The LoHud Yankees Blog

Primarily wanted to remind everyone that we have a chat starting at noon.

Also, I talked to Brian Cashman about 30 minutes ago. Pedro Feliciano is getting his second opinion from Dr. Andrews today, but that visit hasn’t happened yet and the Yankees aren’t sure they’ll know anything for certain until tomorrow. Even if Andrews makes his recommendation today, Feliciano might wait a day to make a final decision about whether to have surgery.

It seems every time you want to believe Joba Chamberlain has turned a corner and is close to being his old self in relief for the Yankees, he stumbles.

Chamberlain was clocked on one gun at 98 this past Thursday against Baltimore when he went 1 2/3, allowing no hits and no walks while fanning two. Then Saturday against Texas, he threw a scoreless inning with two more Ks.

Then came Sunday night’s seventh. CC Sabathia fanned the first batter and then departed with his 5-4 lead. Chamberlain came in and immediately walked Ian Kinsler. With two outs, Michael Young tagged him for the tying ground-rule double to right-center.

So Chamberlain is 1-0 with a 4.00 ERA over nine appearances and nine innings. He has been charged with five runs, four of them earned, and seven hits while striking out nine, walking three and hitting one. He has been charged with at least one run in four of his outings.

Still, before the Yankees’ 6-5 win Sunday night, Joe Girardi spoke about his seventh-inning guy’s improved velocity and stuff.

“I do think he’s throwing a little bit harder than he did last year out of the bullpen,” Girardi said. “I think his slider is much more consistent. It has more depth. He’s able to throw it for strikes, and I think that’s made a big difference as well. I also see a much better downhill plane from Joba. His mechanics seem to be a little bit more sound, and I think he has less question about them in a sense. And you’re seeing him make more quality pitches.”

After this 6-5 victory over the Rangers, Joe Girardi said that Alex Rodriguez had undergone an MRI on his sore oblique/lower back, and that it came back “clean.” So the Yankees will see how he’s feeling on Tuesday in Toronto.

His stand-in, Eric Chavez, didn’t do so bad in A-Rod’s place. He went 2 for 4 with the game-winning single in the eighth. So that means he’s batting .455, at 7 for 15. In his three starts, he’s 6 for 12. Chavez said he likes being complementary player as opposed to the focal point like he was in Oakland. He’s fine with the sporadic time, too.

“When I made the decision to come here, I knew what it was going to be,” Chavez said. “Obviously Alex is going to play a ton of games. When I get in there, I’ve got to be ready to play.”

CC Sabathia is still 0 for the season, 0-1 with three no-decisions despite a 2.52 ERA. He didn’t sound disappointed. 

“This is a team game,” Sabathia said. “Our ultimate goal is to get to the World Series. These are the steps we need to take.”

Soriano bounced back with a one-hit eighth after experiencing a two-run eighth on Saturday. You have to wonder how he’s going to do if the Yankees get deep into October because he said after this one: “I think it helped that it was a little warmer today.” Soriano told Girardi that he won’t see peak velocity from him this month.

The Yankees continue to turn on the power. After three more homers, they now have 27 in the 9-5 start, a franchise record for the first 14 games. They scored 10 of their 14 runs in the three games vs. Texas via homers. They have scored 48 of their 77 runs for the season on homers. That’s 62.3 percent. Yet they still won this game on a single.

Derek Jeter had a single in four at-bats, so he’s 61 hits from 3,000. The Captain’s average is just .241, though.

Russell Martin hit his fourth homer. He had five in his injury-shortened 2010 season with the Dodgers, when he played in just 97 games.

Nick Swisher went 1 for 4 and is batting .526 from the right side, at 10 for 19.

Robinson Cano stretched his hitting streak to nine games with his second homer in two games. He’s batting .351 with five doubles, three homers and nine RBI during the streak.

Phil Hughes began his long-toss program. Larry Rothschild told Girardi it went well. Girardi was told Hughes “had some life on the ball.”

The Yankees took two of three from Texas. Doesn’t really make up for last October, does it? But that’s old news. The Yankees finished the homestand at 4-1. They have won four of their five series so far.

April 17

Yankees lineup

1. Derek Jeter SS

2. Curtis Granderson CF

3. Mark Teixeira 1B

4. Robinson Cano 2B

5. Steve Swisher RF

6. Eric Chavez 3B

7. Jorge Posada DH

8. Russell Martin C

9. Brett Gardner LF

CC Sabathia P

Rangers lineup

1. Ian Kinsler 2B

2. Elvis Andrus SS

3. Michael Young DH

4. Adrian Beltre 3B

5. Nelson Cruz RF

6. Mike Napoli 1B

7. David Murphy LF

8. Yorvit Torrealba C

9. Julio Borbon CF

Alexi Ogando P

Time/TV: 8:05, ESPN

Umpires: Fieldin Culbreath HP, Adrian Johnson 1B, Gary Cederstrom 2B, Lance Barksdale 3B

Weather: 57 degrees, mostly cloudy

Happy anniversary: Today’s the 60th anniversary of Mickey Mantle’s first big-league game and Bob Sheppard’s first game as the Yankees’ PA announcer.

Pen authoring good relief: The Yankees’ bullpen has a 1.96 ERA over the last six games.

Cano heating up: Robby Cano comes in with a team-season-best eight-game hitting streak, batting .364 with five doubles, two homers and eight RBI over this stretch.

Oh Ogando: Alexi Ogando is the only pitcher since they started playing with a “live ball” in 1920 to win his first two starts in a season while going at least six innings, giving up two hits or less and yielding no runs.

Update, 8:04: We talked to Alex Rodriguez just before the clubhouse closed. Here’s his quote on whether there’s a possibility of a DL stint after hurting his lower back/oblique and coming out after six yesterday: “I hope not. I’d like to think I pulled myself out hopefully with perfect timing. I felt that if I went out there and took a violent swing, I could have put myself at risk for a couple of weeks.”

Update, 8:17: Not a good beginning for Sabathia. Two-run homer to the left-field seats for Adrian Beltre in the first.

Update, 8:21: Looking forward to seeing Ogando after his great start to the season. It’s first season in the rotation for the Rangers after working in relief when he came up last year.

Update, 8:25: 1-2-3 first for Ogando.

Update, 8:38: Nine-game hitting streak now for Cano, with his fourth homer landing in the right-field seats — 2-1 in the second.

Update, 8:46: You can see Eric Chavez still has that Gold Glove touch at third. Nice pick to start the double play here in the third.

Update, 8:54: Brett Gardner talked pregame about possibly tweaking his patient approach since he has been falling behind in counts. So he just grounded that 1-0 pitch into a 6-6-3 double play after Russell Martin got hit to start the third.

Update, 9:03: Beltre is doing some damage. That RBI single make it 3-1 in the fourth. Also, it has started to rain. There was a sharp bolt of lightning across the sky, plus thunder.

Update, 9:14: The rain has lightened. Ogando has not. He has a one-hitter through four, up 3-1.

Update, 9:21: Nice work by Sabathia to get out of a first-and-second, one-out problem after his bad throw to first.

Update, 9:29: A base hit sighting. Two hits now for the Yankees after that one-out single by Chavez in the fifth. But Nelson Cruz just robbed Posada with a diving catch in right.

Update, 9:32: Two-run homer for Russell Martin – 3-3. Had a 1-on-1 chat with him pregame for an upcoming story about him trying to reestablish himself. He’s doing a good job so far. That was homer No. 4. That also gives the Yankees a franchise-record 26 homers through 14 games.

Update, 9:38: Sabathia can’t handle Beltre. RBI double, 4-3, Texas, in the sixth. The $96 million man is 3 for 3 with all four RBI.

Update, 9:49: Sabathia gets out of the inning. That could be it for him. He’s above 100 pitches. We’ll see. David Robertson had been warming up.

Update, 9:56: It’s a good thing for the Yankees they have this kind of power. The long ball is carrying them again.  Curtis Granderson two-run shot, 5-4 Yankees.

Update, 10:04: Sabathia is still in for the seventh. But Joba is warming. Sabathia is at 112 pitches with one out. And now he’s done. Joba is in.

Update, 10:12: Close play at first. Russell Martin threw out Elvis Andrus. First-base coach Gary Pettis has been ejected by Adrian Johnson for arguing the call. Runner on second, two outs.

Update, 10:14: CC now winless in four starts. Joba blows the lead. Michael Young’s ground-rule double to right-center ties it at 5-5.

Update, 10:21: It’s raining again here in the last of the seventh.

Update, 10:27: Ogando is done. Arthur Rhodes is in, first and second, one out.

Update, 10:34: Rafael Soriano is on for the eighth. We’ll see if he can bounce back from yesterday, and pitch well when it’s below 60 degrees.

Update, 10:41: One single and three outs for Soriano – 5-5, last of the eighth.

Update, 10:55: Chavez comes through, two-out RBI single, and it’s 6-5.

Update, 10:57: Bases loaded. Pedro Strop is coming in to pitch to Martin.

Update, 11:03: Strop did his job. Now Mariano for the ninth.

Update, 11:13: Yankees win, 6-5.

Brian Heyman here at Yankee Stadium for this series finale against the Rangers. As you could see in the previous post, Alex Rodriguez is not in the lineup. The oblique/lower back problem that forced him out of Saturday’s game is still not right. Girardi talked to him and A-Rod said he was sore.

“We’ll take it day by day,” said Girardi, who didn’t totally rule out having him for one at-bat tonight if he feels able. “We’ll shoot for Tuesday. If he can’t go Tuesday, we’ll shoot for Wednesday.”

Also, did you see who isn’t leading off against a righty starter? Derek Jeter is batting first against Alexi Ogando and Brett Gardner is hitting ninth. The leadoff platoon may be off for a bit. Gardner is off to a dreadful .146 start.

“If we get him going, we can move him back up if we want,” Girardi said.

Girardi said the Yankees were close to sending Phil Hughes down to AAA.

“But after talking everything out, we realized there’s something going on here. Let’s be smart here,” Girardi said.

So Hughes went on the DL. He’s supposed to start a long-toss program today to try to build arm strength. While Hughes has said he feels fine physically, Girardi also revealed that the 24-year-old righty has been put on anti-inflammatories.

“I think you can look at every pitcher’s arm and probably see some inflammation,” Girardi said.

The Yankees have named their starters for the two games in Toronto. A.J. Burnett gets Tuesday night and Bartolo Colon takes the Wednesday night start. There’s an off day on Thursday, the second of the week. Girardi said they were undecided on the rotation for the weekend series in Baltimore.

1. Jeter SS
2. Granderson CF
3. Teixeira 1B
4. Cano 2B
5. Swisher RF
6. Chavez 3B
7. Posada DH
8. Martin C
9. Gardner LF
Sabathia P

Monday’s an off day. Might as well do a chat.

I’ll be chatting here on the blog at noon tomorrow. Stop by and jump into the conversation. I’m sure we’ll touch on the Phil Hughes “injury,” the uneven production from the lineup and anything else that might come up.

Chat. Tomorrow. Noon. Be there.

For now, one note out of Scranton: Mark Prior has been called up from Tampa to take Lance Pendleton’s spot in the Triple-A bullpen.

From an ESPN press release:

ESPN’s Baseball Tonight will be on site – from the rooftop of a parking garage adjacent to Yankee Stadium – for Sunday Night Baseball, when the New York Yankees host the Texas Rangers on April 17 at 8 p.m. ET.

Baseball Tonight, with host Karl Ravech and analysts John Kruk and Barry Larkin, along with Sunday Night Baseball analysts Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine and reporters Wendi Nix and Buster Olney, will preview the game at 7 p.m. Dan Shulman calls Sunday Night games with analysts Hershiser and Valentine and reporters Nix and Olney. Sunday Night Baseball is also available on ESPN Radio (Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton), ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com and ESPN Mobile TV.

I know it’s been the better part of four years since Bob Sheppard called games on the PA at Yankee Stadium, but I still think about Sheppard every time I cover a home game. His voice was such a part of the experience at the old Stadium that it’s just impossible not to remember, at least once a day when I get here, how he’d say, “Good evening … ladies and gentlemen” before beginning to announce the lineups. His voice was just magic.

Anyway, I mention this because today is the 60th anniversary of the very first game Sheppard worked. On April 17, 1951, Sheppard began a career that included 121 consecutive postseason games including 62 games in 22 World Series from 1951-2006. Sheppard’s first game, by the way, was also the major league debut for an outfielder named Mickey Mantle. He turned out OK too.

Of course, Mr. Sheppard passed away last summer and, it should be said, his replacement, Paul Olden, does do an excellent job. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t still missed. Especially today.

Happy Anniversary, Mr. Sheppard. RIP.