The LoHud Yankees Blog

First a quick reminder: Today’s chat starts at 1 p.m. right here at the LoHud Yankees Blog. Stop by and jump into the conversation. Not sure how long it will go, but I’ll try to stick around for a while and get to as many questions as I can.

Harlem RBI is saying thank you to Mark Teixeira this evening, honoring the Yankees first baseman at the organization’s 20th anniversary gala. Teixeira really has given a lot of time and money to the organization. Good job by him.

Here’s the announcement from Harlem RBI.

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Harlem RBI, an East Harlem-based academic and baseball/softball program which focuses youth on gaining college acceptance, will honor New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira and Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman & CEO Howard Lutnick for their support at its 20th anniversary gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on June 6.

Teixeira recently gave $1 million to Harlem RBI and has launched a campaign to raise additional funds to help finance a new mixed-use facility for the group’s DREAM Charter School and to support Harlem RBI’s wide range of programs. Lutnick’s leadership and longtime support has made Cantor Fitzgerald the largest corporate benefactor of Harlem RBI for more than 10 years.

As far as three-city road trips go, a swing through Seattle, Southern California and the Bay Area is better than most. If you evaluate road trips the way I do — familiar restaurants, nice hotels, the chance to see a friend or two — those three stops rank pretty high on the list.

If you evaluate road trips the way a baseball players, the results matter more than the food and the accommodations.

I guess this trip was a win for everyone.

“I think it’s important to go home playing well,” Joe Girardi said. “Guys feeling good about themselves, feeling good about the way they’re throwing the baseball, the way they’re hitting the baseball. I think that’s important.”

Here are a few things that might or might not be true on this off day following the Yankees successful trip to the West Coast.

• I remember thinking, after the first few games of the season, that Mark Teixeira might be working his way back to an MVP-caliber season. He looked that way again during the road trip. Facing so many front-line starters made it very hard to hit for average on this trip — and Teixeira certainly didn’t — but he hammered mistakes, and he’s been doing that for a few weeks now. It was a reminder that this guy has the ability to carry the team for a while if he gets hot.

• Someone asked the other day when I thought Derek Jeter would reach 3,000 hits. My answer was this: I don’t know how or why, but I really wouldn’t be surprised to see him do it during this upcoming home stand. He’s not on pace to do it, and it’s not like he hit the ball especially hard out West, but I really believe he could string together a few two-hit, three-hit games and make a run at the milestone before Chicago.

• Robinson Cano made some really nice plays during this road trip. He finally looked like the defensive standout he was last season. Until now, he’d been oddly inconsistent in the field.

• Dave Robertson really is very good at what he does. He walks guys, and I realize it’s a short-coming, but every pitcher has those. Robertson has the ability to make up for his short-coming with strikeout stuff. Raw velocity doesn’t tell you nearly enough about how good his fastball is. You have to watch the swings. There were guys in that Angels lineup who were completely overmatched.

• The whole concept seems annoying, but I love the Rally Monkey. Cracks me up every time. And the crowd always responds.

• There are other No. 1 starters who, on their best days, are better than CC Sabathia on his best days. But best days don’t happen very often, and on a start-to-start basis, Sabathia has to be considered one of the very best. He’s as reliable as they come.

• Brett Gardner used to drive people crazy with his reluctance to steal unless he was absolutely certain — or as close to certain as he could be — that he was going to take the bag without being caught. Now he’s being thrown out at a surprising rate. I have no idea what’s going on there, but I don’t think he’s any slower than he used to be. I can only guess that he’s not getting the same jumps that he has in the past.

• There were signs of life in Anaheim, but a couple of doubles and some hard-hit fly balls don’t necessarily mean Jorge Posada has found his swing. I really thought he would have begun climbing out of the hole by now.

• Eddie Vedder and Death Cab For Cutie came out with new albums during this trip, but both albums were released after the team left Seattle. The music nerd in me would have enjoyed buying those albums in their natural habitat.

• Bartolo Colon has really overshadowed a great first two months from Freddy Garcia. This is why teams are always interested in taking a look at veteran pitchers who have clearly lost their elite stuff. Some of them figure out how to work with less. That’s why it was worth giving Kevin Millwood a look even if it didn’t work out.

• It seems like we’re never talking about A.J. Burnett, and that’s a good thing.

• Based on nothing but wild speculation, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Randy Flores show up in New York this week. The Yankees could get away with carrying just one long reliever — if that guy gets burned out, just send him down and replace him with someone else from Triple-A — and use that second long-relief spot for a second lefty. Hector Noesi and Lance Pendleton each deserve to stay, but game-by-game, there’s really not a role for both of them.

Associated Press photos

There was an unmistakable energy in the Yankees clubhouse tonight. It was the feeling of a team heading home and looking forward to it. The final day of a long road trip feels different depending on the outcome, and it was obvious the Yankees felt good about this one.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever face a nine-game stretch of that kind of starting pitching again,” Mark Teixeira said.

Even the bad starters on this trip were pretty good, but the Yankees won six of nine and played legitimately good baseball. The games they lost were all one-run games. The starting pitching was tremendous, the bullpen did its job, the offense came to life and the defense was especially good the past two nights. Less than a month ago, the Yankees lost six in a row and seemed to be spiraling. Now they’ve won 13 of 18 heading into this week’s showdown against Boston.

“I thought we played pretty well at home before we left, the Mets and Toronto series,” Girardi said. “But before that, we were struggling. We were struggling to win series. There were times we’d win the first agme and we couldn’t win the next two and we weren’t playing well, but we’ve played much better the last five series, and that’s encouraging.”

Pitching deservedly got a lot of credit this road trip, but Teixeira had five home runs during this West Coast swing, including two of them today in Anaheim. He has eight home runs and 19 RBI in the past 16 games. He’s still not hitting for much average, but he’s driving the ball taking his walks.

“I feel good physically,” he said. “Sometimes when you don’t hit home runs, a lot of it’s because you’re a little tired. Your bat’s a little heavy, your bat’s a little slow. Physically I feel like we’ve had a good amount of off days. I feel like I’ve taken care of myself like I always do, and up to his point, my bat’s felt pretty good. Pretty much all season it’s felt pretty quick. I’d still like to get a few more hits. My average is probably not where I want it, but that’s just really good pitching.”

Pitching doesn’t get much better than what the Yankees saw during this road trip, but six wins in nine games shows how well they’re playing heading into tomorrow’s off day and this week’s three-game series against the Red Sox.

Here’s Teixeira.

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More than anything, it seemed the Yankees wanted to talk about their bullpen after this latest win. Bartolo Colon didn’t have his usual command, so the Yankees had to lean on their relievers for 3.2 scoreless innings.

“That might have been the toughest of all the wins that we had,” Girardi said. “It seemed like we had two runners on every inning form the sixth on, maybe even the fifth on, I don’t know, but that was a tough win… When (the relievers) had to get it, they got it.”

Dave Robertson struck out Maicer Izturis to strand the bases loaded in the sixth. Joba Chamberlain struck out Howie Kendrick to strand two runners in the seventh, then he got a double play to end the eighth. Mariano Rivera let the winning run come to the plate in the ninth, then ended the game with a quiet fist pump after the Yankees turned a quick double play.

“There’s a lot of days when you feel great and you’re blowing fastballs by people,” Chamberlain said. “This is the time you have to pitch. You rely on your command, your catcher and your defense most importantly. You’re not going to get a strikeout here, but you’ve got to let them put it into play and let them make plays behind you.”

Both Chamberlain and Robertson called it a battle. Neither had his best stuff, but both found a way. Girardi said some of the credit goes to the rotation for pitching so deep into games lately that he could stick with Robertson and Chamberlain through slightly extended outings.

“I was sitting there thinking, ‘I just put the winning runs on base,’” Robertson said. “I was struggling, I couldn’t find the strike zone, but I wasn’t going to give in. I was going to give everything I had to get out of it.”

And he did.

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• Colon only walked two, but it was clear this wasn’t his best day, and he didn’t have his usual command. “I couldn’t find a good grip on the ball,” he said. “I was trying to throw my two-seamer, and I couldn’t.”

• More than any other Yankees pitcher, I would say A.J. Burnett talks most often about shutdown innings, scoreless innings after the Yankees have scored. Colon only had one of those tonight. The Yankees scored in the second and third, then he let the Angels tie in the bottom of the third. The Yankees scored two more in the fifth, and Colon gave up a run in the bottom half. “The good thing is we got the two-run lead again, and he only gave them one more,” Girardi said. “That was the important part.”

• Colon called Robinson Cano’s charging, barehanded play to end the third inning, “the play of the game.” It really was a remarkable play from a guy who’s been surprising inconsistent defensively this season. “The barehanded play is incredible,” Girardi said. “That’s just an incredible play, and that saves a run as well.”

• Derek Jeter had another single, this one to right field to pull within 14 of career hit No. 3,000. “As a club we’re starting to get excited,” Girardi said. “I think the fans are starting to get excited. We would love to see him do it at home during the home stand.”

• Jorge Posada said he didn’t think anyone was in position to catch the throw from left field, that’s why he rounded second base on his fourth-inning double. He saw the relay men in front of him and didn’t think any one was behind him. “To be honest,” Girardi said. “He hit the double and I looked down, and I was looking over this way, and the next thing I know, he’s in a rundown. I’m like, what happened? First baseman did his job, he followed, and I guess they threw behind him. I didn’t actually see the play because I assumed it was a double.”

• Posada had his first two-hit game since May 17. He came into the game 1-for-16 on the road trip

• Brett Gardner also had two hits. He had one hit in the first seven games of this trip, now he has four hits in the past two.

• Gardner was caught stealing for the seventh time this season. He’s never been a guy who gets caught stealing very often — nine times all last year — but for whatever reason he keeps getting thrown out this year.

• Swisher on Robertson: “D-Rob’s been doing it all year long, man. That kid doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves. It boggles my mind.”

• This was the 30th career multi-homer game for Teixeira. It was his third multi-homer game in this ballpark, one as an Angel, one as a Ranger and one as a Yankee.

Associated Press photos

Mark Teixeira played for the Angels only briefly. He was with the team for 54 games in 2008 and slugged .632 during that stretch. He had a .670 slugging percentage at Angel Stadium that year. Back on familiar ground, Teixeira showed some of that familiar power, hitting two home runs in a 5-3 Yankees win against the Angels. The win capped a successful road trip that saw the Yankees win six of nine, despite facing a series of front-line starters. Bartolo Colon’s return to Anaheim wasn’t as dominant as Teixeira’s, but it was good enough for a win, thanks largely to 3.2 scoreless innings by the Yankees bullpen and a pivotal double play that ended it.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (32-24)
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

RHP Bartolo Colon (3-3, 3.26)
Colon vs. Angels

ANGELS (30-30)
Maicer Izturis 2B
Erick Aybar SS
Bobby Abreu DH
Torii Hunter RF
Alberto Callaspo 3B
Howie Kendrick LF
Mark Trumbo 1B
Hank Conger C
Peter Bourjos CF

RHP Joel Pineiro (2-2, 3.52)
Pineiro vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 3:35 p.m., YES Network

WEATHER: It’s a day game in Southern California. What do you think?

UMPIRES: HP Bill Welke, 1B Tim Tschida, 2B Mike Estabrook, 3B Marty Foster

STILL CRAZY GOOD AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: According to Elias, Mariano Rivera is the third pitcher to ever have as many as 15 saves in a season at age 41 or older. The other two were Dennis Eckersley (30 in 1996) and Trevor Hoffman (37 in 2009). Rivera got his 15th save last night.

INTO THE ROCKS: After his home run last night, Alex Rodriguez now has 68 career homers against the Angels, his most against any opponent and the most anyone ever hit against the Angels. He has 38 home runs in this ballpark, his highest total for any visiting stadium.

GOOD DAY: The Yankees have the Majors best record in day games, doing 14-3 in the sunshine. They lead the Majors with 6.47 runs per day game.

ON THIS DATE: On June 5, 1874 — that’s right, 1874 — Hall of Fame pitcher Jack Chesbro was born. He was a member of the franchise’s first team in 1903 and went 128-93 in 269 games with the Yankees from 1903-09. His 41 wins in 1904 remains the American League single-season record. I think Bartolo Colon can break it this season, but that’s just me.

UPDATE, 3:47 p.m.: Two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 first inning for Colon. Business as usual.

UPDATE, 4:09 p.m.: Jeter singles to right field. Fourteen away. Meanwhile, the Yankees have a 1-0 lead on Brett Gardner’s RBI double in the second.

UPDATE, 4:11 p.m.: And now Teixeira’s gone deep. It’s 2-0 Yankees. Former Angels beating up on the current Angels.

UPDATE, 4:35 p.m.: Really nice play by Cano to end the inning, but the Angels were able to tie the game with a home run and sac fly in the third.

UPDATE, 4:40 p.m.: Did Posada think there was no one there to catch the ball? I really can’t understand that decision. His second double of the series, but he tried to stretch it for no apparent reason and with absolutely no chance. Weird.

UPDATE, 5:44 p.m.: Robertson got himself into trouble, but he did his usual escape act to keep a 4-3 lead intact. Teixeira has a two-homer game, and that’s making the difference so far.

UPDATE, 5:57 p.m.:With the lefty Bobby Abreu on deck, Boone Logan is no longer warming for the Yankees, but Joba Chamberlain is up. Robertson is back out to start the eighth inning.

UPDATE, 6:43 p.m.: Looked like Gardner got a bad jump on that stolen base attempt in the ninth, but still, it’s hard to believe he’s had this much trouble taking bags this season. Gardner’s never had a season like this on the bases.

Joe Girardi called this a “sleepy Sunday,” and he was right. Nothing exciting going on this morning.

The most significant news involves the rotations for next week’s series between the Yankees and Red Sox. As expected, the Yankees will shuffle their starters so that CC Sabathia will pitch in the series. Had Sabathia stayed on turn, he would have pitched the first game of the Cleveland series.

“CC got the extra day here, and we just felt that he’s doing great,” Girardi said. “From a pitch standpoint, he’s gone long but he hasn’t thrown a ton of pitches, and he’s ready to go.”

The Red Sox also changed their rotation today. Clay Buchholz has a sore back and has been bumped from his scheduled Wednesday start (similar to the Dan Haren situation here in Anaheim). Tim Wakefield will make that start instead.

• With Sabathia bumped up, Ivan Nova has been bumped back to take that Friday start against Cleveland.

• Just a regular day game after a night game rest for Russell Martin, with the added bonus of getting back-to-back days off with tomorrow’s off day. “It’s an early turnaround today, and it gives him two days off,” Girardi said. “He’s going to catch plenty as we go forward.”

• Girardi said he expects the attention on Derek Jeter’s chase for 3,000 hits to increase when the team comes home this week. Hard to imagine Jeter getting a full day off during this home stand, but I guess you never know. “We have to play to win,” Girardi said. “If I feel he needs a day off, I’ll give him a day off. If not, he’s going to play.”

• Today Bartolo Colon is pitching where he won his Cy Young award six years ago. “I think people forgot how good he was just because he hadn’t pitched in a while,” Girardi said. “But we’re seeing what Bartolo used to do.”

• The Yankees have already assured a winning record on this road trip. “It’s been a good trip for us, and obviously if you could win today it would be a really good trip or us,” Girardi said.

ANGELS
Maicer Izturis 2B
Erick Aybar SS
Bobby Abreu DH
Torii Hunter RF
Alberto Callaspo 3B
Howie Kendrick LF
Mark Trumbo 1B
Hank Conger C
Peter Bourjos CF

As expected, the Yankees will shuffle their rotation for the upcoming Red Sox series.

Freddy Garcia will start Tuesday’s opener, followed by A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia.

Ivan Nova has been bumped back to Friday.

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

Be sure to tune into the YES pregame show this afternoon. At 3 p.m. ET, the network will air the footage of Dave and Erin Robertson’s trip to Tuscaloosa.

I was able to watch it last night, and it’s really powerful. The tornado devastation in that town is unreal, but the story is ultimately uplifting. Kim Jones and the crew at YES did a really nice job with it. Also very highly recommended is the Sports Illustrated story from a few weeks ago. It’s a terrific piece by Lars Anderson.

The High Socks For Hope website has been updated with a ton of information about the foundation and the people it helps. Check that out as well.

I was a little surprised last night at the reaction to the Yankees not putting a radar gun on Phil Hughes during yesterday’s sim game. Truth is, a radar gun reading would have meant almost nothing. Hughes isn’t built up beyond 22 pitches, he spent most of the past month resting, and he’s essentially back in the early phases of spring training.

The Yankees don’t put a radar gun on their starters during bullpens and BP sessions in spring training. Not sure why they’d use one in this situation.

Obviously there’s interest in Hughes’ velocity because it was at the root of his early season struggles, but this is one of those have-to-be-patient moments. Yesterday’s velocity wouldn’t have meant much, if it meant anything at all. There are too many steps to go. It might have satisfied some curiosity, but that doesn’t mean it would have been legitimately useful for Hughes and the Yankees.

Phil Hughes: “I’ll be curious when I get in a real game, when all the adrenalin’s there and there’s not a batting cage up and stuff like that. Then I’ll be curious. I think right now it’s more about the process and not necessarily the finish line. I’m not a week away from it or anything like that.”

Larry Rothschild: “I don’t want him pitching to the gun. I think he needs to throw the ball the way he’s capable of each day. I don’t want him pitching to the gun, especially this early coming back, trying to do too much and tweaking something else. We don’t need that.”

Joe Girardi: “I think it’s probably a little bit early for that, because it’s almost like the beginning stages of spring training for him. As we get a little bit further down the process, we’ll want to know.”