The LoHud Yankees Blog

Apparently our server slowed down significantly last night, so let’s try a new post before the regular game post gets close to 1,000 comments.

This seems like a good time to make the call as the Yankees are turning the seventh inning over to the bullpen. Kerry Wood is replacing CC Sabathia with a 6-2 lead. Best-case scenario: Wood gets a few outs, Mariano Rivera wraps it up and the Yankees board a flight to Texas.

UPDATE, 7:05 p.m.: Like Sam just said, I’m not sure why anyone even takes a lead when Josh Hamilton is at the plate, but Wood caught Andrus off the bag at second then got Hamilton swinging. Huge addition to the bullpen, huge outs in this game and it’s 6-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh.

UPDATE, 7:35 p.m.: Curtis Granderson’s first home run of this postseason has pushed the Yankees lead to 7-2 in the eighth. Most of the crowd has stuck around for this one, and Mariano Rivera is — obviously — getting loose in the bullpen.

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

LHP CC Sabathia (1-0, 7.20)
Sabathia vs. Rangers

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

LHP C.J. Wilson (1-0, 2.03)
Wilson vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 4:07 p.m. ET / TBS

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

WEATHER: Temperatures in the low 60s, dipping into the 50s. It’s cloudy with a some wind blowing out to left field.

ONE AWAY: If the Rangers win tonight, they will advance to the World Series for the first time in franchise history. This is the 50th season of that franchise (the Senators debuted in 1961 and moved to Texas in 1972). No franchise has taken longer to advance to its first World Series.

AVOID THREE STRAIGHT:  The Yankees have lost three consecutive home games in a postseason series since the 1942 World Series against St. Louis. The Yankees have never lost an ALCS Game 5 at home. The Rangers have played in only once Game 5 — in any round — in franchise history. That was the division series clincher against the Rays.

TWO FOR THREE: Robinson Cano and Josh Hamilton have each hit at least three homers in this series. It’s the fourth time two different players have hit three home runs in the same ALCS. The Yankees have been involved in three of the four: In 1996, Darryl Strawberry and the Orioles Todd Zeile hit three homers apiece. In 2003, Jason Giambi and the Red Sox Trot Nixon had three homers. In 2008, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, Dustin Pedroia and Carlos Pena all have three home runs.

BIRTHDAY’S REMEMBERED: Today is the birthday of both Mickey Mantle (1931) and Bob Sheppard (1910).

UPDATE, 3:57 p.m.: Very classy move by the Yankees, a moment of silence for Sheppard on what would have been his 100th birthday. Also, is everyone aware that this is an afternoon game? This place is empty.

UPDATE, 4:04 p.m.: The Yankees said they wanted this game to feel like just another game. Mission accomplished. As Sam just said, this feels like mid-June getaway day against the Blue Jays. What little crowd is here just doesn’t seem into it.

UPDATE, 4:10 p.m.: My bad on the early Rangers lineup. Forgot to update with Treanor instead of Molina.

UPDATE, 4:11 p.m.: If Josh Hamilton goes 4-for-4 with four singles, the Yankees will be OK with that.

UPDATE, 4:45 p.m.: RBI single by Jorge Posada has given the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the second. Wilson has already walked two in this inning.

UPDATE, 4:46 p.m.: Make that 3-0 Yankees on an RBI single by Curtis Granderson and two defensive mistakes by the Rangers. Posada pushed the issue by trying to score on that throw that got past Young, and it became a run when Wilson rushed the throw home.

UPDATE, 5:08 p.m.: The offense is showing some life today, and the now that the stadium has filled, the fans are showing some life as well. It’s 5-0 on back-to-back homers by Swisher and Cano.

UPDATE, 5:25 p.m.: Attention Yankees first basemen: Be careful out there!

UPDATE, 5:55 p.m.: Huge at-bat right there. Hamilton has been a beast, and Sabathia got the double play that ended the inning, not the three-run home run that would have pulled the Rangers within one.

UPDATE, 5:56 p.m.: Nelson Cruz is out of the game. Not sure why.

UPDATE, 5:59 p.m.: Cruz is day-to-day with tightness in his left hamstring.

UPDATE, 6:08 p.m.: Couple of walks, a double and a sac fly. The offense is finally having  a nice game. It’s 6-1 after five innings.

UPDATE, 6:31 p.m.: The old setup outside, throw inside. It’s a trick that doesn’t work very often, but it got the Yankees out of the sixth with only one run scoring. That’s probably it for Sabathia, with Kerry Wood loose in the bullpen. This was kind of a Pettitte start for Sabathia: Plenty of base runners, but also plenty of huge pitches and double plays. He did what he needed to do, and it’s a 6-2 Yankees lead.

Late last night, when Game 4 was over and the Yankees were officially on the brink, Joe Girardi addressed the team in the Yankees clubhouse. “Whatever happened there, I will never tell you,” Mariano Rivera said. Without getting into detail, Rivera said the tone of Girardi’s message was simple.

“Win today, period,” Rivera said. “Just win today and don’t think about tomorrow. Just have to win today, and the rest, we take care of the rest (later).”

Girardi doesn’t like to say much about what goes on behind the closed doors of the Yankees clubhouse. It was Rivera who revealed last night’s pep talk. Girardi never mentioned it.

As he sat in his office talking to the beat writers at noon, Girardi seemed the same as always. He was loose. He said he didn’t spend much time second guessing himself. “Sometimes your plan doesn’t work,” Girardi said. It’s the way he deals with games like last night. It’s the way the Yankees deal with games like today.

“Looking into their eyes, I believe our guys will be ready to play today,” Girardi said. “… Our clubhouse is upbeat. It’s always upbeat, and that comes with experience and understanding what you have to do. In a situation or tough games, you have to be yourself. Our guys love to have fun and they love to play hard and they love the competition, and they are business as usual.”

That said, there’s no sense pretending that there’s not a little bit of surprise at being in this situation.

“I would not have anticipated being down three games to one,” Girardi said. “I would not have anticipated that, especially after the first game when we came back and won that game and felt like we had some momentum. They’ve out hit us and they’ve out pitched us, and that’s why they’re ahead 3-1.

“But saying that, we’ve got our horse on the mound today, who’s been there for us all year long. When things were down, he was the one constant for us.”

The Yankees need him today.

• The last time the Yankees trailed a seven-game series 3-1 was 1958, when they came back with three straight wins — two of them on the road — to win the World Series. The only other time they’ve trailed 3-1 was 1942, when they lost in five games.

• Girardi said the Yankees called up Eduardo Nunez instead of Juan Miranda partially because of Nunez’s flexibility and speed. Also Nunez was the one actually staying sharp in Tampa. Fact is, even against right-handed hitters, I doubt Miranda would get a start ahead of Marcus Thames and certainly not ahead of Lance Berkman.

• Girardi said, at the time, he did not think last night’s eighth-inning pitch hit Nick Swisher. “No I didn’t,” Girardi said. “I guess it grazed his pants. Swish didn’t really make a huge stink out of it, and you go by the reaction because I definitely can’t see it.”

• Josh Hamilton has crushed the Yankees this season, a combination of his talent and the Yankees mistakes. “That’s execution,” Girardi said. “I can’t tell you what he would have done if we had kept all the balls down and away, but we’ve made some mistakes on him.”

• Girardi said he was not caught up in the moment when he stuck with A.J. Burnett last night. “I’m able to take the emotion out of it,” Girardi said. “That has never been something for me, that I really get wrapped up in emotions or the emotions of the crowd. That was not it. I just felt A.J. was going to get Molina out.”

• Girardi does not expect to use Phil Hughes out of the bullpen tonight, but if he does, Girardi said it’s still possible Hughes would start Game 6 in Texas. If Hughes pitches tonight, Girardi said he would expect either Hughes or Andy Pettitte to get that Game 6 start, depending on how many pitches Hughes throws.

• Rivera said he’s ready for as many outs as necessary: “Hopefully I can do whatever they ask me to do, God willing.”

Associated Press photos of Rodriguez coming out of the dugouts, and Cano and Jeter talking during batting practice

Facing elimination, Joe Girardi said he’s prepared to manage today’s game much differently than any game we’ve seen this season. He might have a quick hook if he sees CC Sabathia heading toward a repeat of Game 1, and he’s willing to go with Mariano Rivera and Kerry Wood in earlier innings — and for more innings — than usual.

“I don’t think you can hesitate to make a move,” Girardi said. “If you have to use Woody and Mo somewhat unconventionally today, you’ve got to do it.”

Girardi went so far as to say Phil Hughes is available out of the bullpen today. That’s more of a last resort, obviously, but Hughes threw a bullpen yesterday and could give the Yankees an inning out of the pen. The only pitchers not available are A.J. Burnett, who pitched last night, and Andy Pettitte, who Girardi doesn’t want to use because of his pitch count on Monday.

The Yankees had no choice but to go with an unconventional lineup. Without Mark Teixeira — Eduardo Nunez has arrived, by the way — the Yankees went with Lance Berkman at first base, even against a left-handed starter. Girardi said he only briefly considered starting Nick Swisher at first base, putting Austin Kearns in right field and leaving Berkman on the bench.

“Swish hasn’t played a lot of first,” Girardi said. “Berk is used to playing first. You’re talking about taking a guy and putting him out of position… I know (Berkman) hasn’t swung the bat necessarily off lefties this year, but look at his at-bat last night. He hit a bullet.”

When Teixeira missed two games against the Rangers earlier this season, Girardi went with Marcus Thames in the No. 3 spot and left Robinson Cano at No. 5. Girardi said he never really considered doing the same this time. This is not simply a brief lineup disruption like it was while Teixeira’s wife was having a baby. This is the new lineup.

“Robbie, no matter where we’ve hit him, he’s hit,” Girardi said. “He’s produced, (and) we can get Robbie more at-bats this way.”

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

1:00 p.m. Gates open to the public

1:30-2:30 p.m. Yankees batting practice

2:30-3:20 p.m. Rangers batting practice

3:53 p.m. Presentation of Colors: Navy Operation Support Center New York City

3:54 p.m. National Anthem: Kelli O’Hara

3:58 p.m. Ceremonial first pitch: Aaron Boone and Bucky Dent

4:02 p.m. Umpires and Managers to home plate

4:05 p.m. Yankees take the field

4:07 p.m. First pitch

* Michael Minarik will perform God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch.

There are two MVP candidates in this American League Championship Series.

Robinson Cano: .467 with three home runs and four RBI
Josh Hamilton: .333 with four home runs and seven RBI

The difference in this series has been basically everyone else.

“They’ve played better than us,” Derek Jeter said. “They’ve pitched better. They’ve hit better. When you have that combination, you find yourself behind. But at this point, we’re going to come in tomorrow — or later today — and try to win a game.”

It’s not a surprise the Yankees are in this spot. This series has been a perfect storm of the Yankees not playing well and the Rangers playing incredibly, almost perfectly, well. They’ve hit throughout the lineup, and aside from one bad inning in the opener, the pitching staff has been outstanding.

The Yankees on the other hand…

Aside from Cano, the Yankees have only three hitters with better than a .200 average this series. One of those is Lance Berkman, who’s played in two games. Alex Rodriguez is the only non-Cano Yankee with more than one RBI. Mark Teixeira was 0-for-14 before his hamstring blew up. That’s to say nothing of a pitching staff with four pitchers carrying an ERA above 10.00.

The Yankees played very well – as a complete roster – in the division series. Through four games of the ALCS, it’s been the total opposite. That’s what put them in this position, needing three straight wins to stay alive.

“We don’t look at it that way,” Jeter said. “The only way you can look at is you have to win a game. You can’t worry about winning three games. You have to worry about winning one.”

From the moment Mark Teixeira went down, everything about this game took a turn for the worse for the Yankees. That fifth inning had started with a one-run lead. A.J. Burnett looked pretty good, the Yankees had scored in each of the past three innings, and Teixeira came to the plate with two on and no outs. He hit a ground ball to the left side, and that’s when the night unraveled.

Teixeira’s hamstring
The Yankees first baseman is finished until next year. The MRI showed a Grade 2 strain. “In this case, doctors said it’s probably six to eight weeks,” Teixeira said. “The season is only going to be hopefully two weeks longer, so it’s not good.”

It’s obviously what Teixeira was trying to do. He’d nearly hit into a double play, and he was trying to avoid that, give himself some chance of rebounding from brutal first three games of this series.

In so many ways, the Teixeira injury was the beginning of the end for the Yankees. Maybe it was more symbolic than anything, but from moment Teixeira went down trying to beat out that double play ball, the Yankees night just kept getting worse. “I didn’t hear a pop,” he said. “But I definitely felt it. I knew. I knew right away it wasn’t good.”

It was a bad moment in every way possible. That at-bat started with a double play being the worst-case scenario. It became even worse than that. Ever since that eight-inning rally in Game 1, the Yankees at 3-for-33 with runners in scoring position.

Molina’s home run 
One half inning after Teixeira went down, Molina went deep. It was a first pitch fastball from Burnett. “All night I stayed away from the righties and I missed away,” Burnett said. “That’s the only one I leaked over.”

To that point, Burnett had been pitching pretty well. The Rangers didn’t have an extra-base hit against him, and their only runs had scored in an inning in which they never got the ball out of the infield. “We liked the way A.J. was throwing the ball,” Joe Girardi said. “… He was throwing hte ball good and we decided to leave him in.”

Burnett said he was surprised to get the call from the dugout to intentionally walk David Murphy. Then again, “If I make that pitch to Molina then you don’t have to ask that question,” he said. Girardi said he liked the matchup of Burnett against Molina more than Burnett against Murphy, who has hit right-handers pretty well this season and had a home run off Phil Hughes in Game 2. “We liked the matchup, A.J. against Molina,” Girardi said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”

The bullpen’s implosion
The game actually got worse from there. Dave Robertson was the worst of the Yankees relievers in Game 3. Tonight he was the only one who gave the team a chance.

All told, Boone Logan, Joba Chamberlain and Sergio Mitre combined for five earned runs in 2.1 innings. Girardi said he didn’t want to use Mariano Rivera because he wanted to have him for multiple innings in Game 5. “If we didn’t score, we talked about tomorrow might be a day to use Mo for six outs,” Girardi said.

Josh Hamilton hit his third and fourth home runs of this series. He’s now homered off of ever left-handed pitcher on the Yankees roster, plus he took Mitre deep just for kicks. Nelson Cruz also went deep off Mitre. The Rangers were 3-for-6 with runners in scoring position tonight. The Yankees were 2-for-13, and stranded the bases loaded in the eighth.

“We just have not been able to get the big hit,” Girardi said. Texas has gotten plenty of them. The Yankees have gotten enough to win one game.

• Girardi didn’t say so, but Berkman said he’s expecting to play first base tomorrow. The Yankees are also expected to activate Eduardo Nunez.

• Just like Andy Pettitte on Monday, Burnett was undone by one bad pitch. “He did a good job,” Derek Jeter said. “You couldn’t ask for him to do much better. We had our opportunities to score some more runs.”

• Brett Gardner said there was “no doubt” he would have caught that ball knocked away by a fan in the stands. Given the situation, that would have been a massive turning point had Hamilton done anything other than make an out.

• The Yankees will turn to their ace to try to keep them alive in Game 5. “We have a very good starter on the mound tomorrow,” Girardi said. “CC has been there for us all year long. He’s been there for us the last two years, and I expect CC to be tough tomorrow.”

• Umpire Jim Reynolds on the Cano home run: “From the angle I had, I was very confident that the ball was in the stands.” Reynolds said Ron Washington did not ask for a review.

• Gerry Davis on the possible HBP on Swisher: “We looked at it. Obviously in Angel’s judgment the ball had not hit him, and we looked at the replay, and even from different angles, it’s inconclusive.”

• ESPN New York is reporting that the fan who ran onto the field last night was trying to attack Alex Rodriguez. But that’s only the beginning of the madness. The whole thing apparently had something to do with Cameron Diaz.

• The Captain gets the final word again. He always talks about keeping things simple, and this is pretty simple. “At this point they’ve been a lot better than us,” Jeter said. “… We have to win a game. We can’t worry about winning three. Three doesn’t mean anything unless you win one.”

Associated Press photos of Teixeira, Burnett, Chamberlain and Gardner

Mark Teixeira is out, probably the rest of the way.

“Barring some miracle, he won’t be with us tomorrow,” Joe Girardi said.

If the MRI doesn’t show something surprisingly good in Teixeira’s hamstring, the Yankees will activate Eduardo Nunez. If Teixeira is taken off the roster, he can not be added next round.

At the exact mid-point of this game, the Yankees were in good shape. A.J. Burnett had not been hit hard and the Yankees had a one-run lead, but it’s amazing how quickly that changed. In the end, the Yankees were on the verge of elimination after a 10-3 loss in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series. Every game is now a must-win, with the Yankees needing to sweep three straight to stay alive.

Associated Press photo of Burnett