The LoHud Yankees Blog

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

A few quick minor league notes this late morning. Don’t forget, we’re doing a chat at 2:30 this afternoon.

• Two injuries to players on the 40-man roster: Greg Golson is on the Triple-A disabled list with a hamstring injury, and Steve Garrison could be headed for the Double-A disabled list after groin pull.

• Two other Triple-A injuries that seem fairly minor: Chris Dickerson has missed three straight games with a neck injury. He would have missed a fourth if not for a rain out last night. Ramiro Pena was out of last night’s lineup with a sore foot.

• Three non-40-man pitchers to keep an eye on: George Kontos (two runs in his past 15.1 innings as Scranton’s long man), Kevin Whelan (much improved control to go with only two hits allowed in past 10.2 innings as Scranton’s closer) and Andy Sisco (still no earned runs with four hits allowed through 10.1 innings as Scranton’s bullpen lefty).

• The Associated Press reports that the Yankees have signed Brad Halsey to a minor league deal and sent him to extended spring.

• He’s still a long, long way from the big leagues, but Slade Heathcott is hitting .351/.436/.574 through 94 at-bats in Charleston. Have to think he’ll be in Tampa around mid-season or so, maybe sooner if he keeps this up. JR Murphy is also really hitting in Charleston (.316/.340/.490) but Gary Sanchez is not (.200/.238/.293).

Derek Jeter has gone back-to-back games without a hit only twice this season. He has not fallen into any sort of unthinkable slump, and he’s kept his batting average hovering around .250. Jeter hasn’t been especially good, but he’s generally done just enough to keep himself off the radar (considering this is the Yankees captain we’re talking about). He hasn’t faced quite the criticism that Brett Gardner faced a few weeks ago or that Jorge Posada faced a few days ago.

But it’s hard to miss the fact Jeter has just two extra-base hits. Eduardo Nunez has as many doubles as Jeter, and a .250 batting average isn’t exactly setting the world on fire.

“When I come to the stadium, I don’t try to think about what’s already happened,” Jeter said last night. “How I feel now, I feel good. I can’t change anything that happened in the first month of the season. Yeah, I didn’t swing the bat well. I probably was swinging a lot mainly just on my arms, and I wasn’t using my legs. I think as of late, I’ve been using my legs a lot better.”

Jeter’s past three seasons tell the tale of a declining line-drive rate. He’s always hit more ground balls than fly balls, but he used to hit line drives on roughtly 20 percent of his batted balls. Now it’s closer to 10 percent. Those missing line drives have turned into ground balls, not hard-hit balls into the outfield.

“You say, ‘We’ve got to start driving the ball,’” hitting coach Kevin Long said. “That comes from using your lower half and hip torque. We’ve got to get into that a little bit more, because that’s where it comes from. It doesn’t come from having quick hands. It comes from driving your legs and your lower half.”

Long said that, to some extent, the ground balls are inevitable.

“He’s obviously a guy who lets the ball travel,” Long said. “And when you let the ball travel, the ball’s going to be on the ground. That’s the mechanics of the swing.”

But Jeter’s driven the ball in the past, and he drove the ball a little bit last night. After the game, Jeter went further than before in admitting that he’s shifted away from some of the mechanical changes he made this spring, and he said the return has made him more comfortable. He’s hoping it makes him more productive as well.

“We made some adjustments early on this spring, and I sort of went back to some old ways,” Jeter said. “It’s a matter of getting the timing. I adjusted to having more time, and then I had to go back to adjust to how I used to be. It’s taken a while, but right now I feel good.”  ’

Here’s Jeter after last night’s game.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Associated Press photo

The Yankees didn’t hit much tonight, CC Sabathia’s command wasn’t as good as usual and the Tigers got a spark from their freshly promoted second baseman. There were several reasons the Yankees lost this game, but base-running mistakes clearly cost them.

“How does it affect the game?” Joe Girardi said. “None of us will really know, but you hate to make foolish outs.”

Jorge Posada in the sixth inning

We’ll start with the last of the three, but the also the one that was most obviously a mistake. Posada was running on his own. It was a 4-1 game at the time, there were two outs, and Posada thought he could get himself into scoring position for Andruw Jones. He broke before Brad Penny threw a pitch and was picked off easily. Girardi called it a play that, “just can’t happen.”

“They weren’t paying attention to me,” Posada said. “I was trying to get into scoring position for Andruw. I thought I could sneak in there. I messed up. I completely messed up.”

Robinson Cano in the sixth inning

This was the out immediately before Posada’s. In fact, Posada was at the plate when Cano saw a pitch in the dirt and started to break for second base. When Cano realized catcher Alex Avila had a play, he froze and was caught in a run down. Girardi said Cano’s read was good, but he had to keep going once he committed to second base.

“I was going to go because I saw him going to his left,” Cano said. “But it stayed too close and Posada stopped me. I stopped, but I should have kept running… If I stay on first base, it should be first-and-third and Andruw coming to hit. Those are mistakes you learn from and don’t let them happen again.”

Andruw Jones in the fourth inning

This was the play that had nothing to do with a runner’s decision. Jones tagged up and tried to score on a fly ball to medium right field. Third-base coach Rob Thomson told him to tag, but Jones was out by several feet with Avila blocking his slide well up the third-base line.

“With two outs you’re going to take a chance scoring at home,” Girardi said. “That’s what you do, and that’s a normal play.”

Here’s Girardi’s postgame interview.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• I’m sure I’ll have more on this in the morning, but Derek Jeter talked tonight about feeling more comfortable now that he’s moved a little more toward his old mechanics. He said he’s started using his lower half a little more, which accounts for a line-drive single in the first and a sharp line-drive out in the seventh. “I think the first few weeks of the season I was thinking a lot,” he said. “Thinking too much and trying to worry about too many different things and that’s difficult to do, but right now I feel good.”

• CC Sabathia’s command was off tonight. We’re not used to seeing him this way, and he’s not used to pitching this way. “You are surprised, but you just got to get through it,” he said. “Do whatever you can to make pitches. You can’t stop calling changeups. You can’t stop calling my cutter. You just got to battle through it.” All things considered, Sabathia did a great job pitching through the seventh and generally limiting the damage.

• To help him late in the game, Sabathia started going to his straight fastball more than his two-seamer. “I normally go to my changeup, but that wasn’t there either,” he said. “I just started going to four-seamers instead of two-seamers trying to get ahead, and that seemed to work a little bit later in the game.”

• Girardi went to the mound to discuss walking Miguel Cabrera in the fifth inning because, he said, he didn’t want it to be a surprise from the bench. Girardi wanted to tell Sabathia his plan, and Sabathia said he had no problem with it. It worked as Sabathia stranded the bases loaded. “I felt like, to give them another run, the fifth run I thought would be too many the way we were swinging the bats tonight,” Girardi said.

• The Yankees had two extra-base hits, an RBI double by Russell Martin and a solo home run by Mark Teixeira. It was Teixiera’s eighth homer of the season, tying him with Cano and Curtis Granderson for the team lead.

• Sabathia is 1-5 with a 5.54 ERA in his past six starts at Comerica Park dating back to 2006.

• Former Yankees prospect Austin Jackson had a nice night for the Tigers going 2-for-5 with a double, a triple, an RBI and two runs scored.

• Posada has looked a little better at the plate the past few days, including a 2-for-4 tonight. He was the only Yankees batter with more than one hit. Brett Gardner also continued his resurgence with a single and another walk.

• Cano said his bruised hand hurt him only when Miguel Cabrera grounded out to second. That ball just happened to hit Cano’s hand in exactly the right spot.

• Scott Sizemore played second base for the Tigers tonight (called up today and reached base three times). Thing is, not once but twice in today’s game post I called him Scott Strickland. I have no idea why. I know Scott Strickland, I covered Scott Strickland and I know Scott Strickland was not playing second base for the Tigers today. One of those things, I guess. Sorry about that if anyone thought the former major league reliever was now a middle infielder in the Detroit system.

• Don’t forget: Chat tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. I’ll be there, you should be there too! Tell your boss that you’ve worked a lot of days in a row and need an hour off. Girardi says it’s a good idea.

Associated Press photos of Granderson, Cano, Sabathia and Teixeira

Considering this was a two-run game, the Yankees never seemed to put up much of a fight. Russell Martin’s RBI double and Mark Teixeira’s eighth home run of the year were their only extra-base hits and accounted for their only runs in a 4-2 loss to the Tigers. CC Sabathia battled but didn’t have his best stuff, and he could limit the damage only so much. The Yankees brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but Martin grounded into a game-ending double play.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (17-9)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner LF
Eduardo Nunez 2B

LHP CC Sabathia (2-1, 2.25)
Sabathia vs. Tigers

TIGERS (12-17)
Austin Jackson CF
Scott Strickland 2B
Magglio Ordonez DH
Miguel Cabrera 1B
Ryan Raburn LF
Jhonny Peralta SS
Casper Wells RF
Alex Avila C
Brandon Inge 3B

RHP Brad Penny (1-3, 6.11)
Penny vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., YES Network and MLB Network

WEATHER: It’s been pretty rainy all day, but right now things look OK. The tarp was on and then off the field about four hours ago. Both teams took batting practice on the field.

UMPIRES: HP Marty Foster, 1B Bill Welke, 2B Tom Tschida, 3B Jeff Nelson

NEW GUY AT SECOND: Before tonight’s game, the Tigers recalled Scott Strickland from Triple-A and put him in the lineup, batting second between the struggling duo of Austin Jackson and Magglio Ordonez. He was hitting .408 with seven doubles, a triple and two home runs with Toledo. He was leading the International League in batting average and on-base percentage. Will Rhymes was optioned to make room for Sizemore.

THREE IN A ROW: Mariano Rivera has picked up a save three days in a row for the first time since July of 2009. He’s saved three straight games 29 times in his career and has saved three straight days 22 times.

ELEVEN IN A HURRY: Speaking of Rivera, this is the earliest he’s ever reached 11 saves in a season. The previous best was reaching 11 saves on May 5 in 2004. That season started on March 30 — this year on March 31 — and by May 5 the Yankees had played 27 games. They’ve played 26 this year. It goes without saying that when Rivera does something he’s never done before, it’s pretty incredible.

UPDATE, 7:30 p.m.: Hard to start an inning with back-to-back doubles and not give up some runs. Sabathia allowed doubles to Austin Jackson and Scott Sizemore to start the bottom of the first, and now they’ve scored on a ground ball and a sac fly. It’s 2-0 Tigers.

UPDATE, 8:03 p.m.: The Yankees put two on in each of the first two innings but couldn’t take advantage. Now they’ve gone down in order in the third.

UPDATE, 8:23 p.m.: Russell Martin’s RBI double has the Yankees on the board, but Andruw Jones was out by several feet trying to score on a fly ball to right. The Yankees managed to score but not quite tie and it’s 2-1 Tigers in the bottom of the fourth.

UPDATE, 8:42 p.m.: RBI triple by Austin Jackson pushed the Tigers lead to 3-1 in the fifth, and Scott Sizemore followed with an RBI single to make it 4-1. Sabathia seems to have been battling all night.

UPDATE, 8:53 p.m.: Sabathia’s night has gone about as well as he could have hoped considering he doesn’t have it tonight.

UPDATE, 9:04 p.m.: Sabathia is struggling and the lineup’s not driving in runs. Can’t add bad base running on top of it all. That’s an ugly top of the sixth and it’s still a 4-1 Tigers lead.

It was on May 3, 2005 that Robinson Cano went 0-for-3 in his Major League debut. He went 2-for-4 the next day, and six years later he’s a career .309 hitter and arguably the best second baseman in baseball.

“Whenever you see someone called up, we all think back to the first day we were called up and the excitement,” Joe Girardi said. “I thought he was going to be a great player, had the opportunity to be a great player… I think you see a player that’s matured into something special: The middle-of-the-order hitter, an outstanding Gold Glove second baseman, doing all the things he needs to be to be considered a great player.”

Turns out, Girardi had seen Cano play in Triple-A in 2004. The Yankees had sent Girardi to Columbus to work with Dioner Navarro behind the plate, and he noticed Cano. Girardi remembered thinking, “Boy this kid’s talented.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Cano has the most hits by a player whose primary position is second base within six years of a debut since Pete Rose had 1,111 over a similar span. Also from Elias, Cano is one of three active big leaguers with at least 1,100 hits and 100 home runs within six calendar years of their debut. The other two are Albert Pujols (1,159H, 250HR) and Todd Helton (1,119H, 209HR). Cano has 1,107 and 124.

“We want him more than six years,” Girardi said. “We want him to play a long time and be a force in the middle of the order for a long time.”

• Phil Hughes is flying from St. Louis to New York today and he’ll meet with Dr. Ahmad tomorrow. Girardi said yesterday that Hughes would begin a rehab program, but first he’ll check with the doctor to determine an exact next step. “I’m sure he’ll figure it out with Dr. Ahmad,” Girardi said. “I’m sure that’s part of what they’re doing tomorrow.”

• Rafael Soriano is the Yankees closer today. “Mariano is on a sabbatical,” Girardi said. “Hopefully only a day. It’s a short one. He’ll probably argue to pitch today, but we told him last night that he was off today.”

• Routine day off for Nick Swisher. Andruw Jones has terrific career numbers against Brad Penny — including an .875 slugging percentage in 45 at-bats — but Girardi said this is more about giving Swisher a rest than giving Jones at-bats.

• The plan is for Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner to each get a day off in Texas this weekend.

• Girardi on the temptation to pitch around Miguel Cabrera every time he comes to the plate: “You also understand this is a big ballpark and balls in the gap are going to score two runs, probably not just one, and it’s early on. He’s not hitting 1.000. I know he’s a great hitter. I had him. I know a lot about him. You try to be careful. You saw how careful we were to him the last at-bat. But you can’t just continue to walk people early in the game or you take pitchers out of their rhythm and it’s dangerous.”

• Cano on sitting out last night’s game: “I don’t like watching games. I was so bored.” He said he tried to stay busy by helping Eduardo Nunez with advice. Cano stayed in the dugout the whole time to watch.

TIGERS
Austin Jackson CF
Scott Sizemore 2B
Magglio Ordonez DH
Miguel Cabrera 1B
Ryan Raburn LF
Jhonny Peralta SS
Casper Wells RF
Alex Avila C
Brandon Inge 3B

Associated Press photos

Robinson Cano said he was bored last night. He doesn’t like watching games from the bench, and he was happy to discover that he could hit in the cage this afternoon.

“I tested it in the cage and felt a lot less pain,” he said. “I just barely feel it. I’m going to try to play tonight.”

Cano will not wear any extra padding over the bruised part of his left hand. He said he feels it on some swings and not on others.

My guess is it’s just a day for Nick Swisher to rest. Just saw him and he certainly didn’t seem hurt in any way.

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