping the Yankees rotation beyond CC Sabathia.

That’s when Alex Rodriguez walked over, called for the remote and changed the channel.

The Yankees could go a long way toward easing their rotation concerns tonight when Andy Pettitte makes his final regular-season start. Pettitte is coming off a bad start in New York, and he’s coming back from a little bit of back stiffness.

“He was able to do his bullpen a couple of days later,” Joe Girardi said. “It stiffened up the day he pitched, but he was able to do his bullpen and he’s had no issues. I don’t really have a lot of concern about it, but a little bit.”

The Yankees have not committed to a full playoff rotation, but it’s safe to say that winning the World Series is going to require a fourth starter, and so tomorrow’s A.J. Burnett start might be just as important in terms of easing rotation concerns.

“I don’t want to look at it as a bigger start,” Burnett said. “But it is a very important start obviously for myself and for these guys to know that A.J. can take the mound in the postseason and we’ve got confidence that we’ve got a chance to win a ball game, as opposed to what have we got today? … Confidence is not lost, but I know there are questions. I’m not oblivious to that.”

• As of right now, the tarp is on the field and dark clouds are overhead. It’s raining, but not heavily. “I think we’ll play,” Girardi said. “I wouldn’t bet it would be at 7:05, but I think we’ll play today. I haven’t heard any (contingency plans) which makes me think we’ll play.”

• Girardi said he believes once the rain passes, it will not come back so he has no plans of sitting Pettitte. Whenever this game starts, Pettitte will be the scheduled Yankees starter.

• Get used to this lineup. Girardi said there’s a good chance they’ll stick with it in the postseason. “This gives us a chance to split up the left-handers at the bottom,” Girardi said. “Grandy the last two months has been outstanding. It gives us another switch-hitter behind Robbie Cano. We think that it makes our lineup harder to navigate through. And the way Grandy has swung the bat the past two months, we felt he was ready to go up there.”

• Whether Jorge Posada catches Burnett tomorrow depends on how late the Yankees play tonight. Like with Pettitte, though, Girardi said he has no plans of changing his lineup because of the weather. He’s not going to sit Posada tonight to make sure he can use Posada tomorrow.

• Sunday’s starter is still up in the air, but it sounds like either Ivan Nova or Phil Hughes. Girardi said it absolutely won’t be Sabathia. “Could be that we use a lot of guys,” Girardi said. “A guy starts for a couple of innings and then we go to the bullpen right away. There are a lot of things we could do.”

• The Yankees want to use Hughes in some capacity this weekend, but Girardi still won’t give his innings limit. “We just wouldn’t use him a ton,” Girardi said.

• Girardi specifically named Nova as a potential Sunday starter. As for the chances of carrying Nova in the bullpen in the postseason: “That’s something we’d have to talk about as an organization, people that have seen him a lot more than we have,” Girardi said. Nova is not listed as an available reliever tonight.

• Does carrying a second lefty in the bullpen depend on which team the Yankees face? “I guess you could say that, yes,” Girardi said.

• Girardi said the Yankees have not settled on a number of pitchers to carry in the postseason.

• The Yankees have not mapped out a weekend plan for Mariano Rivera leading into the postseason. They’ll use him as necessary. “It is not mapped out, we’re trying to win our division,” Girardi said.

• The Red Sox are out of contention, but Girardi said it’s expected that non-contending teams still go all-out against contending teams. The Red Sox basically owe that to the Rays and Twins. “I think Boston will be ready to play and I think they’ll give everything they’ve got,” Girardi said. “That’s the kind of organization that they have. That’s the kind of players that they have. I think in the game of baseball, when you’re playing playoff contention teams, that’s what you’re supposed to do. I think you have to. It’s just the right thing to do. If you’re playing teams that aren’t in contention and you want to see young players, that’s a different story.”

UPDATE, 7:17 p.m.: Still no update on when the Yankees and Red Sox might start playing. There is only a message on the big screen in center field saying they hope to play after the system passes through.

The Red Sox also just announced that Clay Buchholz will not pitch tomorrow because of a stiff lower back. Tim Wakefield will start instead.

Here’s tonight’s Red Sox lineup.
Darnell McDonald CF
J.D. Drew RF
David Ortiz DH
Mike Lowell 1B
Jed Lowrie SS
Jason Veritek C
Bill Hall LF
Felipe Lopez 2B
Yamaico Navarro 3B
Associated Press photos of Burnett and Granderson

Right now, the consensus seems to be that the rain will hold off enough to play tonight’s game. At least, that’s the chatter around the ballpark. The sky does not look promising and radar doesn’t look great, but it sounds like there’s at least a chance things could work out.

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

Dallas Braden became one of the Yankees most infamous opponents this season. Now he’ll be doing guest analyst work for MLB Network in the playoffs. Enjoy. Here’s the announcement from the network.

Some of the biggest stars of the 2010 Major League Baseball season will be spending the Postseason at MLB Network. Torii Hunter (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), Chris Young (Arizona Diamondbacks), Eric Chavez and Dallas Braden (Oakland Athletics) will serve as guest analysts on MLB Tonight throughout October as the network plans for more than 125 hours of live coverage in October. MLB Tonight Delivered by UPS will air live before and after every Postseason game.

Chavez, a six time Gold Glove-winning third baseman with five career trips to the Postseason, will be the first guest analyst to visit Studio 3, with a two-night stint on MLB Tonight starting Wednesday, October 6. Chavez’s teammate Braden, who threw the 19th perfect game in MLB history and the second in A’s franchise history this June, will appear on MLB Tonight on October 8 and 9. 2010 All-Star centerfielder Young, will join MLB Tonight on October 10 while four-time All-Star and nine-time Gold Glove winner Hunter, a frequent guest on MLB Tonight, will sit in-studio on October 11 and 12.

Tonight
LHP Andy Pettitte (11-3, 3.17)
vs.
RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-6, 4.72)
7:10 p.m., MY9

Saturday
RHP A.J. Burnett (10-15, 5.33)
vs.
RHP Clay Buchholz (17-7, 2.33)
4:10 p.m., FOX

Sunday
TBA
vs.
RHP John Lackey (13-11, 4.47)
1:35 p.m., YES Network / TBS

Associated Press photo of Pettitte

The Royals came through last night, and now the Yankees have an opportunity to turn the tide in the American League East. Tonight, if the Yankees beat Boston and the Rays lose a second straight in Kansas City, the Yankees will be back in the driver’s seat in the division.

To try to get there, they’ll turn to Andy Pettitte, who will be making his third and final regular-season start since coming off the disabled list.

“I still felt good at 75 (pitches) the other day, so I’m not sure that’s necessarily that important,” Pettitte said. “I would love to get to 100 pitches or get more because that means I’m deep in the game.”

Of course, Pettitte said those words on Tuesday afternoon, before he knew his start was being pushed to tonight, and before news broke of his stiff back. There is a lot at stake tonight in Boston: The Yankees fighting to regain first place, Pettitte is trying to shake off any lingering rust and the Yankees need everyone — Pettitte especially — to finish the day healthy as could be.

“If I had been absolutely horrible in the first start against Baltimore, then bad again in my last one, in the back of my mind, maybe I’d have a little doubt,” Pettitte said. “It’s about executing my pitches and getting them where they need to be. If I don’t, I’ll get hit.”

Can’t say it any more simply than that.

Associated Press photo