The LoHud Yankees Blog

YANKEES (53-37)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Andruw Jones LF
Brett Gardner CF
Eduardo Nunez 3B
Francisco Cervelli C

LHP CC Sabathia (13-4, 2.72)
Sabathia vs. Blue Jays

BLUE JAYS (47-47)
Rajai Davis CF
Eric Thames RF
Yunel Escobar SS
Adam Lind 1B
Edwin Encarnacion DH
Aaron Hill 2B
Travis Snider LF
J.P. Arencibia C
John McDonald 3B

LHP Ricky Romero (7-8, 3.09)
Romero vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 1:07 p.m., YES Network

WEATHER: You know what’s surprisingly cool? Actually watching a dome roof open. The Rogers Center roof opened around 11 a.m. It’s a sunny day here in Toronto.

UMPIRES: HP Todd Tichenor, 1B Gerry Davis, 2B Angel Hernandez, 3B Greg Gibson

ALL ABOUT CC: According to Elias, CC Sabathia is the fifth Yankees starter to have the outright MLB lead in wins at the all-star break (Vic Raschi in 1949, Bob Turley in 1958, Whitey Ford 1961 and Ron Guidry in 1978)… Sabathia has a 23.2-inning scoreless streak, the longest of his career… The last Yankees win was Sabathia’s complete game shutout on Sunday. It was the Yankees first complete game shutout at home since Chien-Ming Wang on July 28, 2006, and the first such game by a Yankees lefty since David Wells on April 10, 2003.

YANK-Es: The Yankees committed three errors on Thursday and two more on Friday. It’s the first time since June 27 of last year that they’ve had multiple errors in back-to-back games. It’s the the fourth time they’ve had consecutive multi-error games since Joe Girardi took over as manager.

THIS DATE: On July 16, 1941, Joe DiMaggio went 3-for-4 with three runs, a double and a walk to bring his hitting streak to 56 games. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the days DiMaggio’s streak came to an end.

UPDATE, 1:24 p.m.: Walk, stolen base and a sharp single up the middle have given the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead at the end of one inning. Sabathia struck out the last two batters he faced, but the damage was done.

UPDATE, 1:38 p.m.: Three straight hits and an RBI ground out have given the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the second inning. Swisher doubled, Jones singled, Gardner doubled and Nunez brought in the go-ahead run with a grounder.

UPDATE, 1:59 p.m.: Yankees managed to sneak a run there. Pretty bad base running decision by Cano, but the Blue Jays botched the play and Granderson scored. It’s now 3-1.

UPDATE, 2:03 p.m.: Error No. 12 for Nunez. Another bad throw to first.

UPDATE, 2:23 p.m.: The Yankees have scratched out another run — thanks largely to some aggressive base running by Brett Gardner — and it’s now 4-1 as Sabathia pitches with two on and no outs in the fourth.

UPDATE, 3:23 p.m.: Sabathia’s line since that RBI single in the first inning: 6.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K.

From the very moment that Russell Martin suggested the Blue Jays were stealing signs on Thursday, the Yankees have insisted that sign stealing is perfectly fair as long as it takes place between the lines. A player on base reading signs and relaying information is fair game.

This morning, though, Joe Girardi implied that the Blue Jays sign stealing goes behind head gestures from second base.

“I don’t really want to get into it,” Girardi said. “Signs are coveted. Anywhere that you play in the game, you have to protect your signs. Sometimes we have inclinations that things might be happening in certain ballparks that we’re aware of, and we try to protect our signs… I’ve told the guys, there’s things you have to do in certain ballparks.”

This was in response to a question about why the Yankees were using multiple signs last night, even without runners on base. Why would it be necessary to flash multiple signs when there’s no base runner to read them? Asked if there’s a chance the signs are being gathered off the field, Girardi gave a cryptic, “Could be.”

“I’m not accusing anyone,” Giardi said. “I just said we need to protect our signs. You have to take pride in it, and you have to be smarter than the other club when you do things and you have to change things up. You have to be willing to do those things.”

Of course, Blue Jays manager John Farrell denied any sort of off-the-field activity, and brought up the fact that his team is still trying to get above .500 at home. He seemed more confused that anything about the implication.

“Honestly, why that would even come about, I don’t know,” Farrell said. “We play this game to compete and prepare every day, and we don’t look to any other means than what takes place between the lines.”

Here’s Girardi

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• Rafael Soriano is throwing live batting practice today, but Girardi wasn’t sure when. If that goes well, Soriano could be cleared for a rehab assignment next week.

• Girardi said Eric Chavez is also taking steps forward. “He’s taking ground balls, and he’s taking BP, so he’s done okay,” Girardi said. “Hopefully we can get him in a game pretty soon too. I can’t tell you when, but it would be nice to get him in a game soon.”

• Damaso Marte is throwing bullpens now. Pedro Feliciano is playing catch again.

• Russell Martin is sitting because it’s a day game after a night game. Curtis Granderson is the DH to rest his legs on this turf. “This is the third of eight days, and you’ll see us do this a little bit,” Girardi said.

• Lefties have hit Ricky Romero better than righties, so Girardi didn’t want to take either Brett Gardner or Granderson out of the lineup. Could be because Romero has such a good changeup. That pitch is usually helpful in a left-hander neutralizing right-handed hitters (and vice versa).

• Girardi said he’d have to check with Hector Noesi before knowing whether he’s available, but he doesn’t expect Sergio Mitre to be available today. Mitre has struggled the past two nights. “He just doesn’t have the velocity and the sink that he had, and I can’t tell you exactly why,” Girardi said. “We’re looking at things and we’re trying to work on it.”

• Jose Bautista is once again out of the Blue Jays lineup.

• If you haven’t seen it, George King has reported that the Yankees have scouts watching Ubaldo Jimenez, as well as several other potentially available pitchers. As always with Brian Cashman, it’s hard to say whether this is legitimate interest or part of Cashman’s usual diligence in checking every possible option.

• Derek Jeter got a kick out of hearing about Paul McCartney’s “more hits than me” line from last night’s concert.

BLUE JAYS
Rajai Davis CF
Eric Thames RF
Yunel Escobar SS
Adam Lind 1B
Edwin Encarnacion DH
Aaron Hill 2B
Travis Snider LF
J.P. Arencibia C
John McDonald 3B

Associated Press photo

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Andruw Jones LF
Brett Gardner CF
Eduardo Nunez 3B
Francisco Cervelli C

It feels incredibly early right now. The Yankees have day games in Toronto today and tomorrow, then they open a four-game set in Tampa on Monday. The lineup should be posted fairly soon, so let’s start this morning with something really light.

Here are some AP shots of Paul McCartney’s first show at Yankee Stadium. He apparently closed last night’s show with the last three songs of the Abbey Road medley – the headline comes from Golden Slumbers — and he gave a funny little tribute to Derek Jeter.

“And by the way,” McCartney said, “who is this Derek Jeter guy? Somebody said he’s got more hits than me.”

Associated Press photos

It was Joe Girardi’s idea that Russell Martin and Freddy Garcia use multiple signs from the very beginning tonight. Even with no one on base, Martin was flashing more than one sign before every pitch, and there were frequent trips to the mound to change the signs completely. Perhaps it’s little coincidence that Garcia said afterward that he was never able to get into any sort of rhythm.

“It wasn’t that bad, but we did have a hard time getting into a rhythm,” Martin said. “We were going multiple signs from the get-go, and that was the first time we’ve done it together. It kind of slowed down the game a little bit, but that’s not an excuse. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the other team for doing the right things. He was pitching his game, but they had a good game plan for him.”

This was Garcia’s 16th start of the season, and it was the first time he allowed more than four earned runs. He’s rarely been dominant, but he’s been remarkably consistent. He’s avoided stretches like tonight’s fourth and fifth innings, when Garcia gave up five runs on four hits, three walks, three stolen bases and two errors.

“When you can’t find a rhythm, they know,” Garcia said. “I was struggling at the mound, trying to find a way to make the pitches. I wasn’t able to do that, which is why they were running all over the place.”

Maybe it’s just a bump in the road for Garcia, but he and Bartolo Colon have pitched poorly on back-to-back nights. Those back-to-back nights happened to have been the first two games after the all-star break, and those two starters happen to be the veterans who spent the first half pitching well beyond anyone’s expectation.

“If every time a starter went out and had not such a good start and you lost confidence in him, you’d run out of starters in a hurry,” Girardi said. “Starters sometimes are going to get hit. That’s the bottom line. They live on a fine line every time they go out there, and sometimes they’re just not going to make pitches we’re used to seeing them make. That happens… I think we can get another half (out of those two). And this half is shorter than the last half, so I think we can still get a lot out of them.”

Here’s Garcia.

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• Easy to point the finger at the Yankees pitching, but the defense has also committed five errors in these past two games. That hasn’t been the only problem, but it’s certainly been one of the problems. “We haven’t made the plays, and that hurts you,” Girardi said. “You can’t give teams extra outs, and when you do, they usually make you pay.”

• Martin on his bad throw to third base: “That’s just me sucking. If I make a good throw, he’s out. Just a bad throw. I guess I did rush myself. I had more time than I thought I did.”

• Girardi on Brett Gardner’s decision to throw to second base instead of throwing home or to the cutoff man in the first inning: “I don’t think he thought he had a chance. He probably could have kept it. It didn’t necessarily change the complexion because the next guy would have hit a sac fly, in a sense. I think if he comes up and throws it to the cutoff man, he doesn’t go.”

• Garcia said the long layoff didn’t affect him, and it’s true that he allowed just one run in the first three innings. What hurt him, he said, was his splitfinger. “When I had to put the split down, I wasn’t able to,” he said. “I threw some good ones, but when I had to finish up, I didn’t. That’s all.”

• Garcia’s streak of five straight quality starts ended tonight. He had allowed a total of just seven earned runs in his last five starts before the break.

• Garcia hasn’t allowed a home run in his past six starts, which matches the longest single-season streak of his career. He’s gone 39.1 innings without a homer.

• Martin said he didn’t see anything tonight to make him think the Blue Jays were stealing signs. “We changed signs up a couple times, but that’s not really different than what we usually do,” he said. “Maybe we’re being a little extra careful now, but we’ve been doing that all year.”

• The first two Yankees reached base, but the middle of the order left them stranded. The first two reached again in the second, but the Yankees got only one run. “We had some opportunities early, and we didn’t take advantage of them,” Girardi said.

• Could this be a sign that the Yankees are already missing Alex Rodriguez? “You can’t look at it that way,” Girardi said. “That’s feeling sorry for yourself. We scored seven runs last night without Alex. Is he hard to replace? Absolutely. But you can’t look at it that way.”

• Seven of Eduardo Nunez’s 15 RBI have either tied a game or put the Yankees in the lead. His RBI single in the second tied the game tonight.

• Jorge Posada played in his 1,789th game, matching Billy Dickey for eighth place on the Yankees all-time games played list.

• Here’s a final word from Girardi: “It’s not the way you want to start out, but let’s not make too much of them. I mean, it’s two games. We’ll get back on track, and we’ll start playing well again.”

Associated Press photo

Freddy Garcia got out of the first inning, but otherwise, he didn’t give the Yankees much more of a chance to win than Bartolo Colon gave them last night. In his first start since July 3, Garcia allowed a season-high six runs — five earned — in a 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays. Garcia had allowed a total of seven earned runs in his last five starts before the break, but he wasn’t sharp tonight. A two-run fourth and three-run fifth made all the difference as the Yankees got only one run on four hits against Toronto starter Brandon Morrow.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (53-36)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner LF
Eduardo Nunez 3B

RHP Freddy Garcia (7-6, 3.13)
Garcia vs. Blue Jays

BLUE JAYS (46-47)
Rajai Davis CF
Eric Thames DH
Yunel Escobar SS
Adam Lind 1B
Aaron Hill 2B
Travis Snider LF
Edwin Encarnacion 3B
Corey Patterson RF
Jose Molina C

RHP Brandon Morrow (5-4, 4.60)
Morrow vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:07 p.m., MY9 and MLB Network

WEATHER: Another nice day in Toronto. A little hot if anything. Roof open again.

UMPIRES: HP Greg Gibson, 1B Todd Tichenor, 2B Gerry Davis, 3B Angel Hernandez

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: The Yankees allowed 20 hits last night, but the Elias Sports Bureau says it was the first time the franchise gave up 20 or more hits without surrendering a home run in a game of nine innings or fewer in exactly 77 years. Last time it happened was July 14, 1934 against Detroit. So, no home runs. That’s a plus.

ON THE SAME SIDE: Also according to Elias, Thursday’s game was the 1,660th time that Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada played together in a regular-season game for the Yankees. They’ve moved past Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri (1,659 games) for the most games played together by any pair of teammates in Yankees history. The only other current big league teammates to play 1,000 or more games together as teammates are Jeter and Alex Rodriguez (1,050).

ON THE FLY: Last night, Brett Gardner got his fifth outfield assist of the season. He has 14 outfield assists as a left fielder the past two years, that’s the third-most among Major League left fielders in that span, one behind both Alex Gordon and Delmon Young.

UPDATE, 7:14 p.m.: As Robinson Cano was digging in for his first at-bat, Jose Molina picked up chalk from the batters box and threw it on his shoes. Cano stepped out and started laughing. Pretty good

UPDATE, 7:24 p.m.: Gardner threw to second on Escobar’s single, and that let Thames score without a play for a 1-0 Blue Jays lead.

UPDATE, 7:52 p.m.: Tied game after two. The Yankees got an RBI single by Nunez in the second inning, now they’re starting the third tied at 1.

UPDATE, 8:13 p.m.: That’s just a terrific play by Encarnacion. Wow.

UPDATE, 8:24 p.m.: Now Encarnacion has an RBI double to give the Jays a 2-1 lead in the fourth.

UPDATE, 8:28 p.m.: Two-out, RBI single by Jose Molina and now it’s 3-1 Jays at the end of four.

UPDATE, 8:45 p.m.: For Garcia, things have started to unravel since the middle of the fourth inning. He allowed the two runs in the fourth, and now he’s loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth. Cory Wade is getting loose in the bullpen.

UPDATE, 8:47 p.m.: Garcia and Cano both threw their hands up in the air when the Yankees didn’t get the call at first base, but Teixeira didn’t react, which makes me think he wasn’t surprised by the call. A run scored, the Yankees didn’t get the double play, and it’s now 4-1 in the fifth.

UPDATE, 9:05 p.m.: Garcia is finished after five innings. He’s left the Yankees in a 6-1 hole. He threw 95 pitches, 56 for strikes.

UPDATE, 9:14 p.m.: Some guy ran onto the field, lost his shoes just a few feet into the outfield, then laid on the ground and put his hands behind his back as soon as he got to the wall. I’m sure that was worth it.

Sorry about the delayed and shortened notes this afternoon. Joe Girardi had some television stuff to do and didn’t meet with the writers until a little later than usual.

Really, most of the pregame buzz centered on two topics: Bartolo Colon’s hamstring and Russell Martin’s comments saying he believed the Blue Jays were stealing signs last night. There’s nothing new on Colon — he’s still on turn to start Tuesday and the Yankees believe his hesitation is more mental than physical — but the Martin stuff is interesting.

He noticed last night that the Blue Jays never seemed fooled, then he noticed a runner at second looking one way before a fastball, then looking the other way before a breaking ball, then looking the original direction again when Martin called for another fastball. That’s when Martin went to the mound and changed the signs.

“I’m not bothered by it,” Martin said. “I was more angry at myself for figuring it out too late and changing them too late. The game was almost out of hand at that point.”

Of course neither Martin nor Joe Girardi would admit to stealing signs with the Yankees — Martin said he did it when he was in college — but they both agreed that stealing signs is fair game as long as it’s done by the players on the field (no binoculars in the stands or signals from the bullpen).

“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying,” Martin said. “I don’t know where that term comes from, but it might be from relaying signs at second base.”

Here’s Martin.

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• Girardi said he went through last night’s game film and found nothing to suggest Colon’s hamstring was a problem on his pitches. “You can see how high he’s lifting his leg, the way he’s landing,” Girardi said. “And when I looked at those two things, it was the same. I stopped it frame-by-frame, and I went to a game that he threw well, and it was the same.”

• Obviously Colon was hesitant coming off the mound, but Colon also assured Girardi that he’s felt no pain in the hamstring. Girardi believes it’s just a mental thing that Colon has to get past. “It’s a little bit of a concern,” Girardi said. “But you’ve got to see how a guy does in the heat of the battle when he’s got to make a play. Sometimes those thoughts leave his head.”

• Rafael Soriano is still on track to throw batting practice tomorrow. Girardi said he could make his first rehab appearance on Tuesday. He’ll pitch in more than one rehab game, and the Yankees would like him to throw back-to-back before being activated.

• Jose Bautista is out of the Blue Jays lineup and his return is uncertain — he’s day to day — after last night’s ankle injury. “That’s the huge bat in their lineup,” Girardi said. “But they still have some guys that can really swing the bat. They’ve been swinging the bat before the break and now still, so we’ve got to make pitches.”

• Day game tomorrow, but Girardi said he might not make any significant lineup changes to give players a break until Sunday.

• At one point last week, the Yankees posted a lineup that had Brett Gardner leading off and Derek Jeter batting second against a right-handed starter. Girardi said that was a special circumstance and he’s not likely to go back to that right now. “I think the day that we had it we didn’t have Swish, so that was a big part of it,” he said.

• No player move was made today, so the Yankees are starting this game with a bullpen that had to pitch almost a complete game yesterday. They need distance from Freddy Garcia.

• Random moment in the clubhouse: Gardner was taking small practice swings with two different bats, switching back and forth over and over again. He said he was trying to decide which one was lighter — by one or two tenths of an ounce — because Brandon Morrow throws hard, and Gardner would like a slightly lighter bat for today’s game.

BLUE JAYS
Rajai Davis CF
Eric Thames DH
Yunel Escobar SS
Adam Lind 1B
Aaron Hill 2B
Travis Snider LF
Edwin Encarnacion 3B
Corey Patterson RF
Jose Molina C

Associated Press photo

There’s no indication of a move to add a pitcher after last night’s debacle.

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

This is from the Associated Press.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The pitcher who gave up Derek Jeter’s 3,000th career hit has a deal to sign memorabilia connected with the milestone.

Tampa Bay’s David Price agreed with Steiner Sports to autograph collectibles, including baseballs and pictures. Some of the souvenirs will bear the inscription, “I Gave Up DJ’s 3K,” and be signed by both Price and Jeter.

Jeter became the first Yankee to reach 3,000 hits when he homered off Price last Saturday at Yankee Stadium.