The LoHud Yankees Blog

YANKEES (5-3)
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Curtis Granderson CF
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Eric Chavez 3B
Russell Martin C

LHP CC Sabathia (0-0, 1.38)
Sabathia vs. Red Sox

RED SOX (1-7)
Carl Crawford LF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
David Ortiz DH
Mike Cameron CF
J.D. Drew RF
Jason Varitek C
Marco Scutaro SS

RHP Josh Beckett (0-1, 5.40)
Beckett vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 8:05 p.m., ESPN

WEATHER: It was a terrific day here in Boston, but there’s a chance of rain tonight, and that chance seems to get greater and greater as we get later and later. For now the sky is clear and the wind is blowing from right to left.

UMPIRES: HP Mike Winters, 1B Mike Everitt, 2B Mark Wegner, 3B Chris Guccione

CLEANING UP: One more note about how good Robinson Cano has been at Fenway: He’s hit safely in his past seven games in this ball park, good for a .500 batting average with five doubles, two home runs and seven RBI. He also has a hit in 14 of his past 15 games in Boston.

GOING DEEP: The Yankees lead the majors with 18 home runs this season. They have gone deep in seven of eight games, including at least two home runs in six games.

TWO AWAY: Derek Jeter needs two hits to tie Barry Bonds for 32nd place on baseball’s all-time hits list.

THE BIG MAN AND THE LITTLE MAN: Dustin Pedroia has been a force this series, but he’s 1-for-22 in his career against CC Sabathia. He has two walks and eight strikeouts against the Yankees ace.

UPDATE, 8:39 p.m.: CC Sabathia wiggled out of trouble in the first inning, and now he’s back out for the second with the game still scoreless. The Yankees haven’t had a runner on base again Josh Beckett, but Robinson Cano did fly out to deep right field and Curtis Granderson did hit a deep near-homer that went just foul to left.

UPDATE, 8:57 p.m.: Girardi said before the game that there have seemed to be multiple Pedroia’s on the field — he’s been that good — and now Pedroia has turned a terrific double play to get the Red Sox out of third-inning trouble.

UPDATE, 9:08 p.m.: Official ruling on the Ortiz double play: Youkilis is called for running out of the base path. That’s a dead ball — which is why the runner didn’t advance — and an automatic double play. Didn’t matter much when Mike Cameron drove in the run on an infield single, but still, something I’d never seen (and neither had a lot of other people who’ve seen a lot more games than me). Weird play.

UPDATE, 9:38 p.m.: Yankees haven’t done much against Beckett. He’s through five scoreless and its still a 1-0 Red Sox lead. The Yankees have two hits off him and Beckett got out of scoring-position trouble in the third and fourth.

UPDATE, 10:04 p.m.: Boone Logan and Joba Chamberlain are getting loose in the bullpen. Of course, the pitching hasn’t been the Yankees biggest problem tonight.

UPDATE, 10:42 p.m.: Big out from Chamberlain in the sixth inning, then he gives up two huge runs in the seventh. Good work by Boone Logan to keep the score at 3-0, but the way the Yankees are hitting tonight, three runs seems like a huge mountain to climb.

First the immediate news: Alex Rodriguez has been scratched from today’s lineup. He’s sick. Robinson Cano is moving into the cleanup spot and Eric Chavez is taking over at third base. Now for the regular notes.

After looking at video from last season, Phil Hughes believes he and Larry Rothschild have found a minor mechanical issue that might be contributing to his early season struggles. Actually, Hughes said it’s more mental than mechanical, but the bottom line is that he’s trying to get his lower half more involved. He believes he was more “deliberate” in his delivery last season.

“Even though I’m fairly confident it’s more of an arm-strength issue, I’m still trying to clean some things up in my delivery and hopefully get things back on track,” he said. “… Looking back at last year I noticed that my delivery was a lot more deliberate. It wasn’t so easy through my motion. I was — I wouldn’t say drop and drive — but pretty aggressive through my delivery to the plate. Hopefully that’s something that can get a little bit better. I’m also hoping the arm strength comes along as well.”

Hughes took that approach into his bullpen this afternoon. He said he couldn’t feel a difference, but he could see a difference. He’s was a little more aggressive than usual in today’s bullpen, and he’s done some more long toss to try to build up arm strength (he guessed he was at about 200 feet today). In the past he’s done two sides between starts, but this time he might do just one plus a flat-ground session. He’s been so aggressive in his side work, he doesn’t want to overdo it.

Is there danger in making a mechanical change when he doesn’t believe it’s a mechanical issue?

“There is,” Hughes said. “But it’s nothing huge or major, just using my lower half a little more.”

• The Yankees rotation is staying on turn for the upcoming series against Baltimore. A.J. Burnett starts Tuesday, Hughes on Wednesday and Ivan Nova on Thursday.

• Freddy Garcia is scheduled to start Friday’s series opener vs. Texas.

• Joe Girardi on not having Chavez in the lineup (before the lineup change, obviously): “You can get caught up in trying to play the hot hand sometimes,” he said. “You can do that. He had a good day yesterday, and I’m extremely proud that he hadn’t played in a while (and still played well), but we’ve said all along that our plan is for Jorge to be our DH. I gave Jorge a day off and then I got him back in there.”

• One other thing to keep in mind, Girardi said he doesn’t want to sit Posada too often right now while he’s adjusting to the designated hitter role. The fact there are a lot of early games at Yankee Stadium — where there’s an accessible cage and Posada’s healthy — could help with the adjustment, Girardi said.

• Girardi guessed that Russell Martin could play 120-130 games this season. “For a guy as strong as he is and his age, I don’t think that’s too much to ask,” he said.

• After his massive first few games, Mark Teixeira’s production has fallen off in recent days. “Just missing balls a little bit, that’s all,” Girardi said. “I think he’s put some pretty good swings on it.”

• Speaking of guys who aren’t necessarily hitting right now, Girardi spent quite a bit of time talking about Derek Jeter this afternoon. I’m sure I’ll get further into it tonight or tomorrow, but the general idea was this: “He’s the fifth leading hitter of our everyday hitters, so we have other guys we need to get going as well,” Girardi said. “To me it’s too early to talk about it every day.”

YANKEES
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Curtis Granderson CF
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Eric Chavez 3B
Russell Martin C

RED SOX
Carl Crawford LF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
David Ortiz DH
Mike Cameron CF
J.D. Drew RF
Jason Varitek C
Marco Scutaro SS

Associated Press photos

After two days of hits and homers, could there be a pitching duel tonight? CC Sabathia and Josh Beckett are the starters as the Yankees play the rubber game of their first series with the Red Sox. Stop by at 6:30 p.m. for a live chat to talk about what we’ve seen and what might happen as the greatest rivalry in sports is played in prime time.

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

Everyone has talked about Derek Jeter’s batting stride. Players have talked about it. Coaches have talked about it. Reporters have talked about it. Fans have talked about it. At this point, you’d have to think there hasn’t been a more scrutinized step since Neil Armstrong.

But Jeter is done talking about it. After going 1-for-4 on Saturday, Jeter was asked again about his revamped-but-then-not-so-revamped stride that he takes before each pitch.

“I ain’t talking about it anymore,” Jeter said. “I’m good. People made so much about it. I’m fine.”

It should be said that Jeter was as polite and courteous as he always is with the media; he just wanted to everyone know he’s finished with this particular subject. His reasoning? There isn’t much left to say.

“”What am I doing?” Jeter said. “I’m not doing anything different really. I’ve talked about it enough, to be quite honest with you. I’m not thinking about it, I’m just hitting so I feel pretty good.”

Chad and I, on the other hand, are not bound by this new omerta and so I can assure you that we’ll probably talk about Jeter’s stride (and hitting) plenty more this season, including tonight when I host another LoHud Live Chat! (how about that segue???)

Come on by as you get ready for tonight’s series-finale. I’ll be starting up the chat at 6:30 p.m. and taking your questions for a half hour or so … including any and all on Derek Jeter.

As part of the ongoing 20 Greatest Games series, tonight MLB Network will feature Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. If you’ve somehow forgotten, that’s the Aaron Boone walk-off against the Red Sox.

I wasn’t covering the Yankees at the time, but I do have vivid memories of that game. I’d moved from Missouri to Pennsylvania only a few months earlier, and this was my first experience watching the baseball playoffs surrounded by Yankees fans. The newsroom at the Scranton newspaper had plenty of Phillies fans and a handful of Mets fans, but I’d say there were more Yankees fans than anything else.

During those late innings, when the diehards were teetering on the edge of insanity with every pitch, I ducked into an editor’s office with my friend Randy so we could enjoy some of the game without that unbelievable tension. When Boone went deep, there was a moment of shouting before everyone went quickly to work getting the story into the paper.

“A heavyweight fight of two great teams in the heat of this rivalry,” Boone said according to a release from the Network. “Just an epic game of so many heroes, so many sub-plots, the drama that led up to this game to end this way I thought was pretty cool.”

Check it out on MLB Network tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET. Boone, Pedro Martinez and Bernie Williams will join series hosts Bob Costas and Tom Verducci to talk about the game.

Ivan Nova very nearly did it again yesterday. He very nearly walked that fine line all the way to a quality start.

Nova had also flirted with danger in his first start of the season, but against Minnesota he managed to get outs when he needed them. Yesterday in Boston, Nova put the leadoff man on base four times, and he had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs five times. He limited the damage for a while, but after the Yankees failed to turn an inning-ending double play, Nova’s thin ice finally broke in the fourth inning, and the bullpen had to bail him out of the fifth.

“From the first inning, I tried to throw strikes, but I can’t,” Nova said. “It’s hard when you don’t throw strikes with your fastball, then you have to throw other pitches, but especially me, I focus a lot on my fastball and when I don’t have command of my fastball it’s a little hard to get the job done.”

When Nova is at his best, he’s locating that fastball consistently down in the zone. He has a solid breaking ball and changeup, but it’s the fastball that helps him generate a lot of ground balls and create easy outs. He’s shown he can do it, he just hasn’t done it consistently.

“I thought he struggled a little bit locating on the first-base side of the plate,” Girardi  said. “I thought that’s what got him into trouble in a couple of those innings.”

Maybe it was that specific. Maybe Nova was having trouble in one spot and that cost him. Whatever the root cause, the result was a lot of base runners. Nova has shown he can get out of trouble, but it’s hard to escape that danger time after time after time. That’s especially true when the leadoff man is getting on base over and over and over again.

“That kind of was a problem I had today,” Nova said. “In every inning the leadoff gets on base, and most of the time when the leadoff guy gets on base, it’s a run. I think that’s something we’ve got to start working on.”

Associated Press photo

Sitting behind his desk in the visiting manager’s office this afternoon, Joe Girardi said he had no idea the Yankees had finalized a deal Carlos Silva until he was asked about it by a swarm of reporters.

“That’s the first I heard of it,” he said. “Maybe that’s what my text message says.”

It’s easy to dismiss Silva given how poorly he pitched in Seattle and the fact the Cubs decided to cut him this spring, but Silva actually had a 3.45 ERA in the first half last season, and when he went on the disabled list, it was because of a heart condition, not because of an elbow or shoulder injury.

Obviously there’s a good chance that Silva will regress to his Seattle form — or to last year’s second-half form — but for the Yankees it’s a zero-risk situation. They’re not on the hook for that obscene contract.

“He’s had a little time off now,” said pitching coach Larry Rothschild, who coach Silva with the Cubs. “I don’t know what he’s done, but he’s going to pound the strike zone. Early last year before he had the heart problem in Colorado, he was throwing the ball well. He’s got to get himself ready to do that. I’m not sure where he is. I haven’t talked to him. I’ll find that out, but he’s a strike-thrower, and that’s not a bad thing to have.”

In a lot of ways, it seems Russell Martin was brought to New York to be behind the plate, not at the plate.

True, the Yankees knew there was some upside in his bat, but after a series of injuries and two down seasons with the Dodgers, the biggest appeal of Martin was that he could definitely catch. He seemed healthy again, and as long as he stayed that way, he would be a reliable catcher for a team transitioning at the position.

It’s incredibly early, but so far Martin’s been more than that. Today he hit two home runs in a game for the first time since 2007. He’s hitting .321 and has three homers and eight RBI out as the No. 9 hitter.

“I wasn’t really worried about (the bat), I was just wondering when it was going to come back,” Martin said. “So far, so good. It’s a long season, so I’m not getting ahead of my skis by any means. I’m just going to keep going out there, keep playing hard and hopefully keep playing good… I’m not old by any means, so I feel good. I finally feel healthy, strong, and I’m ready to compete.”

For obvious reasons, the Yankees are loving everything about their new catcher. Not only is he hitting, Martin seems to have already gained the trust of the Yankees pitching staff. Joe Girardi has been touting his work ethic since spring training.

At the plate, though, Martin has been a best-case scenario. He showed in his first three years with the Dodgers that he can be a front-line offensive catcher. Martin said that he didn’t feel as strong in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, when those numbers dipped, but he feels strong now and it’s showing.

“I saw him as a very productive player, and I thought he could produce for us,” Girardi said. “I wouldn’t say he was going to hit 30 homers and 120 RBIs, but I thought he could be a productive player in our lineup because he can do so many things.”

Here’s some of Martin talking after the game.

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• The bottom third of the Yankees order combined for six hits, five runs and seven RBI.

• Some first start for Eric Chavez, who doubled in his first two at-bats and later singled. You might expect him to say he wants to be playing every day, but Chavez said being a backup is actually a great role for him right now. “In New York I’m in the batting cage like every three innings, so I’m just going to stay ready like that,” he said.

• According to the Red Sox, Martin is the first Yankees catcher with a multi-homer game at Fenway since Jorge Posada in 2003. This was only the second time in the past 16 seasons that a Yankees catcher other than Posada had two home runs in a game (John Flaherty did it in Baltimore in 2003).

• Curtis Granderon’s home run off lefty Felix Doubront was his second home run off a lefty this season. Last season he didn’t hit his second home run off a left-hander until August 24.

• Robinson Cano on the near double play that would have ended the fifth inning: “I didn’t grab the ball. I never had a grip on the ball so that’s why I didn’t throw it. I didn’t want to throw it into the stands.”

• Speaking of Cano, the guy rakes at Fenway. He went 3-for-5 with a home run today, raising his career average in this park to .367. “I think it’s luck,” Cano said. “It’s a favorite. Whenever you can hit in a ballpark, it’s where you always want to play. But it’s nothing special that I do. I do the same thing.”

• The most obvious problem for Ivan Nova today was that he kept letting the leadoff man reach base. The underlying problem was that his fastball command was off. “If I can’t command my fastball,” he said, “it’s not going to be a good day.”

• No one said much about him postgame, but Joba Chamberlain looked awfully good today. One inning, two strikeouts, seemed to have that big slider working again.

• After Chavez had such a impressive first start, it was natural to wonder when Girardi might try to get Chavez back in the lineup. “Let me enjoy this one for 10 minutes,” Girardi said. “We’ve just been outside for four hours. I’ve got all day to think about what I’m going to do tomorrow. We’ve got a late game. And we’ll be here late too.”

Associated Press photos

In the Yankees bullpen, Dave Robertson is kind of the fourth musketeer. He’s not the closer, he’s not the setup man, and he’s not Joba Chamberlain. That leaves him decidedly hidden in the shadows of bigger names and bolder personalities.

“I like where I’m at,” Robertson said. “I kind of slide under the radar. Just leave me there.”

On his 26th birthday, Robertson got a much deserved win this afternoon in Boston. He faced just five batters, but he retired every one of them, slamming the door shut when the Red Sox seemed to be rallying.

Ivan Nova was showing signs of cracking, then Robertson, Chamberlain and Luis Ayala became a solid wall, stopping Boston’s momentum and letting it shift decidedly in the Yankees favor.

“I thought Robby did,” Joe Girardi said of the momentum shift. “When he came in and he shut them down, then we got a couple of more runs and built our lead back up. Then Joba shuts them down, and we get another run. We kept adding on, which was important.”

Mariano Rivera and Rafael Soriano came into the season with clearly defined eighth- and ninth-inning roles, and Chamberlain has taken over the seventh. Boone Logan is the lefty, Bartolo Colon is the long man and Ayala is handling mop-up duty. That leaves Robertson.

He seems to be a kind of fire extinguisher. He’s the guy who gets ready in the middle of an inning, asked to settle a problem before it becomes a four-alarm disaster. That’s what he did today, stranding two runners in the fifth inning and setting the tone for a shutdown performance from the relievers who followed.

“It seems like that’s been my situation over the past year and a half,” Robertson said. “Since 2009 and 2010 that’s kind of where I’ve come in. I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten used to it, but I’m prepared to go into it.”