The LoHud Yankees Blog

YANKEES (25-21)
Derek Jeter DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Russell Martin C
Nick Swisher RF
Brett Gardner LF
Eduardo Nunez SS

LHP CC Sabathia (4-3, 3.06)
Sabathia vs. Blue Jays

BLUE JAYS (24-23)
Yunel Escobar SS
Corey Patterson LF
Jose Bautista RF
Juan Rivera 1B
J.P. Arencibia C
Aaron Hill 2B
Edwin Encarnacion DH
Rajai Davis CF
John McDonald 3B

LHP Ricky Romero (4-4, 3.10)
Romero vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., YES Network My9 and MLB Network

WEATHER: Things have cleared nicely here at the stadium. It actually feels really nice out, and the sun was shining throughout batting practice.

UMPIRES: HP John Hirschbeck, 1B Wally Bell, 2B Laz Diaz, 3B Scott Barry

YOU AIN’T GOIN’ NOWHERE: Yankees pitchers have faced 46 batters with the bases loaded this season. In those situations, the Yankees staff has allowed a .179 batting average (third-best in the Majors) and a .196 on-base percentage (best in the Majors).

IT’S ALL OVER NOW: Yankees relievers have a 2.63 ERA since April 7, the lowest in the American League and second-lowest in the Majors during that stretch (San Diego has a 2.28 bullpen ERA). Since April 4, Yankees relievers have never allowed more than three earned runs in a game.

ONE MORE CUP OF COFFEE: After not pitching during his first call-up from Triple-A, long reliever Hector Noesi has now appeared twice in a week, pitching a total of seven innings with one run. He pitched three innings last night.

DON’T THINK TWICE, IT’S ALRIGHT: After slumping for a couple of weeks, Alex Rodriguez is now hitting .484 with three home runs in his past seven games. He’s had five multi-hit games in that span.

OUTLAW BLUES: Brett Gardner has been successful in his past three steal attempts. Before this stretch, he was successful on only one of his previous four stolen base attempts.

BALLAD OF A THIN MAN: Today is Bartolo Colon’s 38th birthday.

MY BACK PAGES: On this date in 1936, the Yankees set an all-time franchise record with 25 runs in a game. Tony Lazzeri had three home runs, including two grand slams, and set an American League record with 11 RBI.

UPDATE, 7:28 p.m.: Wish I had a Dylan song for every note I post tonight, but I doubt that’s going to happen. Russell Martin just scorched a home run for a 1-0 Yankees lead in the second inning. That came after two nice plays by Brett Gardner in the top of the inning.

UPDATE, 8:03 p.m.: Sabathia looked really sharp in his previous outing, but now he’s back to kind of what he looked like the week or so before. He’s not getting crushed, but the Blue Jays are able to scratch out some hits and some runs.

UPDATE, 8:05 p.m.: Now the defense is doing him no favors. I think Teixeira was right to throw to first — don’t think he could have gotten the out at home — but obviously Cano’s got to catch the thing. It’s 4-1 Jays.

UPDATE, 8:41 p.m.: This has quickly become one of those games in which the Yankees just don’t look very good. Sabathia has been hitable, the defensive has made some mistakes and the offense hasn’t done much of anything since Martin’s home run.

UPDATE, 9:15 p.m.: Look a that, some life from the Yankees offense. Robinson Cano’s two-out double and Russell Martin’s two-out single have pulled the Yankees within 4-3 in the eighth inning.

The Yankees did not reveal the results of Rafael Soriano’s MRI, but those results are being sent to Dr. James Andrews and Soriano himself will go to see Dr. Andrews tomorrow.

The Yankees said they won’t announce anything specific until Dr. Andrews checks the results and talks to Soriano.

UPDATE, 6:19 p.m.: After announcing that Soriano would go to see Dr. Andrews, a Yankees official was asked whether today’s MRI showed something new. “It showed enough for him to go see Andrews,” he said.

As you might have gathered, this Rafael Soriano situation doesn’t sound good. He was throwing on flat ground yesterday when he felt soreness in his right elbow. Joe Girardi was careful to note that it wasn’t “stiffness” it was “soreness.” Soriano went for a dye-contrast MRI today.

“I can’t tell you exactly why they did another MRI, but the doctor chose to do another,” Girardi said.

When Soriano went on the disabled list last week, he seemed to think this was a short-term issue. He said his elbow was feeling better. He seemed to think rest would do the trick, but so far, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“I’m more concerned now,” Girardi said. “Because I really thought that we would have him getting ready to possibly go out on a rehab assignment shortly. That doesn’t seem to be the case now.”

The Yankees have been leaning heavily on Joba Chamberlain and Dave Robertson to fill the Soriano void, and Luis Ayala has stepped into the more prominent role as the setup guy who’s kind of a notch below those two.

Girardi said the Yankees are hoping to know more about Soriano after tonight’s game. For now, though, they’re going to be without him a while longer, and that puts more pressure on the perceived depth of this bullpen, which has to go beyond Chamberlain and Robertson.

“If they need a day off, they need a day off,” Girardi said. “That’s the bottom line, so you have to find a way to get it done without them.”

• Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero has unusual splits — probably because his changeup is such a key pitch — and left-handers actually hit him better than right-handers (.278/.345/.465 for lefties, .246/.330/.351 for righties). Girardi said that’s part of the reason both Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson are in the lineup and Andruw Jones is not.

• Girardi said he also took into account the desire to give Eduardo Nunez at-bats when making tonight’s lineup. Half of Nunez’s starts have come against lefties, and Girardi said he likes that setup to give Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez a break.

• Is Girardi willing to give Nunez an outfield start? “I’m not quite ready to do that yet, but we’ll see,” Girardi said.

• Rodriguez has hit batting average up to .289 and has gotten hot in the past week. “He’s just swung the bat a lot better,” Girardi said. “You don’t see him out front like we did when I thought he was coming out of his legs. We haven’t seen that, and that’s been real important.”

• Girardi was asked if he’ll take Jeter’s 3,000-hit pursuit into account when deciding when and where to rest his shortstop (in an attempt to have him reach the milestone in New York). “I haven’t yet, just because our job is to win games,” Girardi said. “That’s our job. As we get closer I’ll look at things, but like I said, our No. 1 job is to win games and he’s a part of that.”

• Girardi said CC Sabathia’s career success against Jose Bautista (0-for-11) won’t necessarily change the way the Yankees approach the Blue Jays top hitter. “He’s the guy that you can’t let beat you in that lineup,” Girardi said. “There are situations where we’re going to pitch to him, and there are situations when we might pitch around him.”

• Speaking of Sabathia, the Yankees have their Sunday starter listed as TBA and Girardi said he’ll probably announce it tomorrow, after Sabathia starts tonight. Sounds like the Yankees are deciding between Sabathia and Bartolo Colon for that start (they can use Thursday’s off day to change things around).

• And of course, a very happy 70th birthday to Bob Dylan.

Associated Press photos

Rafael Soriano was throwing off flat ground yesterday and had to shut it down because of soreness in his elbow. He went for another MRI today, but results are not immediately available.

Joe Girardi said he’s more
concerned at this point, which should be obvious.

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

Nick Swisher was sweating. He wasn’t going to be playing on Monday, but it was clear he’d been working on Monday.

Swisher went through a session of early batting practice with Kevin Long, then he did the regular round of BP with his teammates. It was his second day off in a row, his second day of working on his left-handed swing to try to find some of the consistency that made him so good last year.

“It kind of seems like when you’re struggling, it seems like a lot of people have opinions on what you should do and what you shouldn’t do,” Swisher said. “But I know my guy’s K-Long, and he’s going to tell me everything I need to do. I know if I listen to him and do the things he tells me, I’ll be right back where I need to be.”

Joe Girardi told Swisher that the extended rest was coming, and Swisher said he expects to be back in the lineup tonight. The break was reminiscent of when Curtis Granderson was given a couple of days to work on his swing late last season.

“Sometimes you can just take a deep breath and clear your head, maybe put the last 50 at-bats behind you,” Girardi said. “It gives you a chance to work with Kevin, work on some things and try to get some consistency in your swing so it’s there every day. Sometimes guys just need a mental break. We’ve went the whole year and put him out there every day, so I said, ‘I’m going to try something different now.’”

Swisher’s a big part of this lineup. Andruw Jones hasn’t hit much this year, and Chris Dickerson’s career suggests a very effective platoon player, but not necessarily a Swisher-type everyday guy. The Yankees lineup is full of players hitting below their career averages, but Swisher is the guy whose season most needs a correction to the norm.

“Whether I get to the same numbers I did last year, I’m going to bust my (butt) to get back there, and more,” Swisher said. “That’s kind of my philosophy all the time. Sometimes you run into rough patches, and you learn a lot about yourself. I’m going to keep grinding, keep fighting, make sure I get weights in, make sure I’m getting my extra hitting in, doing all the things I have to to make myself better.”

Associated Press photo

Joe Girardi said his sixth-inning trip to the mound was about telling, not asking. He knew he had a strike-throwing, ground-ball pitcher on the mound. He knew the next three hitters in the Blue Jays lineup were 0-for-6 with four strikeouts. Girardi decided to walk Juan Rivera before he stepped foot on the field.

“I told Alex to tell the manager that we would do whatever he wanted to do,” Bartolo Colon said.

Colon intentionally walked Rivera, then gave up a single, walk and game-breaking, three-run double. That’s when the game turned. The Yankees have come to trust Colon, and tonight’s game hinged on his ability to get one of those three batters out.

“They had a lot of runners in scoring position,” catcher Russell Martin said. “Bartolo did what he normally does, throw a lot of strikes. We loaded the bases and got in a situation where we needed a ground ball to turn two. We got the ground ball we wanted, just not in the right spot. Sometimes things like that happen.”

The ground ball was Aaron Hill’s go-ahead single. The more unexpected outcome was the four-pitch, bases-still-loaded walk to Eric Thames. Colon was trying to work away, getting Thames to roll over a routine grounder. He missed with four straight pitches. Then came the J.P. Arencibia double.

“He was throwing fastballs,” Martin said. “That’s his best command pitch. You get behind in the count, you still don’t want to make a mistake over the plate and with one swing they have a big lead. He was missing with fastballs away, then the next hitter came up and he’s in a situation where he doesn’t want to throw another ball. He threw a four-seamer over the plate and he put a good swing on the ball.”

Here’s Girardi.

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• No one asked about the decision to intentionally walk Jose Bautista earlier in the sixth. At this point, that’s gotta be a no-brainer, right? Especially with Yunel Escobar hitting behind him. Can’t let the game’s best hitter — right now — beat you in that spot.

• Girardi on not using Nick Swisher to pinch hit for Jorge Posada late in the game: “I’m thinking about we need a couple base runners. I’m saving Swish (for) if we get closer.”

• Girardi on Robinson Cano, who did drive in every run tonight, but still hasn’t been quite the game-changing hitter we saw last year: “He’s not swinging the bat as well as he was earlier on this year. Last night, he has a big RBI, tonight he has (all) of our three RBI, so he’s still being productive. Maybe you’re not seeing the long ball as much as we did earlier, but he’s still being productive.”

• Carlos Villanueva held the Yankees to one earned run on two hits. This was his first start of the season — and first since 2009 with Milwaukee — and he got the win. He retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced. “We haven’t seen him too much,” Derek Jeter said. “Try to make adjustments every time you face someone, but if you can make pitches, you’re going to beat the hitters, and today he made some good pitches. He mixed it up pretty good.”

• The Yankees were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position.

• Brett Gardner had two stolen bases and Curtis Granderson stole one. Three stolen bases was a season-high for the Yankes.

• Granderson scored all three Yankees runs tonight. According to the Yankees media relations department, he’s on pace for 123 runs, which would be the most for a Yankees center fielder since Rickey Henderson scored 130 in 1986.

• Alex Rodriguez has three straight multi-hit games. He’s quietly pushed his batting average up to .289.

• Chris Dickerson said the leadoff double in the sixth hooked more than he was expecting, which is why he took a funky route toward it. Dickerson said, even without the bad first step, he’s not sure he could have actually caught the ball. Hard to say how much that would have changed the inning, but I can’t get too worked up about that play considering the eight more Blue Jays came to the plate that inning.

• Bautista has 16 home runs in his past 26 games. He has 10 in the month of May, putting him two shy of his own franchise record, which he set last season. “He’s been doing it for, what, a year and a half now,” Jeter said. “It seems like every time he comes up he looks like he’s in a 3-0 count and is trying to hit a home run. It’s pretty impressive to do, but we don’t like to see it.”

• Colin Curtis was in the clubhouse after tonight’s game. When I walked up to say hello, he said, “Watch this,” then held out his right hand. He was able to actually squeeze my during a handshake, something he’s only been able to do for three days. Never tear your labrum almost completely. It’s a pretty nasty recovery.

Associated Press photo

Bartolo Colon was pitching well until, suddenly, he wasn’t. Toronto’s five-run sixth inning started with a bad route on a leadoff double and extended through two intentional walks, but when Colon couldn’t get key outs against three straight batters, the Blue Jays were on their way to a 7-3 win. Aaron Hill singled in the go-ahead run, then Colon walked in a run before J.P. Arencibia broke the game open with a three-run double. It was only the second time in seven starts that Colon had allowed more than three runs.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (25-20)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Russell Martin C
Jorge Posada DH
Brett Gardner LF
Chris Dickerson RF

RHP Bartolo Colon (2-2, 3.16)
Colon vs. Blue Jays

BLUE JAYS (23-23)
Rajai Davis CF
Corey Patterson LF
Jose Bautista RF
Yunel Escobar SS
Juan Rivera 1B
Aaron Hill 2B
Eric Thames DH
J.P. Arencibia C
Edwin Encarnacion 3B

RHP Carlos Villanueva (1-0, 1.48)
Villanueva vs. Yankees

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

WEATHER: Little chilly, but not as bad as I thought it might be. Feels a little bit like last week in Baltimore when it felt like rain could start falling at any moment.

UMPIRES: HP Scott Barry, 1B John Hirschbeck, 2B Wally Bell, 3B Laz Diaz

CLEANING UP AGAIN: In his past six games, Alex Rodriguez is hitting .481 with seven runs, one double, and three homers.

A DAY EARLY: Bartolo Colon turns 38 years old tomorrow. He’s already been on the roster longer than I expected, but like Joe Girardi said pregame, at this point it’s more surprising to see him struggle.

ONE AWAY: The Yankees next win will be Girardi’s 313th as manager. That win will move him into a tie with Buck Showalter for the eighth-most managerial wins in franchise history.

ON THIS DATE: On May 23, 1962, rookie Joe Pepitone hit two-home runs during a nine-run eighth inning. He remains one of only four Yankees to hit two homers in a single inning (Joe DiMaggio, Cliff Johnson and Alex Rodriguez). Also, I don’t think I’d ever heard of Cliff Johnson until this very moment. Heard of the other guys, though.

UPDATE, 7:11 p.m.: Bautista just hit a home run. Of course he did.

UPDATE, 7:31 p.m.: Pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve seen a guy swing, miss and fling his bat all the way to shortstop. Pretty impressive, really.

UPDATE, 8:17 p.m.: Sac fly has tied the game at 1. Granderson scored the run, but he didn’t hit a homer. Shame on him.

UPDATE, 8:51 p.m.: Things got out of control very quickly. An intentional walk backfired and now the Blue Jays hav a 6-1 lead in the sixth. J.P Arencibia’s three-run double is making the biggest difference.

The leading home run hitters in the American League are squaring off tonight, and while most seem to be wondering how Juan Bautista got to the top of that list — from fairly anonymous player to arguably the most dangerous hitter in the game — Curtis Granderson seems to find it more bizarre to find himself on that list.

“It (was) unusual for people to throw these crazy predictions before I even played my first game as a Yankee,” Granderson said. “And with the stuff that’s going on now, there’s even crazier ones. I ask people, physically, look at me. I’m not that type to guy. If it happens, great. It’s not something I try to do. I don’t put myself in a category like Bautista or a Ryan Howard or an Alex Rodriguez, except for the fact we’re all baseball players.”

Granderson hit 30 home runs in his last year with the Tigers, and because he was moving from Detroit’s spacious ballpark to the Yankees occasionally homer-happy stadium, there were instantly predictions of 40-plus. Then Granderson got off to a miserable start last season, and those lofty hopes were kind of forgotten.

It was somewhat forgotten — or lost completely — that Granderson hit 14 home runs in his last 46 games last season. This year he has 16 through 45 games. He’s been hitting home runs near this pace for roughly a half-season worth of games.

“Bautista you saw a whole year of the same thing and now you’ve seen two months of it,” Joe Girardi said. “Curtis, it’s been the past four months, but it was two months one year and maybe people forget. It’s not glaring how many home runs he hit last year, but then you look at his two months this year and you say, wow, he’s got a lot at this point. It’s two guys that have made adjustments and have become big power hitters.”

Fair enough, but don’t expect Granderson to buy into it any time soon. He called 40-plus home runs a “kid dream kind of deal,” something he’d obviously like to do but would never actively pursue.

“I’ve never considered myself that,” he said. “I try to drive the baseball, I’ll say that. Sometimes they happen to get out of the ballpark.”

Here’s Granderson.

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• Nick Swisher is getting another healthy day off to work on his left-handed swing. It reminds me of the days Granderson was given late last season when he and Kevin Long made those successful changes to his swing. “He’s just doing the drills that he’s been doing,” Girardi said. “There’s a lot of different ways to work with players when they’re going through some tough times, offensively or pitching. You can keep running them out there or you can give them a couple days to try to work on some stuff. I chose at this point — because I’ve been running him out there every day — to give him a couple days.”

• Girardi said there’s a chance Rafael Soriano will be on a mound at the end of this home stand. Sounds like it’s not set in stone, but that’s what the medical staff was talking about.

• Still no date set for Phil Hughes to get on a mound. He’s scheduled to make the upcoming West Coast trip.

• Alex Rodriguez has not had his hip checked. No appointment scheduled. Rodriguez said last weekend that it wasn’t an urgent matter, just something they want to have checked at some point. It’s not bothering him.

• Girardi plans to stay away from Joba Chamberlain today, but that’s strictly because of his workload. It has nothing to do with Chamberlain’s eye infection. “I was not aware of his eye infection,” Girardi said. “Sometimes I’m the last one to hear things. It’s been that way my whole life. I will stay away from him today.”

• Eric Chavez is walking around without his protective boot, but he can’t run yet. He won’t really begin baseball activities until he can run. “I can’t tell you when he’ll be able to run,” Girardi said. “But he seems to be doing OK. As far as walking. He’s walking fine, but it’s just getting to that next step.”

• Girardi said it’s hard to call Bartolo Colon a surprise at this point: “We witnessed it almost three months,” Girardi said. “It was a pleasant surprise early on, what I saw in spring training. But it’s a guy now that you expect it from, and when you don’t get great location, you’re a little bit shocked. Like the day he had in Texas. We were a little bit shocked. He’s been outstanding. It’s a guy you expect to give you a distance. It’s a guy you expect to keep you right in the game and throw a ton of strikes.”

• A very quick congratulations to my friend Trisha who was married this weekend in Michigan. It was great to get up north and see her family, who I hadn’t seen in several years. Congratulations to Trisha and Nick!

BLUE JAYS
Rajai Davis CF
Corey Patterson LF
Jose Bautista RF
Yunel Escobar SS
Juan Rivera 1B
Aaron Hill 2B
Eric Thames DH
J.P. Arencibia C
Edwin Encarnacion 3B

Associated Press photo