The LoHud Yankees Blog

Here’s the latest Associated Press update on the injured Yankees down in Tampa.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — New York Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter has resumed onfield work.

The Yankees’ captain threw for the first time Tuesday, including long toss, since going on the 15-day disabled list last week because of a strained right calf.

Jeter also worked out indoors and had treatment at New York’s spring training complex. He’s six hits away from 3,000 in his career.

Jeter limped off the field during a game on June 13 against Cleveland. It’s the first time since 2003 he’s been on the 15-day DL.

Also, right-handed starter Bartolo Colon, sidelined by a strained right hamstring, has started a throwing program that included long toss on Tuesday.

Injured relievers Rafael Soriano (right elbow inflammation) and Damaso Marte (left shoulder surgery) played catch.

Brian Gordon gets it. He knows he’s not the Yankees starter you ever imagined, but tonight he’ll make his second start in pinstripes, and Joe Girardi said the plan is to give Gordon at least a third.

Gordon’s a 32-year-old rookie. He’s a former outfielder, and he had all of four big league innings before his unlikely arrival in the Yankees clubhouse. You think his whirlwind ascent is mind-boggling? Imagine how he feels.

“It really is,” Gordon said. “Absolutely. It’s unbelievable. I try not to think about it too much, because I think you can get too excited. I just try to tell myself over and over, ‘You belong here, so just do your job.’ It’s something that excites me every day just to think about.”

I haven’t talked to Gordon a whole lot, but he’s the kind of guy you enjoy rooting for. He wasn’t perfect in his first start, but he made some big pitches, and he gave the Yankees all they could have wanted. He got the job done.

“It’s been crazy,” he said. “The most change is understanding now how many people are backing me and supporting me. The phone calls I’ve been getting, the support mail I’ve been getting. It’s tremendous and uplifting. Apart from that, I’ve been trying to do the same thing. Not much has been different. My days have been the same: I wake up, eat my breakfast and try to do the same things.”

Sometimes, it’s that simple. I couldn’t do it — you probably couldn’t either — but if you have the talent to pitch in the big leagues, falling into a routine and not being overwhelmed can make a difference. Gordon’s a nice guy. He’s easy to root for, and it looks like he can pitch, too. He’s excited to be here, but it doesn’t seem like he’s overwhelmed to be here.

One other thing: Chances are, Gordon’s going to have his first big league at-bat tonight. He was drafted as an outfielder in 1997, and tonight he’s going to not only start a game for the New York Yankees, but he’s finally going to hit as a big league player.

“That will be kind of neat, to be able to get my first big-league AB,” he said. “It’s kind of funny, if you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be getting my first Major League at-bat as a pitcher, I’d be laughing at you. It’s going to be special.”

Associated Press photo

After the longest outing of Ivan Nova’s young Major League, the focus in the Yankees clubhouse seemed to be on Nova’s eighth pitch of the night. It was the one pitch that cost him a run, but it might have been his biggest pitch of the night.

There were no outs, runners at the corners and the defending National League MVP had just fouled off a first-pitch fastball. That’s when Nova went to his changeup for a run-scoring double play that started a string of 22 of 24 batters retired.

“The last couple times, I wasn’t throwing too many changeups, maybe one or none in a game,” Nova said. “Tonight, we started with changeups to their third and fourth hitters, the power hitters, because you don’t want to let them hit your fastball. I started mixing from the beginning, and we kept doing that through the end of the game.”

Nova leans heavily on his fastball and curveball, and both are good pitches, but when he was struggling a month ago, it was his reluctance to throw anything beyond those two pitches that got him into trouble. He had to mix it up, and tonight he did that. Russell Martin said it was the first time he remembered Nova having both a sharp curveball and a sharp slider, and Joe Girardi was thrilled to see his 24-year-old going to the changeup, especially against left-handed home run hitters in a homer-friendly ballpark.

“It’s impressive,” Girardi said. “We’ve seen this kid take some steps forward and do some really good things for us, and we’ll continue to work with him and try to teach him. And I think he’s learning on the way. That’s what you do when you’re a young starter, you take what you did the last start and try to learn from it. And I think he’s doing that. He’s making adjustments as he needs to make adjustments.”

Nova didn’t walk anyone tonight, and after those back-to-back singles that opened the bottom of the first inning, he allowed just two more hits the rest of the way. He’s not usually a strikeout pitcher, but he struck out a season-high seven, including the last batter he faced on a nice breaking ball on the outer half.

“He looked poised today,” Martin said. “It looked like he felt confident even though he had to battle that first inning. After that, it looked like a piece of cake for him.”

My audio of Nova is awful — he was standing right underneath a speaker that was blasting some song I’d never heard — so here’s the Martin audio. He’s always pretty good at talking about his pitchers.

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• Alex Rodriguez came out of the game just because Girardi wanted to get him off his feet, but Rodriguez admitted that he’s feeling a little banged up lately. “I feel okay,” he said. “Just okay. Nothing north of that, that’s for sure.” He said the shoulder’s not a problem, he’s just played a lot lately, and Girardi said he’s planning to have Rodriguez in the lineup tomorrow.

• Rodriguez said his diving play at third base didn’t bother his shoulder. “A lot of guys are banged up,” he said. “It’s part of the long summer. I don’t think there’s a guy in Major League Baseball that feels 100 percent right now. I’m no exception.?”

• One advantage to having a former National League catcher behind the plate for an interleague series: “When I got here, the first thing I asked (Martin) was, ‘Do you know the hitters well?’” Nova said. “He said yes, so I didn’t shake any time. I trust my catcher, so whatever the sign was, I just threw it.”

• Nova acknowledged that he thought about this ballpark’s reputation while he was throwing in the bullpen pregame. He was especially focused on staying down in the zone, keeping hitters from elevating in a homer-friendly park. “He’s a tough guy to evelvate the ball on because he’s got so much movement,” Martin said. “And for the most part he keeps his fastball down. He’s just really a tough guy to elevate, so when you’ve got a guy who keeps the ball down like that, you’re not really to worried about the long ball.”

• Girardi said he never really considered sticking with Nova for the ninth inning. Nova had already thrown more innings than ever before, and Girardi didn’t want to send him back out there at 105 pitches. Nova said he was surprised to be taken out and thought he could have finished it.

• Girardi’s plan in the ninth was to stick with Luis Ayala until a runner got on base, then he wanted to go to Boone Logan to face a lefty. Logan hadn’t pitched since June 12. “We wanted to get Boone in a game,” Girardi said.

• Logan hit Votto with his first and only pitch, but Girardi didn’t indicate any thought of no longer using Logan. “It’s not what you want to do, but we’ll move forward,” Girardi said.

• After Logan put a second runner on base with no outs, Girardi said it was a no-brainer to go to Mariano Rivera, even though there was another lefty coming to the plate. At that point it was a save situation. “It’s his job,” Girardi said. “That’s what we have him for, and that’s what he’s done for a long time.”

• In a homer-ballpark, the Yankees did most of their scoring with a series of singles — and one double — in the first inning. “I thought our guys were ready to hit right from the start,” Girardi said. “Nobody tried to do too much. There’s all this talk about this ballpark being a home run ballpark. Our guys just took what they gave them, hit hard line drives and we scored runs.”

• Girardi said the decision to replace Jones with Brett Gardner was strictly for defense and had nothing to do with the ankle injury or Jones not running out the play.

• Nova was hilarious talking about his first big league at-bat. He said the first fastball looked like it was 100 mph. “The first pitch he threw me was 85,” Nova said. “The second one was 90-91. I was like, ‘What the hell? What are you trying to do with me? Keep throwing 85.’ I got a chance to hit and pitch in the big-leagues, so I’ll take that. It was a really good experience.”

Associated Press photo

Andruw Jones said he’s OK after rolling his left ankle in the third inning.

On a ground ball to third base, Jones rolled his ankle during his swing. He took it easy going to first base — which let the Reds turn a double play — but Jones said he’s rolled the ankle a lot, so after the initial concern, he was able to tell Joe Girardi that he was fine. That’s why he stayed in the game.

“Right when I first moved, I just kind of take it easy,” Jones said. ”Just make sure everything is OK.”

It wasn’t long ago that Ivan Nova seemed to be pitching for his job. Now he’s won three straight starts after an eight-inning masterpiece tonight in Cincinnati. Facing the highest-scoring offense in the National League, Nova allowed a first-inning run, then settled in for a 5-3 win. Before a two-out single in the eighth, he had retired 22 of the previous 24 batters he’d faced. He walked none, struck out seven and got 14 ground ball outs. The Yankees gave him a quick lead with a four-run first inning when four straight Yankees had RBI at-bats. The Reds scored two runs in the ninth, after Luis Ayala and Boone Logan put runners on base and forced the Yankees to go to closer Mariano Rivera.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (41-29)
Nick Swisher RF
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Russell Martin C
Andruw Jones LF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Ivan Nova RHP

RHP Ivan Nova (6-4, 4.46)
Nova vs. Reds

REDS (38-35)
Drew Stubbs CF
Brandon Phillips 2B
Joey Votta 1B
Jay Bruce RF
Scott Rolen 3B
Chris Heisey LF
Ryan Hanigan C
Paul Janish SS
Travis Wood LHP

LHP Travis Wood (5-4, 5.11)
Wood vs. Yankees

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

WEATHER: The wind is blowing in pretty hard from right field. It’s cloudy, but for now the rain has stopped.

UMPIRES: HP Marvin Hudson, 1B D.J. Reyburn, 2B Ted Barrett, 3B Tim McClelland

HIGH POINT: After last night’s win, the Yankees are 12 games over .500, which is their high-water mark for the season thus far.

NOT  A PLATOON PLAYER: Curtis Granderson is tied with Jose Bautista and Mark Teixeira for the Major League lead in home runs with 21. Granderson has hit nine of him home runs off left-handed pitchers, which is more home runs vs.LHP than any other player — lefty or righty — in the big leagues. Granderson leads the Majors with 61 runs scored this season.

START STRONG: The Yankees have outscored their opponents 103-61 in the first two innings this season (54-31 in the first inning). They’ve scored the first run in 44 of 70 games this season.

UPDATE, 7:26 p.m.: Four-run first inning with Rodriguez, Cano, Martin and Jones — yes, Jones — all driving in runs for the Yankees.

UPDATE, 7:50 p.m.: There’s a clean 1-2-3 second inning for Nova. He allowed a run in the first and let the first two batters reach base, but he’s retired five in row now without letting the ball leave the infield. Ground balls are usually a good sign for him.

UPDATE, 7:59 p.m.: Not sure what happened there, but Jones is still in the game after basically trotting his way into a double play. Actually trotting might be generous. He basically walked the last few steps to first, and a blown play by the Reds turned into two outs. Jones seemed to be hurt, but he stayed in the game after being checked on the field.

UPDATE, 8:10 p.m.: Big ovation here for Paul O’Neill, who was just shown on the big screen while sitting in the YES booth.

UPDATE, 9:10 p.m.: Twelve ground ball out for Nova, who looks terrific tonight. He’s still leaning heavily on his fastball and curveball, but he’s also thrown quite a few changeups and that seems to be helping him. Whatever it is, he’s been dominant against a very good offense.

There are 11 reporters covering the Yankees full time. Four of us — Sweeny Murti, Dan Barbarisi, Pete Caldera and myself — chose a 8:20 a.m. flight to carry us from Chicago to Cincinnati this morning. It was the wrong choice.

After a five-hour delay, I got to Great American Ball Park about four minutes before Joe Girardi addressed the media. In the end, the timing worked out just fine, but it’s been a long, long day of airport meals and searching for places to plug in a laptop.

Anyway, apparently it rained almost all day here in Cincinnati, but it’s cleared up for now and it looks like the Yankees and Reds have a chance of playing tonight. The Yankees are taking batting practice, and we’ll just straight into the notes.

• Johnny Cueto is sick (nevermind, apparently he has a stiff neck), so the Reds shuffled their rotation to start lefty Travis Wood tonight. That left Girardi deciding whether to start Andruw Jones or Brett Gardner. He went with Jones, despite the fact Gardner’s been hot lately. “You think about giving Grandy a day off too, either one of them, but I chose to do Gardy today,” Girardi said. “Gardy’s been playing great, and maybe some of that will keep him going. He’s going to play against some left-handers, but I chose to get Andruw back in there.”

• Gardner has a .385 on-base percentage against lefties, but only one extra-base hit. Jones has a .236 average against lefties, but a .491 slugging percentage. Jones’ OPS is more than 100 points higher than Gardner’s against lefties. It’s almost impossible to sit Curtis Granderson these days, and obviously Nick Swisher’s days off should come against right-handers. It’s worth noting that this is a home run park. “You’re playing in a ballpark where (power) can sometimes serve you well here,” Girardi said.

• Girardi said he expects Phil Hughes to make at least two more rehab starts before being activated. He believes Hughes will make his next outing with Trenton on Friday, but Girardi wasn’t sure. Last night, Hughes fastball was 91-93, including some 93 readings in the fourth inning. “It just seems that his arm strength is back,” Girardi said. He should be cleared for 75 pitches next time.

• On Russell Martin: “He’s fine,” Girardi said. “I talked to him today. He’s fine. He’s ready to go.”

• On Alex Rodriguez: “You could walk into training room and there’ll be 10 guys getting treatment every day,” Girardi said. “It’s part of being a ball player. You go in. You get treatment. It’s part of what it is… Soreness is just part of being an everyday ball player.”

• It’s been a week since Derek Jeter was injured. Girardi said he’s still hopeful that Jeter will be back after 15 days. It’s still uncertain whether he’ll go on a rehab assignment. “He’s still doing treatment and he’s doing some functional stuff,” Girardi said. “He’ll start some baseball activities in the next couple of days.”

• Eric Chavez has been doing some light running on a treadmill every other day.

• Rafael Soriano is reporting to Tampa today. No word on when he’ll start doing extensive rehab start, but getting down there is obviously the first step.

• No real update on the other injured Yankees. Pedro Feliciano and Damaso Marte are playing catch. Bartolo Colon is pretty much just doing his treatment. “I think he plays a little bit with his weighted ball, but he hasn’t done anything aggressively and we’ll just have to play it by ear how he’s doing,” Girardi said. “Are we going to get him after 15 days? I can’t tell you that. If we are, he probably needs to start throwing pretty soon.”

• The Yankees plan to stay on rotation after Thursday’s off day, meaning CC Sabathia will get an extra day of rest.

Associated Press photo

Just landed after a five hour delay getting out of Chicago. Thanks to Twitter, here’s the Yankees lineup.

Nick Swisher RF
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Russell Martin C
Andruw Jones LF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Ivan Nova RHP

Tonight
RHP Ivan Nova (6-4, 4.46)
vs.
RHP Johnny Cueto (4-2, 1.68)
7:10 p.m., YES Network / ESPN

Tuesday
RHP Brian Gordon (0-0, 3.38)
vs.
LHP Travis Wood (5-4, 5.11)
7:10 p.m., MY9 / MLB Network

Wednesday
RHP Freddy Garcia (5-6, 3.63)
vs.
RHP Mike Leake (6-3, 4.04)
12:35 p.m., YES Network

The headline really makes no sense, but might as well go with a Soul Coughing song reference before my morning flight to Cincinnati.

Wrigley Field is a strange place — in a good way — and the Yankees had a kind of strange series. First they were beaten by a pitcher who hadn’t won a game in more than a year, then their rookie shortstop managed to get two huge hits and commit one nearly game-changing error in a span of a few innings. In the finale, their light-hitting leadoff hitter went deep, the usual heavy hitters chipped away, the Yankees second home run of the series turned everything around.

And based on the picture above, it seems Russell Martin and A.J. Burnett got to the field via some sort of Field of Dreams journey through the outfield ivy.

I grew up in the midwest, but this was my first trip to Wrigley. It’s a frustrating place to work — the writers have little choice but to leave the press box in the ninth inning to beat the crowds and get to the cramped clubhouse in time for postgame interviews — but as a baseball experience, the place is outstanding. Leaving the press box early meant watching every bottom of the ninth from the seats right behind home plate. Very cool place to watch a game. I had a great view of that sharp ground ball that knocked Ramiro Pena to the ground last night. It would have taken my head off.

There’s no video board at Wrigley. No pop music blaring through the stadium. There are people watching from the rooftops across the street. Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium are both must-see venues, but for completely different reasons.

“I don’t really think about it,” Joe Girardi said. “It’s probably because I knew what to expect when I came here. I’ve been in both dugouts and I think if you miss anything, the thing that you miss the most is having your own cage so guys can do their work and pinch hitters can get ready. You really don’t have the room for that. Last time I checked, I hadn’t seen anybody run out to right field and say, ‘Hold up, I’m going to get loose in the cage.’ That’s probably the biggest component you miss. Everything else is fine.”

Associated Press photo