The LoHud Yankees Blog

The first changeup was fouled off by Maicer Izturis. The second was hit to deep center field by Erick Aybar.

“I always stick with it, though,” CC Sabathia said.

At the end of 8.2 innings — after his fourth straight win — Sabathia gave all the credit to the pitch that he was was “terrible” when the game started. The changeup has been an equalizer for the Yankees ace, and tonight the pitch did its job: Keeping hitters honest against Sabathia’s fastball and generating a series of weak popups and ground balls.

“It was huge for me tonight,” Sabathia said. “The only reason I pitched eight innings tonight is because I was able to get some swings early and get some weak fly balls (and) get some ground balls with that pitch. A couple of years ago, I probably would have been in trouble not being able to command it if I didn’t have it early.”

Sabathia has pitched at least eight innings in his past four starts. He’s won seven of his past nine, and tonight he was one out away from his second complete game in the past two weeks. After Alex Rodriguez hit the go-ahead, two-run home run in the sixth inning, Sabathia needed a total of 12 pitches to get through the next two innings. A third of those 12 pitches were changeups, and there’s no telling how many of his fastballs were made more effective because of the change.

“It just keeps the hitters off-balance, and they can’t sit hard on him,” Joe Girardi said. “You know you’re going to get your share of fastballs, but when you have that changeup, it gets them out front and gets some popups. That’s what he did tonight.”

During this West Coast road trip, the Yankees have faced six starting pitchers with a 3.01 ERA or lower. They’ve seen some of the very best in the American League, but none has pitched as well as Sabathia, who’s allowed two earned runs in 16.2 innings.

“CC is amazing,” Alex Rodriguez said. “He’s been kind of a life-saver here for the last two or three years. He’s a guy that starts winning streaks for us and stops losing streaks. He did that last Sunday, and hopefully today was another example of that.”

Here’s Sabathia.

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• Robinson Cano was hilarious talking about Torii Hunter’s tumbling attempt to catch his fourth-inning home run. Hunter nearly made the grab, and he flipped over the wall in the effort. Cano said he would have run straight out to right field if Hunter had robbed him of the homer. “That’s the kind of thing where you say, ‘Go, go, go, go,’” Cano said. “And then you see him jumping. You say, ‘Oh no.’ And then when I see the ball bounce, I say, ‘OK, we’re cool.’”

• Cano actually said he wasn’t happy with the home run at-bat because it should have ended earlier with ball four. “Honestly I don’t like that at-bat because I swing at everything and the other slider was in the dirt,” he said. “So, that’s me chasing and swinging at everything, and that’s not where you want to be. You want to be able to just take those pitches and just take your walks and just swing at better pitches.”

• Rodriguez’s analysis of his home run at-bat was not quite so complex: “Good pitch to hit,” he said. “Right down the middle, and I put a good swing on it.”

• Rodriguez had not hit a home run since May 21, but during that drought he hit .378 with a .417 on-base percentage. “You always want to be productive,” Rodriguez said. “If that means home runs, RBIs, doubles, whatever it takes to help the team win. Over my career, the one thing I’ve never worried about is home runs. I’ve focused on being a good hitter, drawing my walks and being very productive for my offense.”

• Great, great play by Rodriguez in the ninth inning. Sabathia said the diving stop was a game-saving play. Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher also made very nice plays tonight. “They were outstanding,” Girardi said. “You think about all those plays, go back to Al and the (near) double in the ninth inning. Maybe it’s a different inning in that situation (if he doesn’t make that play).”

• Girardi on the decision to leave Sabathia in for the ninth: “He was throwing the ball great. I didn’t see any reason to make a change. His pitch count was down which we usually see out of CC. He’s been on a roll.” Girardi said he didn’t want to Sabathia to face Aybar a fifth time, so he went to the closer.

• Sabathia on seeing Mariano Rivera come in to close one of his games: “That’s the best feeling, no matter what the situation is. He’s the greatest.”

• Rivera got the save with one pitch. “Very efficient,” Sabathia said.

• The Yankees tied their season high by moving eight games above .500. They’ve won 12 of their past 17 games.

• The Yankees got their first one-run road win of the season.

• Baseball Reference lists a different hit total for Sam Rice, but according to the Yankees — and Elias — Derek Jeter tied Rice tonight, moving into a share of 28th place all time with career hit No. 2,985. Baseballreference.com says Rice had 2,987.

• Also, Rodriguez tied Mel Ott for ninth place on baseball’s all-time RBI list with No. 1,864. Rivera moved ahead of Goose Gossage for sole possession of 14th on baseball’s games pitched list with his 1,003rd appearance.

• The Yankees have assured themselves a winning record on this road trip, but they’d like to win this series. “Tomorrow’s a big game,” Rodriguez said. “We have to come in here with a lot of adrenaline and hunger to finish off the trio. We haven’t accomplished anything, but for the most part the team has played a little better.”

Associated Press photos

CC Sabathia is rolling. The Yankees ace has won four straight, pitching at least eight innings in every one of them. Tonight he was one out away from his second complete game in the past two weeks, and he settled for a 3-2 win that assured the Yankees a winning record on this road trip. Alex Rodriguez’s two-run home run in the sixth inning made the difference, breaking a tie and giving Sabathia the lead he needed. Mariano Rivera entered only after back-to-back two-out singles in the ninth. He got the save with one pitch.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (31-24)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Russell Martin C
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Brett Gardner LF

LHP CC Sabathia (6-3, 2.98)
Sabathia vs. Angels

ANGELS (30-29)
Maicer Izturis 2B
Erick Aybar SS
Bobby Abreu DH
Torii Hunter RF
Alberto Callaspo 3B
Howie Kendrick LF
Mark Trumbo 1B
Jeff Mathis C
Peter Bourjos CF

RHP Ervin Santana (3-4, 4.34)
Santana vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 9:05 p.m., YES Network

WEATHER: Another gorgeous day in Anaheim. Nothing but blue skies out here.

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

GOING FOR FOUR: CC Sabathia has won his past three starts, and he’s pitched at least eight innings in each of them. According to the Yankees, he’s the second Yankees starter in the past 25 years to win three straight and throw at least eight innings in each of them. Andy Pettitte did it in 1995 when he had a string of five such starts.

MARGIN FOR ERROR: The Yankees are 6-10 in one-run games this season, including 0-5 on the road. Three such losses have happened on this road trip.

EARLY SUCCESS: The Yankees have outscored their opponents 84-48 in the first two innings this season. According to Elias, they’re the first team since the Phillies in 2009 to play seven straight games with a home run in the first or second inning.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Today is Tony Pena’s 54th birthday. He spent quite a bit of time talking to Russell Martin in the clubhouse this afternoon. Best I could tell, it wasn’t a specific scouting or instructional conversation, just two catchers talking about catching.

UPDATE, 9:52 p.m.: Yankees stranded a runner at third in the third, and Sabathia back on the mound with the game still scoreless. In a sure sign that this game will last seven hours, it seems to be moving fairly quickly right now.

UPDATE, 9:56 p.m.: And CC strikes out Torii Hunter to keep it scoreless after three.

UPDATE, 10:14 p.m.: A player flipping over the outfield wall doesn’t happen too often, but Torii Hunter went tumbling trying to catch Robinson Cano’s solo homer in the fourth. Now Sabathia is trying to make that 1-0 lead hold up, despite having runners on the corners with one out in the bottom of the inning.

UPDATE, 10:17 p.m.: Jeter’s error hurt this inning. A sac fly has tied the game in the bottom of the fourth. Would have been the final out of the inning had Jeter not bobbled a sharp grounder. Tied at 1.

UPDATE, 10:44 p.m.: Rodriguez goes deep, two-run home run that puts the Yankees in front 3-1 and moves Rodriguez into a tie with Mel Ott on baseball’s all-time RBI list.

The Yankees haven’t had a radar gun on Phil Hughes in his bullpens, and they didn’t have a gun on him during this afternoon’s sim game, but pitching coaches can usually recognize velocity without the exact numbers.

Minor league pitching coordinator Nardi Contreras always says he pays little attention to the gun and judges velocity on what he sees, and Larry Rothschild said basically the same thing this afternoon. He said it was “the arm speed and the finish in the strike zone” that told him Hughes was maintaining his velocity throughout his 22-pitch simulated outing.

“One of the things you see is he’s more animated in his delivery, which tells you his arm feels better,” Rothschild said. “Before it was, ‘You need to quickened up the pace of your delivery because that’s what you do when you’re good.’ Because the arm speed wasn’t there, he ended up slowing it down a lot. Since he started throwing again, it’s been much more animated. I think he’s feeling better, and the arm speed’s better, and you can see it in the bullpen for sure.”

Rothschild gave a flat “no” response when asked if there would be any reason for Hughes to repeat this step. As long as he bounces back, Hughes is scheduled for two innings next time out (either in a simulated game or an extended spring training game).

“He’s going to go through another spring training, basically,” Rothschild said.

Without putting a definite timetable on Hughes return, a spring training program is fairly easy to follow. Assuming Hughes pitches two innings next time out — then three, then four, then five — he’ll probably need four extended spring outings to be stretched out enough for a rehab start. If you allow for two rehab outings (just a guess on my part) that’s six outings total, each one coming every five days. That’s 30 days, which puts Hughes roughly a month away.

“From there it’s up to me as far as how I look and how I’m throwing and whether I warrant getting a shot back up here,” Hughes said. “… I just got to do what I can do. Go out there and prove that I’m healthy and ready to go. Force their hand and force the timetable a little bit. Other than that, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Everyone seems to agree that Hughes might move a little faster than a regular spring training schedule, but no one seems able to say what steps he might skip or how much more quickly he might move. Rothschild said he expects this to take less than six weeks. A month seems to be a solid estimate right now. The more important issue at the moment is that is Hughes looks and feels better than he did in those bullpen sessions immediately before he went for all of those medical tests and got that cortisone shot.

“My last side felt different as well,” Hughes said. “I felt like the ball was coming out of my hand good, and I had no issues throwing. Everything seemed pretty sharp. At this stage, I think that’s pretty much all I can ask for. I’ve said all along I won’t know for sure until I get in a game, but so far everything has been right where I want it.”

Here’s Hughes.

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And here’s Rothschild.

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• Howie Kendrick is off the disabled list and starting in left field for the Angels tonight. That’s a pretty good bat added to the lineup. He’s batting sixth and hitting .322 for the season.

• Hughes threw his simulated game against Francisco Cervelli and Chris Dickerson. Rothschild said he got four or five outs with those 22 pitches. The offspeed stuff wasn’t sharp, “but that’s fully expected,” Rothschild said.

• The official rehab won’t start until Hughes builds innings, but if he goes to extended spring, it’s basically the same thing as a rehab assignment except without the rules and restrictions (there’s a limit to how long an actual rehab can last). The fact Hughes is not immediately starting a rehab is a non-issue.

• The Yankees pitchers have started taking batting practice for interleague games. “It’s fun,” Girardi said. “Pitchers look forward to it. It makes a difference a lot of times if they stay in a game, so we encourage them to take this really seriously. If you can’t get a bunt down and you can’t do some things, you’re out.”

• The High Socks for Hope website is up and running. Check it out.

• This isn’t a huge game, but it’s certainly a game that could be a turning point and would assure a winning record on this road trip. Once again, it’s CC Sabathia on the mound in a game like this. “He doesn’t put any more pressure on himself than he has to,” Girardi said. “(He doesn’t think) ‘I have to be economical, have to attack more earlier.’ No, he’s going to pitch his game. I think it allows him just to pitch to that day as opposed to trying to pitch to the last three days or that sort of thing.”

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

Associated Press photo

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said he was encouraged by Phil Hughes’ round of live batting practice. Hughes went through his usual warmup, then threw 22 pitches.

Depending on how Hughes feels in the next few days, it’s possible his next step will be a few starts in extended spring training to build up innings before he starts an official rehab assignment.

Rothschild said Hughes was able to maintain his arm speed and velocity, but the team didn’t have a radar gun on him to know an exact velocity. Too early for that, Rothschild said.

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

Let’s do a chat before the Red Sox series.

Monday afternoon, starting at 1 p.m., I’ll be hosting a chat here at the LoHud Yankees Blog. I’ll be fresh off a red-eye flight out of Los Angeles, so there’s no way of knowing what kind of nonsense I’ll have to say. Stop by and hang out for a while.

Also, an interesting note from my friend Mark Feinsand: It appears that a stiff lower back isn’t the only reason Gary Sanchez is down in extended spring training. Feinsand reports that Sanchez was sent down because of “attitude problems” that he showed earlier this season. Stuff like this is not completely unheard of for teenage prospects, but it’s obviously not  good news. Less than two weeks ago, Mark Newman said the Yankees were happy with Sanchez’s offensive progress and said Sanchez had been assigned to extended spring training to work through a back injury.

Ivan Nova was better last night. He wasn’t perfect, but he was good. After an awful first inning — and after the bullpen started to stir in the fourth — Nova still pitched in the seventh inning and gave the Yankees a chance.

“It’s really encouraging,” Joe Girardi said. “We saw him use his slider, we saw him use his changeup, (and) we saw him throw more strikes tonight. He walked two guys in six innings, and that’s good.”

Nova is the only Yankees starter really under a microscope these days. The other four have done more than enough. One bad outing from one of those four has to be more or less excused as a bad day in a solid season. Nova’s in a different situation. He’s young and still learning, and in the past few weeks, he’s gone through some real growing pains. Last night, he seemed to actually grow up a little bit.

“When he got guys on base, I think that’s when he’s gotten in trouble in the past,” Derek Jeter said. “But today it didn’t seem to affect him.”

That’s a confidence issue, and when Nova has struggled, he hasn’t pitched with much confidence. He hasn’t been aggressive, hasn’t thrown strikes, and hasn’t been willing to turn to his third and fourth pitches. Last night, he did those things, and he did those things even after being knocked around in a two-run first inning.

“I think I was just throwing strikes,” he said. “What happened in the first inning stayed in the first inning. I can’t do nothing about that. Just got to keep my head up and be aggressive and throw strikes.”

Last night wasn’t perfect, but it’s not fair to expect perfection. Nova is going to have to do some learning on the job this season, and last night he seemed to do that. He wasn’t as good as Jered Weaver, but he gave the Yankees a chance to beat Jered Weaver. And that’s something.

Associated Press photo

The final result looks similar to those two frustrating losses in Seattle — one-run game against an elite starting pitcher — but this one felt very different. It’s not a game the Yankees blew, it’s just a game they didn’t win. It’s easy to look back at the six-pitch sixth inning, or the double that bounced over the wall, or Ivan Nova’s sloppy first inning as possible turning points, but that’s all based on speculation of what might have happened. Bottom line, a very good pitcher shutdown the Yankees lineup tonight.

“I thought we did a pretty good job of making him work,” Joe Girardi said. “But we just didn’t get many hits.”

The Yankees had only three hits, and it’s hard to win with a 3 in the hit column. One thing they did well — beginning with Derek Jeter’s opening 15-pitch at bat — was make Jered Weaver throw a bunch of pitches. They had him at 101 after five innings, but a six-pitch inning let him off the hook a little bit. The top offenders were Robinson Cano and Russell Martin, each of whom made a one-pitch out.

“If the guy gets a hit, no one questions it,” Girardi said. “He’s got outstanding breaking stuff. It’s not a guy you want to get behind in the count too often. The guys took an approach. They tried to jump him, and they didn’t get it done.”

Trying to jump on an early strike. Not wanting to fall behind in the count. Not wanting to take pitches because Weaver usually doesn’t walk too many guys. Every explanation for that six-pitch inning makes sense, but still… With a pitcher like that on the ropes, a six-pitch inning is a bad inning.

“I don’t know if he comes back out if we put 10 or 12 pitches on him, I’m not sure,” Girardi said. “He’s a guy that, you see him throw 120, 125, but I thought possibly that sixth inning was going to be his last inning, but we made some quick outs.”

Here’s Derek Jeter talking a little bit about the approach against Weaver and some other bits of tonight’s game.

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• Jeter on his 15-pitch at-bat to start the game: “It was a while. I don’t know how many pitches it was, but it was probably the longest I’ve been up there. I’m not known for being up there too long.” Just a few seconds later, with a straight face, Jeter began explaining that his entire approach tonight was to foul off as many pitches as possible. He was kidding.

• After Jeter flied out to end that opening at-bat, he clearly communicated a little bit with Weaver as he ran off the field. “It was just more of a gesture,” Jeter said. “I’ve known him since he was a teenager, so it was all in good fun.”

• Tonight was a step in the right direction for Ivan Nova. He looked awful in the first inning — erratic, hit hard, gave up two runs — but he settled in a little bit. I still thought, in the fourth inning, that his night wouldn’t last very long, but he gave the Yankees a solid start, much better than last time. “I threw more strikes today,” Nova said. “And I was more aggressive.”

• The line drive back to the mound hit Nova at the very bottom of his glove hand, and pretty much hit all glove. Nova said he’s fine. “I just see the ball right at my face and react,” he said.

• Turns out to be significant that Jorge Posada’s fourth-inning double bounced over the wall. If that weren’t a ground rule double, Nick Swisher almost certainly would have scored and extra run.

• Nova had never faced any of the Angels hitters before tonight.

• Boone Logan was brought in to face a switch hitter tonight. He got two strikes, but he couldn’t put Alberto Callaspo away, giving up a single. “I just thought he missed his spot with that pitch,” Girardi said. “With two strikes, hitters sometimes shorten up a little bit and take a little bit different approach, and you got to be able to make the pitch.”

• The first-inning passed ball was just a fastball that got away from Russell Martin. Nova said they were not crossed up on that pitch.

• The Angels announced that Ervin Santana has been bumped up one day and will start Saturday in place of Dan Haren. Joel Pineiro will start Sunday’s game in place of Santana.

• Jeter was asked if it’s starting to feel like the Yankees are facing one ace after another. “Even if you’re facing guys that may not be big-name pitchers,” he said, “they still seem to get up for us and throw the ball well.”

• Just to be sure, I double checked with CC Sabathia: He didn’t bounce his ceremonial Little League first pitch on Wednesday. Actually, he threw two of them, one to the starting catcher of each team.

• Kind of a tradition here in Anaheim, the team was showing the “Kiss Cam” on the big screen, encouraging couples in the stands to kiss on camera. Finally, the camera cut to a shot of Lance Pendleton sitting next to Dave Robertson in the bullpen. Pendleton leaned in for the kiss. Pretty hilarious.

Associated Press photos

The Yankees seemed to have Jered Weaver on the ropes tonight. He threw 101 pitches through five innings, but the Yankees let him off the hook. Weaver ultimately pitched through the seventh, the Yankees couldn’t rally, and a four-game winning streak ended with a 3-2 loss to the Angels. The Yankees tied the game in the fourth, but Ivan Nova allowed the go-ahead run a half inning later and the score never changed. When Weaver’s pitch limit seemed to be an issue, the Yankees saw only six pitches in the sixth inning. They had only three hits all night.

Associated Press photo