The LoHud Yankees Blog

Derek Jeter’s not a big scouting report guy. Apparently he never has been. Even three hits away from No. 3,000, Jeter left Cleveland last night with absolutely no idea which pitchers he was about to face during this four-game series against the Rays.

“I don’t look ahead,” he said. “I know we play Tampa. I’m not exactly sure who we face, in what order. We’ve got four games, so we see all of them pretty much. I learned a long time ago that you can get into trouble if you look too far ahead.”

Here’s how Jeter’s done against the four Rays starters he’ll be facing this series.

—

Tonight: RHP Jeff Niemann
5-for-9 with two doubles, a walk and a strikout
.556/.600/.778

Niemann is a big guy with a fastball in the low 90s and a curveball that he throws pretty often. He’s made only nine starts this season because of a lower back strain.

—

Friday: RHP Jeremy Hellickson
1-for-2 with no extra-base hits or strikeouts
.500/.500/.500

Obviously a pretty meaningless sample size against the Rays young right-hander. Hellickson has been awfully good in his first full season as a big league starter.

—

Saturday: LHP David Price
6-for-26 with a home run, a double, five strikeouts and three walks
.240/.321/.400

One of the best left-handers in baseball, Price is an all-star — at the expense of CC Sabathia — and has pitched well, but the Yankees had some success when they faced him in May. Jeter went 0-for-3 that day.

—

Sunday: RHP James Shields
17-for-54 with a double, a home run, a walk and eight strikeouts
.315/.327/.389

Shields has been tremendous this season, but he’s lost two in a row. Jeter’s had some success getting hits against him in the past, but the last time he faced Shields, Jeter struck out three times.

Tonight
RHP Bartolo Colon (6-3, 2.88)
vs.
RHP Jeff Niemann (3-4, 5.05)
7:05 p.m., YES Network / MLB Network

Friday
RHP Freddy Garcia (7-6, 3.13)
vs.
RHP Jeremy Hellickson (8-7, 3.21)
7:05 p.m., YES Network

Saturday
RHP A.J. Burnett (8-7, 4.12)
vs.
LHP David Price (8-7, 3.56)
1:05 p.m., YES Network

Sunday
LHP CC Sabathia (12-4, 2.90)
vs.
RHP James Shields (8-6, 2.47)
1:05 p.m., YES Network

Derek Jeter is coming home. Tonight will be his first game in the Bronx since June 13, and unlike his last game at Yankee Stadium, he’ll be playing with a reasonable chance of reaching 3,000 hits.

“Our fans have always been pretty good when they have an opportunity to witness something that hasn’t been happening,” he said. “They care a lot about the history of this organization, so I anticipate them being pretty animated. I don’t know, but I would think it would be kind of fun.”

Jeter is going to play, Joe Girardi’s made that much clear. The new plan is to play Jeter until he gets No. 3,000, then the Yankees will think about resting him.

“There will be a lot of flash bulbs going off, I’m sure,” Girardi said. “I think it’s going to be great. People have anticipated this for a while. The countdown had started, so people are pretty excited. We are. I know we are, in the dugout, for him to get it done.”

Jeter’s swung the bat pretty well the past two days. He admitted that Monday’s game felt kind of like Opening Day, but he seems to have grown more comfortable in the short time he’s been back on a big league field. Last night he was the only Yankee to have a pretty good night against Justin Masterson.

“It’s not like I’m trying to do anything different,” he said, repeating his familiar phrase throughout this countdown. “It would be different if I was trying to hit home runs or something like that. In that sense, everything is pretty much the same.”

Here’s Jeter after last night’s game. Sorry, the audio’s not great.

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By the way, Rays manager Joe Maddon is thinking about No. 3,000. Earlier this week, Maddon tweeted that Jeter might reach the milestone against Tampa Bay, and the Yankees “can derive energy from it.” Maddon said he saw that happen, “when I saw Cal pass Gehrig.”

Associated Press photos

Here’s what struck me about tonight’s postgame conversations about Phil Hughes: They were perfectly normal. They were about a pitcher needing to be more downhill with his delivery and needing to put away a few more hitters with two strikes. They weren’t about a pitcher with a dead arm or a weak shoulder or a mysterious inability to pitch at this level.

These weren’t the same conversations we were having three months ago.

“People are going to say it’s a good outing, but we know that he can be better,” Joe Girardi said. “We know that he can be downhill more… I talked about with the extra days off and the first outing, my concern was that he would be up a little bit. That’s what we saw.”

Hughes’ stuff was pretty much the same in the fifth as it was in the first. He didn’t fatigue suddenly or drastically, and his fastball pretty much sat around 92 mph. There were some 93s and some 91s, but he was more or less 92 all night.

“That’s right where I need to be,” Hughes said. “But it was more an issue of location and putting hitters away tonight.”

Hughes went five innings and allowed two runs, both in the first inning. He gave up six hits, but all of them were singles. He walked two batters and hit two batters, but he pitched pretty well with runners on base. Hughes said rust and adrenalin might have had something to do with mechanics that were a little bit off, but that seemed fixable.

If you were hoping for an overwhelming, dominant return from Hughes, this wasn’t it. But considering where he was three months ago, this was a clear sign that Hughes has gotten better. He’s a viable big league starter again.

“It’s nice to go out there and actually have stuff you feel like you can compete with,” Hughes said. “In the first inning I felt like my mechanics were a little off today, and I was trying to make adjustments and talking to Larry in between innings about what I needed to do, but I never really felt like I got into a groove. I think it kind of stemmed from that first inning, and not being able to get out of that inning as quickly as I would have liked.”

Here’s Hughes. Fair warning, there was a lot of noise in the clubhouse, especially toward the end of this clip, when people were cleaning up dishes.

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• Derek Jeter was one of the few Yankees who actually had some good at-bats against Indians starter Justin Masterson. He struck out in the first inning, but he drove a ball to center field in the third inning, drew a walk in the sixth and doubled to the opposite field in the eighth. “I feel pretty good,” Jeter said. “Yesterday I thought I had some good at-bats. Sometimes guys are going to make pitches and you look foolish, but today especially I thought I had some good swings.”

• I’m not sure whether you’ve heard, but Jeter’s closing in on 3,000 hits, and tonight’s double put him three away. He has four home games coming up. “I’m looking forward to it,” Jeter said. “I wish I would have gotten more today, but it wasn’t the case. I’m definitely looking forward to going back to New York.”

• Kind of an uneven night for Boone Logan, who got some big outs but also hit a batter and gave up a solo homer to a rookie lefty. Logan’s been pitching pretty well lately, and Girardi didn’t see this as a significant step back. “He left a fastball middle-in, that’s all,” Girardi said.

• Bad night for Sergio Mitre, who walked in a run, then allowed a sacrifice fly and gave up the two runs that ultimately made the difference. “He had a hard time throwing his fastball for strikes,” Girardi said. “His changeup, he got swings and misses on. His curveball, he threw some strikes. He had a hard time throwing his fastball for strikes.”

• Girardi wasn’t going to use Mariano Rivera, so that affected his bullpen decisions in those late innings. Both Rivera and Girardi said they expect Rivera to be back tomorrow. Girardi said he’s not worried because Rivera’s been better day by day.

• Rivera was pretty funny postgame. He said nothing had changed since pregame, so he was refusing to be interviewed. “I’ve had enough of you guys right now,” he said. He was mostly just giving everyone a hard time, but he was legitimately not interested in answering any more questions.

• Hughes has no idea when he’ll pitch again. He asked a couple of days ago, but the Yankees told him they weren’t sure yet. Now that he’s through his big league return, Hughes expects to have a plan within a day or two.

• Hughes could have kept going, but the Yankees felt he’d worked pretty hard through his 87 pitches and didn’t want to send him back out for the sixth. “(Larry Rothschild) just felt like I labored in that first and last inning a little bit,” Hughes said. “I didn’t really have an issue with it. I would have liked to have gone back out there, but we were still in the game at that point, and I wasn’t throwing the ball extremely well. Probably the right move to go to the bullpen.”

• There seems to be nothing people hate more than when Yankees hitters give credit to the opposing starter, but Masterson really was outstanding tonight. The guy throws in the mid-90s with huge sink. He throws almost all fastballs, but that’s because its such a good pitch. “It seems like his ball moves as much as anyone we’ve seen, and he’s throwing 95, 96 all night,” Jeter said.

• In the fourth inning, Masterson struck out the side. The four hitters: Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano. “You don’t see that very often,” Girardi said.

Associated Press photos (as you might guess, the AP is moving almost all Jeter photos at this point)

In his return to the Yankees rotation, Phil Hughes showed improved arm strength and fastball velocity, but he still took the loss in a 5-3 letdown against the Indians. Hughes allowed two runs in the first inning, then pitched four scoreless before the Yankees bullpen allowed three runs that proved crucial. The Yankees couldn’t do much against Indians starter Justin Masterson, but they scored three runs off the Indians in the ninth and might have made a game of it had their own bullpen not let them down. The Yankees lost this three-game series in Cleveland, ending their streak of seven straight series wins.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (51-33)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner LF

RHP Phil Hughes (0-1, 13.94)
Hughes vs. Indians

INDIANS (45-39)
Michael Brantley LF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Travis Hafner DH
Carlos Santana C
Grady Sizemore CF
Orlando Cabrera 2B
Lonnie Chisenhall 3B
Matt LaPorta 1B
Austin Kearns RF

RHP Justin Masterson (6-6, 2.85)
Masterson vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:10 p.m., YES Network and ESPN

WEATHER: Most clouds we’ve seen in Cleveland this week, but still a nice day. As far as weather goes, it’s been tough to top these three games.

UMPIRES: HP Marty Foster, 1B Bill Welke, 2B Mike Estabrook, 3B Jeff Nelson

JUST GRANDY: Curtis Granderson has four home runs in his past four games, and he has five home runs in six games against the Indians this season. His 25 homers are the most for a Yankees center fielder since Bernie Williams finished with 26 in in 2001.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Derek Jeter is a career .364 hitter at Progressive Field, his highest batting average at any ballpark where he’s played at least 15 games. It’s also the highest batting average in this park since it opened in 1994.

ON THIS DATE: On July 6, 1933 the first all-star game was held at Comiskey Park where Babe Ruth hit the first home run — a two-run homer off Bill Hallahan — helping the American League to a 4-2 win. Lefty Gomez pitched three scoreless innings for the AL.

UPDATE, 7:18 p.m.: Nice at-bat by Brantley to draw a walk. Hughes showing a 92 mph fastball. Just went 93 on a single by Cabrera.

UPDATE, 7:22 p.m.: Hughes’ velocity is significantly better, but he’s allowed a walk and two singles to the first three batters. It’s a 1-0 Indians lead, and Hughes hasn’t gotten an out.

UPDATE, 7:31 p.m.: It’ll be interesting to see what Hughes does the rest of the way. His fastball was consistently 92-93 in the first inning, but the Indians hit him pretty hard. It’s 2-0 Cleveland.

UPDATE, 7:53 p.m.: Hughes pitched around a leadoff single in the second to leave the runner stranded. His fastball is still around 92, but he’s already approaching 50 pitches.

UPDATE, 7:56 p.m.: Jeter is 0-for-2 with a strikeout and a pretty well hit fly out to center.

UPDATE, 8:23 p.m.: Nice play by Sizemore to rob Swisher of extra bases. Doesn’t look like it would have gone out, but still a nice catch. It’s still 2-0 Indians in the top of the fifth. Masterson looks nasty.

UPDATE, 8:44 p.m.: It’s been a bit of a high-wire act, but Hughes is through five innings, still having allowed just the two runs. He was still throwing 92 mph in the fifth inning, so obviously the arm strength has come a long way, but the Yankees are still trailing 2-0.

UPDATE, 8:56 p.m.: Hughes is finished for the night. He threw 87 pitches, 57 for strikes. He’s handed a 2-0 deficit to Luis Ayala in the bottom of the sixth.

UPDATE, 9:04 p.m.: Runners are starting to appreciated Gardner’s arm. That’s Austin Kearns at third. He had a pretty good idea what Gardner was capable of in that situation. Here comes Boone Logan needing to get Travis Hafner to get out of trouble in the sixth.

Ever since it was decided that Derek Jeter would come off the disabled list on Monday, Joe Girardi has planned to give him today’s game off. It seemed like a good mid-point between his rehab games and the all-star break. As of last night, he was still planning to sit Jeter tonight.

Then he talked to Jeter after last night’s game, slept on the decision, and woke up having changed his mind.

“Just from talking to him, I got the sense that he’s thinking about it,” Giradi said. “And he wants to get this done with so he can just go on and be Derek Jeter, not Derek Jeter pursuing 3,000 hits. That’s the sense I got from him. I’m not telling you that’s what he was saying to me, but that’s the sense that I got. I started thinkng about it, you know what, if I was in pursuit of 3,000 hits – which, I was never close to – I don’t know if I’d want a day off to think about it. I’d want to get back out there.”

Girardi said his first conversation was with the training staff, which assured him that Jeter’s calf was fine. Then he talked to Jeter at the stadium. Then Girardi texted with him when he got back to the hotel.

“His thing was how much I’m playing just coming back,” Jeter said. “I told him I was fine and that was pretty much the extent of it… He said he was going to sleep on it. He said that from the get go. He just told me what he was thinking, and I told him what I was thinking, and he came to a decision.”

Girardi’s new plan is this: Play Jeter until he gets 3,000 hits.

“If we can,” Girardi said. “So we can get this through with and he can just be Derek Jeter again.”

Here’s Girardi’s lengthy pregame session in the dugout.

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• If Jeter gets three hits in his first three at-bats and the Yankees have a big lead, Girardi said he might get him out of the game and give him a chance to get the milestone at home. “I’m going to manage to win the game,” Girardi said. “That’s the bottom line. I would love for him to be 3-for-3 and we had a big lead, but I don’t know what I would do. I hope I get in that situation that he’s 3-for-3 and we have a big lead. That would be nice.”

• Mariano Rivera felt better today than he felt yesterday, but he’s still not sure whether he’ll actually pitch tonight. “If it’s necessary, yes,” he said. “Knowing Geno and knowing Girardi, they might give me another day. I might take another day.”

• Lance Pendleton was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Phil Hughes. Girardi said he’s hoping to get six or seven innings out of Hughes tonight. “The radar gun is one of the tools you see how much a guy’s stuff is falling off, if you think they’re getting tired,” Girardi said. “I won’t watch (the radar) any different tonight than I would any other night.”

• Triple-A reliever Kanekoa Texeira was released to make room for Hughes on the 40-man roster. “Don’t get that confused with Mark,” Girardi said.

• Get this: Damaso Marte threw a bullpen today. Seriously. That’s what Girardi told us.

• Of course, it’s one step forward and one step back for injured lefties. Pedro Feliciano was shutdown today because of soreness. He’ll be shut down for a week.

• Rafael Soriano threw a bullpen yesterday and will throw another tomorrow. He seems to be progressing.

• No update on Eric Chavez.

• Hughes is not scheduled to pitch again until after the all-star break. Girardi said it will probably stay that way. There are no plans to have him pitch any sort of minor league or simulated game over the break. “He’ll maybe throw a couple bullpens, we’ll see,” Girardi said. “Maybe throw one Friday, throw one Sunday, but we’ll see. No plans.”

• Eduardo Nunez is ready to go.

Associated Press photos

Lance Pendleton is no longer listed in the lineup card. Looks like he was optioned to make room for Phil Hughes.

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

UPDATE, 4:03 p.m.: Same drill as yesterday with Mariano Rivera. He’s going to throw before deciding whether he’s available.

The Yankees have not announced a full lineup, but they have sent an email saying Derek Jeter will start at shortstop and bat leadoff tonight against the Indians.

You’d think Phil Hughes would be at least a little bit curious. Tonight he’ll make his first Major League start since April 13, and he was so bad back then that he couldn’t pitch out of the fifth inning or maintain a fastball velocity beyond the upper-80s. He has a 13.94 ERA for crying out loud.

But this is Phil Hughes we’re talking about. If he’s worried or bothered or uncertain, he won’t show it.

“I know it’ll be good,” Hughes said. “I know my stuff is there, I just have to execute pitches. I know if I do that, I’ll be fine. I’m not going out there with any wonder or curiosity or doubt. I’m just going out trying to execute every pitch I can.”

Hughes’ velocity returned during his three-start rehab assignment through Staten Island and Trenton. His command was good enough last week that the Yankees decided another rehab outing was pointless.

“The difference is like night and day,” Hughes said. “The way the ball’s coming out of my hand now, I’m actually getting swings and misses. I don’t exactly know what went wrong, but I know something went wrong, so now that it’s fixed. I’m just happy to have my stuff back and to be able to go out there and compete.”

Hughes said he hasn’t questioned those first three starts. He was told shoulder inflammation was to blame. He was given a cortisone shot and a few weeks of rest, and now the arm strength is back. That’s all he needs to know.

“It’s not like I’m towards the end of my career,” he said. “I knew I have a few good years left in me. I figured it didn’t just go away, that something had to be up. That’s why I went and got it checked out. And ever since I took that rest, and the cortisone, it’s been a different story. There was never really a point where I felt like it was gone for good. It was certainly disheartening to have to go through that and not know what’s going on, but I don’t think there was ever a point where I doubted it was ever going to come back.”

Of course, just because Hughes isn’t curious doesn’t mean the rest of the Yankees aren’t a little curious to see how far he’s come. Joe Girardi’s read the reports, but tonight will be his first time seeing it for himself.

“I sure am (curious),” Girardi said. “I’m curious to see him look like he did last year.”

Here’s Hughes.

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