The LoHud Yankees Blog

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

Tonight
RHP Bartolo Colon (2-2, 3.16)
vs.
RHP Carlos Villanueva (1-0, 1.48)
7:05 p.m., YES Network

Tuesday
LHP CC Sabathia (4-3, 3.06)
vs.
LHP Ricky Romero (4-4, 3.10)
7:05 p.m., MY9 / MLB Network

Wednesday
RHP Freddy Garcia (2-4, 3.12)
vs.
LHP Jo Jo Reyes (0-3, 4.07)
1:05 p.m., YES Network

The Yankees scored 17 runs in the three-game Subway Series. Eight of the first nine against the Mets were produced by homers. The final eight, of course, were scored without one, all in that seventh inning in Sunday’s 9-3 rubber-game win.

Their power can be a great advantage, but they can’t always count on that. They need to be able to consistently produce the smaller way as well, especially with runners in scoring position. They’re at .249 in RISP and at .219 with two outs and runners in scoring position. Their team batting average is at .254.

The Yankees have scored 119 runs via homers and 116 via other methods. They have a major-league-high 71 homers. They have 22 multi-homer games, sending out at least one homer 35 times in going 25-20. They have six players with at least six homers.

Joe Girardi had a lot to say Sunday about the Yankees’ long-ball tendencies and this whole subject about scoring so many of their runs via homers as opposed to the small-ball way since he was asked about that a lot. He doesn’t care if all the runs come on homers, as long as the Yankees are scoring. So he wasn’t about to devalue production via long distance. And he pointed out that the homer-happy way isn’t just a Yankees thing.

This was from his pregame press conference:

“If you’re getting hits and they’re home runs, they’re still hits. I think sometimes people … we talk about home runs like they’re not hits. They’re still hits. They’re hits with runners in scoring position. They’re still hits. Do you score runs in bunches sometimes with home runs? Absolutely. But I don’t want to take away from a lot of times it’s a line drive or well-struck ball that happens to go out of the ballpark.

“Yeah, you’d like to be able to put five or six hits together all the time, but that’s not always easy to do. So if you have to score them by home runs, you score them by home runs.

“But there are a lot of American League teams that score a lot of runs by home runs. That’s just the nature of the American League. Now when you go out to the West Coast, it’s a little bit different because the ball’s not going to carry as well. But you look at some lineups, there are five or six guys capable of hitting 20 home runs in every lineup.”

This was from his postgame press conference:

“It almost seems like to me that a home run is not a hit the way we talk about it. A home run is actually a hit. It’s just a hit that goes a little bit farther than most. Our club is built around a lot of power. I mean, that’s what we have in our lineup. We have some guys who are fast. … Our ballpark is tailored around our lineup where we have a lot of left-handed hitters, and our right-handed hitters are able to go to right-center and to right field, which helps with that. That’s just kind of the club that we are.”

The picture of Derek Jeter from yesterday’s game is courtesy of The Associated Press.

The continued questions about the Yankees being so reliant on homers seemed to bother Joe Girardi before and after this 9-3 win over the Mets.

“Sometimes I feel like home runs aren’t hits,” he said afterward. “But they are hits.”

Alex Rodriguez, though, knows there’s a good point behind all the questions.

“You’re not going to hit home runs against great pitching,” A-Rod said after his four-hit game that included two infield singles. “You have to have diversity in the way you score runs. The things we did in that inning are going to count when it really counts.”

That inning was their no-homer, eight-run, 13-batter seventh. The Yankees showed they are indeed capable of playing small ball. A-Rod had the go-ahead infield hit toward third. But he pointed to a walk worked out by Chris Dickerson, Derek Jeter’s two-run single to tie it and Curtis Granderson’s sacrifice to put two in scoring position as “the things we have not been doing the last three or four weeks.”

They haven’t been doing so well in the RISP department. In their previous five home games, they were 4 for 33. In the seventh inning, they were 5 for 7 with RISP, including 4 for 4 with the bases packed.

Granderson did hit the Yankees’ one homer of the day. It was his 16th, making this just the fourth time in the last 50 years that a Yankee has hit at least that many in the first 45 games. But he was happy with his nice bunt toward third as well.

“If I’m asked to sacrifice bunt, I’m going to take pride in getting that bunt down,” he said.

Girardi, of course, took the bat out of the hands of the majors’ second-leading home-run hitter, but he had a reason.   

“I just felt like you’re getting the winning run 90 feet away,” Girardi said.

*Ivan Nova somehow only gave up three runs, all in the second, despite allowing a career-high 11 hits in 6 2/3. 

“He did grind it out,” Girardi said. “At times, he struggled a little bit with his command, but he made some pitches when he had to.

“You have to take what you saw today, if you’re him, and say, ‘I’m capable of doing it. When I’m struggling a little bit with my command, I can make pitches when I have to.’ ”

Nova has given up three earned runs or less in six of his nine starts.

*A-Rod is batting .481 (13 for 27) in his last six games.

*Jeter (2 for 4) extended his home hitting streak against the Mets to 25 games.

*The Yankees are now 9-0 at home in rubber games against the Mets and 10-3 overall in these deciding games of three-game series against them.

*Toronto now comes in for a three-game series. Monday night the starters will be Bartolo Colon and Carlos Villanueva.

The photo of Curtis Granderson is courtesy of The Associated Press.

Yankees lineup
1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Curtis Granderson CF
3. Mark Teixeira 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez DH
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Jorge Posada DH
7. Brett Gardner LF
8. Chris Dickerson RF
9. Francisco Cervelli C
Ivan Nova P

Mets lineup
1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Daniel Murphy 1B
3. Carlos Beltran DH
4. Jason Bay LF
5. Fernando Martinez RF
6. Justin Turner 2B
7. Willie Harris 3B
8. Ronny Paulino C
9. Jason Pridie CF
Mike Pelfrey P

Time/TV: 1:08/YES

Weather: Cloudy, 58 degrees

Umpires: Eric Cooper HP, Mark Carlson 1B, Tim Timmons 2B, Jeff Kellogg 3B

Power show: Since Aug. 14, Curtis Granderson is second in the majors in homers behind the Jays’ Jose Bautista, hitting 29 compared to Bautista’s 36. Granderson, with 15 homers, is also second this season to Bautista, who has 18.

A-Rod heating up: Alex Rodriguez is batting .409 (9 for 22) with a double, three solo homers and a walk in his last five games.

Spelling relief: The Yankees’ bullpen has the lowest ERA in the AL since April 7, at 2.68.

Rivera one away: Mariano Rivera needs one more appearance to become the 15th big-league pitcher to appear in 1,000 games and the first to do it with one team.

Update, 1:12: Nova has a 1-2-3 first, helped by a nice sliding catch in left by Gardner.

Update, 1:16: Running out of superlatives for Curtis Granderson. There’s goes No. 16 to the right-field seats, 1-0.

Update, 1:49: Bad top of the second for Nova, three runs, four hits. And Pelfrey could have had a bad bottom half. Both Posada and Gardner just missed solo homers down the right-field line. So two outs, man on first right now.

Update, 1:51: Cervelli flies to left, so it’s 3-1 heading to the top of the third.

Update, 1:56: Nova isn’t fooling anybody, first and second, one out, after two more hard-hit singles.

Update, 2:02: Nova works out of trouble with his fastball, strikeout and bouncer to third.

Update, 2:05: Jeter lined that pitch with authority into center for a single, hit No. 2,974.

Update, 2:18: After a single and a walk for the Mets, there were two on with one out in the fourth. But Jose Reyes rapped a curve for a 4-6-3 double play, side retired.

Update, 2:23: At least Posada hit the ball well, lining a single to left-center. But he was out by a lot trying to stretch it. Jason Pridie threw him out.

Update, 2:26: One run, four hits through four for the inconsistent offense.

Update, 2:30: By the way, an error on Francisco Cervelli on a steal attempt by Pridie in the second has been changed to an error on Jeter for letting the tailing throw get by him and into center.

Update, 2:34: Nova’s first 1-2-3 inning since the first, 3-1 going to the bottom of the fifth.

Update, 2:45: Leadoff double by Dickerson, and the Yankees can’t bring him around, 3-1 after five.

Update, 2:50: Willie Harris couldn’t hit when he got here today, showed up at .203. But he’s got three singles in three at-bats now against Nova.

Update, 2:51: Ronny Paulino lines a hanging curve into center. That’s 10 hits off Nova, all singles. But only three runs off him. Pridie grounds out to end the sixth.

Update, 3:02: Pelfrey has held the Yankees to the run and six hits through six.

Update, 3:05: Luis Ayala is warming with Nova now at 100 pitches.

Update, 3:11: Beltran doubles, Nova is at 110 pitches and done.

Update, 3:15: Ayala gets out of trouble, fly to right-center.

Update, 3:19: Tim Byrdak is warming. Pelfrey is at 94 pitches after Brett Gardner’s leadoff single. The 11 hits Nova gave up were a career high against him.

Update, 3:23: Walk to Dickerson, first and second, no outs.

Update, 3:24: Cervelli is hit on the first pitch trying to bunt, bases loaded. Jeter up.

Update, 3:25: Jeter delivers, two-run single bounced through the middle, we’re tied. Hit No. 2,975. Pelfrey is done. Byrdak is in. Granderson bunts the runners over.

Update, 3:30: Intentional walk to Teixeira. Bases loaded. A-Rod has been known to deliver in these situations. Impressive rookie righty Pedro Beato will come in to face him. Beato is from Queens and went to high school in Brooklyn. He hasn’t been charged with an earned run in his big-league career so far, in 18 2-3 innings, a Mets record to start a career.

Update, 3:34: Not far but effective. Roller toward third, RBI single, 4-3 Yankees.

Update, 3:36: Cano lines a single to right, 5-3, bases still loaded, one out for Posada. Amazing how this game has turned so swiftly.

Update, 3:39: Strikeout looking at a curve. Posada wasn’t happy, one of a handful not happy with plate ump Eric Cooper today. Lefty Pat Misch is coming in to pitch.

Update, 3:43: Gardner punches a two-run double down the left-field line, 7-3. After all the talk about the home-run reliance, they’re doing this with small ball.

Update, 3:46: Dickerson bloops a two-run single to left, eight-run inning. It’s 9-3. Beato’s streak is over.

Update, 3:47: Harris boots the third out. This inning is a Mets nightmare. The Captain is up again.

Update, 3:48: The inning is over, finally.

Brian Heyman here for the series finale. Should’ve brought a heavier jacket. It’s a little chilly.

But enough about me. The Yankees offense has often been home-run reliant, scoring 52.2 percent of their runs on long balls.  Joe Girardi, however, stressed during the pregame press conference that he couldn’t care less about that:

“We talk about our offense every day. For me, I don’t care how we score runs. I really don’t. The bottom line is you either have more runs than the other team or you have less. It doesn’t matter if you hit nine home runs and score 18 runs or you have 42 hits and you score 18 runs. The bottom line is scoring runs. We happen to be built as a club that hits a lot of home runs. That’s how we score a lot of our runs. But I really don’t care how we score runs. I don’t. I don’t care if they kick the ball 10 times. I don’t. Just score runs.” 

Ivan Nova starts today and there’s one pitch that could decide how he does, one pitch that has really helped him.

“It just seems he’s gotten his curveball going,” Girardi said. “That has been the biggest progression for him. When he’s struggled, he didn’t have it.”

Derek Jeter begins the game just 27 hits away from 3,000.

“I think from our standpoint everyone is excited for him, for what he’s about to accomplish,” Girardi said. “From his standpoint, I’m sure he’s trying to put it out of his mind. That’s what he does when it comes to major accomplishments. But I hope he really enjoys it because of what he’s done and what he’s meant to this organization. Three thousand hits, you don’t see it every day.

“And I hope when he gets around 2,998, he gets those two hits that day, so he doesn’t have to talk about it, so we don’t all have to talk about it. … We know Derek doesn’t want to talk about himself. We’ve known that since 1996.”

Nick Swisher, who’s down to .214, is sitting at the start. Chris Dickerson is in right.   

Girardi said the Yankees miss the depth that Rafael Soriano provides to the bullpen. Girardi said Soriano is playing catch, and that his inflamed elbow is progressing. Girardi also sounded as if he might have more trust in rookie Hector Noesi for a more prominent bullpen role after his four scoreless extra innings last week in Baltimore.

1. Jeter SS
2. Granderson CF
3. Teixeira 1B
4. Rodriguez 3B
5. Cano 2B
6. Posada DH
7. Gardner LF
8. Dickerson RF
9. Cervelli C
Nova P

* The Yankees were back to being homer happy, but it worked out just fine in the 7-3 victory over the Mets. Four homers accounted for six of the runs. That means that 52.2 percent of their runs have come on homers this season. That also means that 47.8 have not. Still, Alex Rodriguez, who hit No. 622, said they have to be better at small ball, that the homers may not be there down the road when they need the runs in big games.

This is what he had to say about the Yankees’ offense: ”We’ve been good and bad. Overall I think if you look at the numbers league-wise, we’re doing OK. But I know there’s a lot of room for improvement. Besides Curtis (Granderson), we can all feel like we can do much better.”

Granderson hit his 15th homer, extending his career high to eight off lefties. Working with Kevin Long has helped, and not only regarding that swing change last August.

“The ability for him to throw left-handed BP day in and day out, get a chance to see that,” Granderson said.

“I’m constantly battling, trusting what we’ve been working on, the changes that we made. I definitely never second-guessed what Kevin Long and myself started last August. I continue to try to make improvements and fill the holes that are there for the swing and the approach and the plan of attack against each pitcher out there.”

The power show seems to have caught Granderson off-guard, though.

“I’m really not sure what’s going on,” he said.

Derek Jeter is up to 2,973 hits after going 2 for 4 with two singles. No. 3,000 doesn’t seem to be on his mind.

“You know what? It’s still a long ways away,” Jeter said. “I’m really not thinking about it now. It’s just more of staying comfortable. I think that’s the biggest thing. If you stay comfortable, the hits will come.”

So how close is close for him to start thinking about it?

“One or two,” Jeter said.

He did reach a milestone in this game. He swiped his 326th base in the eighth, tying Rickey Henderson’s franchise record.

“It’s hard to believe; you think Rickey was only here, what, a year and a half,” Jeter said with a smile since it was more like four and a half. “If you play long enough and try to be consistent, I guess good things happen.”

A.J. Burnett has done much better than last season. He said one key for him is being able “to turn the page” when things go wrong. He did that after a shaky two-run, three-hit first, which started with him loading the bases with no outs. He gave up just one more run and three more hits in his 6 1/3-inning outing.

“I just see a different guy,” Joe Girardi said. “I hate to make it sound so simple, but it’s the consistency of his mechanics.”

Chris Capuano talked about giving up the four homers and the difference between pitching here and at Citi Field:

I think that’s the frustrating part for me: I didn’t give up a lot of hits, just big ones,” Capuano said. ”I think maybe we are a little more spoiled at Citi. I think we really know how good we have it there as pitchers.”

Here’s an item from Sam Borden on Chris Dickerson, who played right the last two innings:

Chris Dickerson has had “a few” concussions, but don’t look for the recently beaned Yankees outfielder to start wearing the extra-large, Gazoo-style helmet that some players (including backup catcher Francisco Cervelli) have worn after suffering head injuries.

“It’s enormous,” said Dickerson, who wore the helmet in the minor leagues. “I’m so over that helmet.”

Dickerson, who was hit in the head by Orioles reliever Mike Gonzalez on Wednesday, said watching a replay of the pitch in slow motion was intense: “I’m even telling myself, ‘Get out of the way!’ ” The scariest part was seeing his batting helmet break after contact, he said.

Will the beaning affect Dickerson’s ability to stay steady in the batter’s box in the future?

“No,” he said flatly. Then he smiled. “But that’s easy for me to say now. You don’t know until you get in there and have to do it.”

Yankees lineup

1. Derek Jeter SS

2. Curtis Granderson CF

3. Mark Teixeira 1B

4. Alex Rodriguez DH

5. Robinson Cano 2B

6. Russell Martin C

7. Nick Swisher RF

8. Andruw Jones LF

9. Eduardo Nunez 3B

A.J. Burnett P

Mets lineup

1. Jose Reyes SS

2. Daniel Murphy 1B

3. Carlos Beltran RF

4. Jason Bay LF

5. Fernando Martinez DH

6. Justin Turner 3B

7. Josh Thole C

8. Jason Pridie CF

9. Ruben Tejada 2B

Chris Capuano P

Time/TV: 7:10/FOX

Weather: Partly cloudy, 62 degrees

Umpires: Jeff Kellogg HP, Eric Cooper 1B, Mark Carlson 2B, Tim Timmons 3B

Not clutch: The Yankees are 8 for their last 54 with runners in scoring position during their six-game home losing streak.

Yankees vs. Mets: The Yankees have a 108-78-1 record vs. the Mets in all types of play, from exhibitions to the regular season to the postseason.

Martin’s splits: Russell Martin is batting .290 against righties and .192 against lefties.

Update, 7:21: Bad beginning for Burnett, bases loaded, no one out.

Update, 7:24: Bay, who’s been an expensive bust for the Mets so far, lifts the sac fly to right, 1-0.

Update, 7:31: Justin Turner just set a Mets rookie record with an RBI in his seventh straight game, single to right, 2-0. Burnett is at 29 pitches already.

Update, 7:38: The Yankees go down 1-2-3 in the first, so that makes it four straight 1-2-3 innings for them.

Update, 7:54: Martin delivers vs. the lefty, two-run shot to the left-field seats, his eighth homer. It’s 2-2 in the second.

Update, 8:11: Hit No. 2,972 for Derek Jeter, single with one out in the third.

Update, 8:13: That’s three homers in three games for Mark Teixeira, this one from the right side to the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center. It’s 4-2.

Update, 8:29: End of four, still 4-2.

Update, 8:41: Jose Reyes is having a nice season in what might be his final one with the Mets. He led off the game with a double. Now in the fifth, he delivers a one-out single, swipes second and scores on a bloop single by Carols Beltran, cutting it to 4-3.

Update, 8:55: Boone Logan is warming. Man on first with one out for the Mets in the sixth.

Update, 8:57: Cano looked shaky on a groundout that he booted, but he just came back with a smooth play in the hole. Side retired.

Update, 9:00: Relying on homers is working out tonight for the Yankees. No. 15 for Curtis Granderson, on a 0-2 pitch. The ball landed in the right-field seats. It’s 5-3. Pedro Beato is warming.

Update, 9:03: A-Rod hits No. 9 on the season and No. 622 of his career. It’s 6-3. Capuano is done.

Update, 9:13: Third hit for Reyes, with one out in the seventh, a single. Burnett is done. Logan is in. David Robertson is warming.

Update, 9:17: Logan hasn’t been that reliable. Lefty vs. lefty and Daniel Murphy wins. Single to right. First and third, one out. Robertson has been good at escaping jams. He gets to try again.

Update, 9:21: Robertson fans Beltran. Now Bay.

Update, 9:24: Robertson is quite an asset. He throws a sinking 95 mph fastball to get Beltran swinging and a down-and-in fastball to get Bay to pop to first. Threat extinguished.

Update, 9:30: Not liking what I’m seeing from Andruw Jones, now 0 for 3 with two strikeouts, dropping below .200. It’s 6-3 heading to the eighth. Joba is coming on.

Update, 9:31: Chris Dickerson isn’t going on the 7-day DL. He just replaced Swisher in right.

Update, 9:38: Excellent work by Chamberlain, 1-2-3, capped by striking out Thole. Taylor Buchholz will come on for the eighth for the Mets.

Update, 9:43: No. 2,973 for Jeter, another single.

Update, 9:44: Jeter just tied Rickey Henderson’s franchise record for steals.

Update, 9:52: Teixeira delivers a sac fly, 7-3. Luis Ayala will come on to pitch here in the ninth.

Update, 10:00: Yankees win, 7-3.

Brian Heyman here, back for Game 2. It’s 5:08 at this writing and the Mets are suddenly cutting batting practice short because it has suddenly started to rain. The tarp is being rolled out. The world, I’ve heard, is supposed to end at 6. A sign? Probably not. (Update: It’s 6:05. I’m still here. The tarp is, too. The clouds look ominous, although it isn’t raining. I take that back at 6:10, it’s raining again. Make that pouring, although two Army paratroopers still flew in and landed on the field.)

Robbie Cano made a throwing error in Game 1, a very wild throw to first trying for a double play. It was his fourth error of the season. He only made three all of last season. He hasn’t been quite as selective at the plate, either, although his numbers are still solid at .280 with nine homers and 27 RBI.

But Joe Girardi was playing defense for him when he was asked during the pregame press conference whether Cano had taken a step back.

“I don’t think Robbie has taken a step back,” Girardi said. “I still think he’s an All-Star. He’s a great player. … He’s not hitting .320, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to hit .320. I think he’s been pretty clutch for us.”

Cano’s error gave the Yankees 19 errors in the last 15 games.

“I believe we’re a good defensive team that for whatever reason isn’t playing well,” Girardi said.

Jorge Posada is out of the lineup again with lefty Chris Capuano going for the Mets. Posada is 0 for 25 against lefties. Alex Rodriguez is the DH. Girardi sees these situations as a chance to give players like A-Rod or Derek Jeter a half day of sorts. So is Posada now a platoon DH?

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that,” Girardi said.

A.J. Burnett gets the start tonight, bringing a 4-3 record and an improved 3.99 ERA to the mound, an ERA that’s way down from last year’s 5.26. Girardi has reason to think Burnett will continue to be more consistent.

“I think mechanically he’s more sound,” Girardi said.

The Yankees have made a roster move, exchanging relievers. Amaury Sanit goes back to AAA and Lance Pendleton comes back up.

“We talked to (Sanit) about being more consistent in his arm angles … and more consistent throwing strikes,” Girardi said. “Lance is a little more of a long man as well. So we decided to make the move.”