The LoHud Yankees Blog

YANKEES (51-35)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Russell Martin C
Jorge Posada DH
Andruw Jones RF
Eduardo Nunez 3B
Brett Gardner LF

RHP A.J. Burnett (8-7, 4.12)
Burnett vs. Rays

RAYS (49-39)
Johnny Damon DH
Ben Zobrist RF
Evan Longoria 3B
Casey Kotchman 1B
B.J. Upton CF
Matt Joyce LF
Sean Rodriguez 2B
John Jaso C
Reid Brignac SS

LHP David Price (8-7, 3.56)
Price vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m., YES Network and MLB Network

WEATHER: The rain has gone away, that’s for sure. It’s hot and sunny here in the Bronx.

UMPIRES: HP Jim Wolf, 1B Ron Kulpa, 2B Gary Cederstrom, 3B Derryl Cousins

UNDER THE SUN: Another day game for the Yankees, and that should be a good thing. The Yankees are a Major League-best 24-5 in day games this season. They’re hitting .280 and have a 2.73 team ERA under the sunshine.

CANO AT THE BREAK: Two days before the all-star break, Robinson Cano has 21 doubles, five triples and 15 homers. According to Elias, the last player to have at least 20, 5 and 15 before the all-star break was Jimmy Rollins in 2007 — his MVP year — and the only Yankees to have those totals at the break were Lou Gehrig in 1936 and Joe DiMaggio in 1941.

NOT SURE YOU HEARD ABOUT THIS: Derek Jeter is two hits away from 3,000 for his career. He has a hit in 18 of his past 21 games.

HE FEELS YOUR PAIN: In a strange coincidence, the Braves announced today that their own veteran third baseman, Chipper Jones, will have surgery to repair a torn meniscus that’s bothered him all season. Jones had been playing through the injury, but the pain became unmanageable.

UPDATE, 1:11 p.m.: Burnett sends the side down in order in the first inning. Up next, Derek Jeter’s for at-bat No. 1.

UPDATE, 1:14 p.m.: Huge ovation for Jeter’s first at-bat. Now the two sides of the stadium are trying to get in sync for their “De-rek Je-ter” chant.

UPDATE, 1:17 p.m.: I’m really not sure how much louder this place can get. Nice first AB, shoots a bouncing single through the left side of the infield and just like that, Jeter’s one away from 3,000.

UPDATE, 1:30 p.m.: Matt Joyce is really having a great year, and he just took Burnett deep — really deep — to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead with two outs in the second. That homer gives Joyce a career-high 12 for the season.

UPDATE, 1:53 p.m.: Burnett worked another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the third, and Jeter will get his first chance at 3,000 here in the bottom half of the inning. Brett Gardner will lead off, then it’s The Captain’s turn.

UPDATE, 1:55 p.m.: Gardner couldn’t help himself. Headfirst slide into first base and he’s out, bringing up Jeter.

UPDATE, 1:59 p.m.: Only Jeter. Home run to left for No. 3,000. Unreal. First one to greet him at the plate was Posada, who practically crushed him with a bear hug. The Rays are out of the dugout applauding, led by Damon.

UPDATE, 2:03 p.m.: When Jeter came out for his curtain call, he waved to the fans, then waved and pointed to the mound as if apologizing to David Price for the delay. Then Jeter turned to his parents’ luxury box and held his fist in the air. The video board showed a series of pictures of every member of the 3,000 hit club before finally cutting to a picture of Jeter with the No. 3,000. Really amazing moment.

UPDATE, 2:06 p.m.: Jeter’s first home home run since July 22, 2010, snapping a streak of 286 at-bats without one. Seriously, this guy knows how to reach a milestone.

UPDATE, 2:14 p.m.: The Yankees have a 2-1 lead after Russell Martin’s RBI single, and as the team took the field for the top of the fourth, the video board showed a series of former and current Yankees talking 3,000. It ended with Andy Pettitte, obviously filmed at home in Texas, saying how proud he feels. Jeter was on the field watching the end of the video.

UPDATE, 2:23 p.m.: Immediately after tonight’s game, YES will air a special entitled JETER 3,000 that will include Jeter and Girardi’s postgame press conferences, as well as a sit-down interview between Jeter and Jack Curry. There will also be sound from various former teammates and others connected to Jeter.

UPDATE, 2:43 p.m.: Jeter is now a hit away from the cycle. He just doubled to leadoff the fifth inning, and both Reid Brignac and Sean Rodriguez made their way over to tell him congratulations.

UPDATE, 2:52 p.m.: Career hit No. 3,001 sparked a two-run fifth-inning that has the Yankees back in the lead, 4-3.

UPDATE, 3:54 p.m.: Dave Robertson has allowed the tying run in the eighth inning. It’s a 4-4 game, and the Yankees have only scored in innings when Jeter has had a hit. He’d be the third hitter in the bottom of the eighth.

UPDATE, 4:00 p.m.: Has Eduardo Nunez ever had a hit without his helmet falling off? His leadoff double in the eighth has the Yankees in scoring position with no outs and the game still tied at 4.

UPDATE, 4:04 p.m.: OK, this has gotten absurd. Jeter just tied his career high with five hits, and the fifth just drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth. The Yankees have only scored in innings in which Jeter has a hit. He and Craig Biggio are the only players to ever reach 3,000 during a five-hit game. He and Wade Boggs are the only players to ever reach 3,000 with a home run. This is Jeter’s third career five-hit game.

UPDATE, 4:06 p.m.: Jeter’s the first player to ever get five hits in a game at the current Yankee Stadium. Of course he is.

It’s been obvious for three weeks that Alex Rodriguez hasn’t been 100 percent. He’s been getting his hits and getting on base, but his power has disappeared and he’s been hobbling on the bases. Yesterday, Joe Girardi decided Rodriguez could use a day off, and since he was taking a day off anyway, the Yankees sent their third baseman for an MRI.

They now know he has a slightly torn meniscus in his right knee. It’s an injury CC Sabathia pitched through last season, and an injury Rodriguez seems to have been playing through since tweaking his knee in Chicago last month. He’ll either have surgery or play through it, and Girardi said that whatever the Yankees decide, Rodriguez will be out of the lineup through the rest of the weekend.

“I just don’t think he has the drive in his back side that he needs to have to be the power hitter that he’s capable of being,” Girardi said. “I still think he can be productive and get his base hits, but I don’t think you’re going to see him drive the ball as much.”

Ultimately, the Yankees have to decide if they’re better with a lesser Rodriguez for a longer period of time, or a (potentially) better Rodriguez for a shorter period of time. Girardi said the decision ultimately lies with Rodriguez himself.

“Players have (played through) it before but you’re not ever sure how productive they’re going to be,” Girardi said. “And if you’re going to need to give him a day off here, it’s unpredictable. If he wants to try it, that’s something we’ll definitely discuss, but if he decides to have surgery, we’ll live with that too. It’s just, by giving you this information now, I can’t tell you exactly what is going to happen, and I don’t want to get to where I’m trying to predict. We have to discuss it, and Alex has to discuss it, and the player has to be comfortable in what he does. Then we’ll make a decision.”

Girardi said he hopes to have a decision by the end of the day, but it’s unlikely the team will announce anything until tomorrow.

Here’s Girardi.

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• Right now, the Yankees are waiting for Nick Swisher to get through batting practice before they announce a lineup. If Swisher is healthy enough to play, he’ll be the designated hitter. If not, Jorge Posada will start at DH.

• Eduardo Nunez is the third baseman today.

• Girardi said it’s his understanding that Rodriguez cannot do any more damage to the knee by continuing to play through it. If the Yankees decide against surgery, Girardi said he doesn’t believe a DL stint will do any good. Time off won’t be enough to make a significant difference.

• Girardi also said he believes Rodriguez could be back playing in the big leagues a month after surgery.

• Eric Chavez’s back is bothering him again. “He’s having some back issues right now, so I can’t tell you when we’re going to get Chavy back or if we’re going to get Chavy back,” Girardi said. “You wonder if the back is related to the foot, walking different or trying to run different. Right now there’s no time table when he’ll be back.”

• The Yankees have Brandon Laird and Jorge Vazquez available in Triple-A. Laird’s been hitting much better lately, and Vazquez just returned from the DL and hit another home run two days ago. He has 21 in 69 games.

• Freddy Garcia is available out of the bullpen, but Girardi’s not sure what role he would play. “I could use Freddy out of the bullpen, but we really haven’t done that much,” Girardi said. “So we would have to see how we would do it.”

• No rotation set for after the all-star break.

UPDATE, 11:45 p.m.: No Swisher for the Yankees.

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

RAYS
Johnny Damon DH
Ben Zobrist RF
Evan Longoria 3B
Casey Kotchman 1B
B.J. Upton CF
Matt Joyce LF
Sean Rodriguez 2B
John Jaso C
Reid Brignac SS

Associated Press photos

Alex Rodriguez has a slight meniscus tear in his right knee and could be headed for surgery.

Joe Girardi said the team will decide later today whether Rodriguez will play through it or have surgery, which would likely cost him a month.

He’ll likely have surgery at some point, it’s either now or after the season.

Is this what the day of 3,000 hits looks like?

No lineup posted just yet, but Alex Rodriguez is listed in a BP group with Ramiro Pena and Francisco Cervelli. Each game’s starters usually take batting practice together, so I’m guessing Rodriguez is out, but that’s just a guess.

Here’s the announcement from MLB…

Detroit Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta has been named to replace New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and Boston Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis has been named to replace New York’s Alex Rodriguez on the American League’s active roster for the 82nd All-Star Game, Major League Baseball announced today.

Because Jeter and Rodriguez were fan-elected All-Stars, their replacements on the roster were chosen by American League All-Star manager Ron Washington in conjunction with Major League Baseball.

In addition, because Cleveland Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre are the highest ranking available players on the Player Ballot, they will be starters for the American League in Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic.

Curtis Granderson is the Yankees players association representative, Joe Girardi is their manager and Brian Cashman is their general manager. All three said more or less the same thing today: The Yankees’ desire to play a split double header tomorrow had more to do with the team and the schedule, and less to do with Derek Jeter’s pursuit of 3,000 hits.

“It’s nice because of Derek, but it’s the best situation for our team at the same time,” Cashman said. “You have the all-star break right behind it, our pitching is ready to go, all that stuff. It’s more adverse to go to push it later in the year when you don’t have the benefit of all those different things. You don’t know what your situation is, your health status and all that different stuff… It’s fan-friendly. It’s Jeter-friendly. It’s team friendly. However you want to prioritize that it depends on what position you’re looking at. From Tampa’s position it was a different viewpoint, so it was pushed off later in the year.”

Obviously the business side came into play, because a regular double header would have given Jeter three games to reach 3,000 at home, but it always would have required that the Yankees give up their ticket sales for one game. They obviously didn’t want to do that.

“We tried to do it tomorrow night,” team president Randy Levine said. “We figured all of our fans would be very disappointed. A lot of people were excited about it. We thought, do it tomorrow night. Our players voted for it. I don’t know their reason. I assume they get it. Why Tampa voted no, you’d have to ask Tampa. I haven’t the foggiest idea. I just don’t know.”

Joe Maddon actually explained his team’s position before the decision became official.

“At this point in the first half, our guys are run down,” Maddon said. “I like the idea of expanded rosters in September.”

It was kind of a strange situation. There was some thought that the Yankees would have the final say because they were the home team, but Granderson explained that wasn’t the case. The rules in place let the Rays veto a split double header, and that left the Yankees with another late-season makeup date.

Here’s a fairly lengthy audio file. Granderson, Girardi and Cashman spoke one right after another in the press conference room. Together, they pretty well explained the process that led to today’s decision.

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• Brian Cashman said Dr. Chris Ahmad was traveling today, so the team didn’t have immediate analysis of Alex Rodriguez’s MRI. Cashman said he expected to talk to Dr. Ahmad tonight, and the Yankees will probably know more about Rodriguez by tomorrow.

• Half of the Yankees all-stars — Jeter, Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera — have now opted out of the event. Cashman said none of the three were told by the organization that they had to back out. “It’s an individual player decision, first and foremost,” Cashman said. “They asked us if we minded if they don’t go because of it, and we obviously said, ‘Hey, if you don’t feel physically that that’s something you should be doing, then don’t do it.’”

• Girardi didn’t give a reason for his rotation decision. Obviously CC Sabathia was going to stay on turn for Sunday, but he could have gone with either Freddy Garcia or A.J. Burnett for tomorrow. He chose to keep Burnett on turn.

• It’s worth noting that Girardi has said in the past that he likes the idea of giving Garcia extra rest when he can.

• The Yankees were supposed to have two days off during the last full week of September, but Sept. 19 is now a makeup game against the Twins and Sept. 22 is the makeup game for tonight. “We didn’t want to lose any off days in September because we figured that will obviously be the most crucial point of the season,” Granderson said.

• I heard a few people bring up kind of a bizarre scenario that — in theory — could have happened. Jeter could have gotten two hits in the first three innings or so, only to have the game rained out before it was official, meaning he would have had to get his 3,000th hit again. Cashman said he never considered that scenario. “The weather report doesn’t imply you could start it, stop it, start it, stop it,” he said.

• Here’s the ticket information as released by the Yankees.

Fans holding paid tickets for tonight’s postponed game may use them for the rescheduled game on Thursday, September 22, or exchange their paid tickets for any regular season game at Yankee Stadium within 12 months of the postponed game (subject to availability). Please note that there are an extremely limited number of tickets remaining for Saturday and Sunday’s 1:05 p.m. games vs. Tampa Bay this weekend.

The rescheduled game on Thursday, September 22, will be broadcast by the YES Network and WCBS-AM 880.

Tickets can be exchanged only at Yankee Stadium Advance Ticket Windows, which are open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and until two (2) hours after the scheduled start time of any regularly scheduled home game. Yankee Stadium Advance Ticket Windows are closed tonight and will reopen on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m.

Complimentary tickets (COMP) or equivalent tickets bear no cash value and cannot be exchanged or redeemed for any benefits that may be offered to ticket(s) with a dollar value.

For complete information about the Yankees’ rainout policy, please visit www.yankees.com/rainout.

Associated Press photos

I have about 20 minutes of audio that I’ll post later and might explain this situation a little more fully, but this is the way I understand it…

The Yankees players voted to play a split double header tomorrow. The Rays voted against it. When there’s no agreement, there are a series of essentially tiebreakers — how many games a team would play in a row, how many double headers are already scheduled, things like that — to determine which team gets its way.

Obviously the Rays choice stood.

Brian Cashman said the Yankees still could have scheduled a regular double header — not a split double header — but the team didn’t want to lose a home game. They would have only gotten one gate tomorrow if they played a regular double header.

“We’re not interested in going from 81 home games to 80,” Cashman said.

Pitching matchups for the weekend:

Saturday: A.J. Burnett vs. David Price
Sunday: CC Sabathia vs. James Shields

Tonight’s game will be made up on September 22.

“We made every possible attempt to have this game made up tomorrow,” a team spokesman said. “… Tampa declined, which is part of the process.”

Tonight’s game has been rained out. No reschedule date right now.

The Yankees are officially banged up again. These seem to be nagging injuries more than anything else — depending on Alex Rodriguez’s MRI results, of course — but it’s obviously a concern that Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and now Nick Swisher have been forced to miss time recently because of health problems.

“I’m going to have to manage them carefully, but I don’t think it’s anything I haven’t done in the last couple of years,” Joe Girardi said. “We’ve had to do that. Alex coming off the hip. Mo. Had to manage Matsui that way, in a sense, and Jorge when he was catching. It’s just kind of the nature here and you have to be smart about it.

“And we’re going to open up with eight games on turf (after the all-star break), which is probably not the greatest thing for some of our guys.”

Derek Jeter
Jeter’s calf has healed, but he’s still less than a week removed from the disabled list, and so far he hasn’t had the day off that Girardi hoped to give him this week. Jeter said nothing has popped up in the past few days to cause him concern, but he’s trying to play it smart by skipping the All-Star Game.

“It’s just a situation where after talking with Joe and Cash and Geno, it would probably best not to push it,” Jeter said. “Be ready for the second half. That’s where my focus has to be. It’s unfortunate because I know you guys know how much I enjoy going to All-Star Games. I love playing in All-Star Games. Especially getting voted in by the fans, it’s something I would like to do. I try to be smart about it. I know I can be stubborn a lot of times when it comes to injuries, but I’m trying to be smart.”

Alex Rodriguez
The Yankees cleanup hitter has been hitting for average and drawing walks, but his power had evaporated. He had three homers in four days in early June, but since June 12 he’s hit .333 with just seven extra-base hits, none of them home runs.

“He’s not moving well,” Girardi said. “He’s been sore. His leg has been a little sore, and we’re doing a precautionary MRI just to make sure. It wasn’t anything yesterday that showed me that he was moving totally different to do the MRI, but he’s not playing, we’ve got time, we might as well do the MRI.”

The team announced just a few minutes ago that Rodriguez will also skip the all-star game.

Nick Swisher
Chasing down Ben Zobrist’s triple last night, Swisher tried to stop the ball with his foot. He kind of kicked at the ball — I didn’t see it, but that’s how he described it — and he felt something in his left quad. Swisher called it a slight strain, and he’s hopeful that he’ll be able to play tomorrow.

“I thought it would feel a lot better today than it was yesterday,” he said. “… “I know Geno and I are going to be buddies today. It just didn’t feel any better.”

Here’s Girardi, talking a lot about his banged up players.

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• Without Rodriguez, Swisher or Martin, the Yankees shuffled their lineup to keep their six regular hitters in the top six spots. That meant Brett Gardner back in the leadoff spot. “If not, you’re going to hit Gardy sixth probably, and that wasn’t something I necessarily wanted to do,” Girardi said. “I think he’s probably more comfortable hitting first or ninth. And then you’re putting him behind — trying to be nice here – Tex or Robbie and Jorge, and if he gets on base, that can become a situation too.”

• Day game tomorrow, which mean Martin was going to sit out one of these two games. Girardi chose to give him tonight and play him tomorrow.

• The radar doesn’t look good and the tarp is on the field. Right now the rain is light, but the forecast suggests it’s going to keep raining well into the night. If there’s a double header tomorrow, would Jeter play both games? “You could possibly DH him one if you can,” Girardi said. “I’m not crazy about anyone playing a double header, I don’t care if you’re 25 years old, but I’ll have to see what guys I have available, then I’ll have to make a decision.”

• The Yankees got cash considerations from the SK Wyverns of the Korean Professional League in exchange for releasing Brian Gordon and letting him sign overseas. That’s a nice deal for him. Probably making a ton more money over there than he was making with the Yankees, and obviously he’s behind Ivan Nova in the call-up pecking order.

• Girardi said he’s not overly concerned in the wake of Bartolo Colon’s struggles last night. “I just think it’s a blip,” he said. “I think if he was 27, people probably wouldn’t ask that question, but I understand when you’re older and you come off an injury. I really believe it’s a blip, but time will tell.”

Associated Press photos