The LoHud Yankees Blog

Gene Monahan came over to Brandon Laird this morning and handed him a ball encased in a clear display box – his first big-league hit from last night’s game, an RBI single in his second plate appearance and first official big-league at-bat in his first big-league game.

He said it’s headed for his parents’ place where it will rest next to the ball that represents his brother’s first big-league hit. Gerald Laird is now the backup catcher for the Cardinals.

The thrills continue today for Brandon. He will make his first big-league start, at third base.

“I’m still excited and just happy to be here,” he said. “Going into the game yesterday, everything seemed to happen so fast, I didn’t get a chance to be nervous.” 

Laird says he brought two gloves for each position he plays. He can play third, first and the outfield – left and right. He was originally a 27th-round pick in 2007. Last year, he batted .281 with 25 homers and 102 RBI combined between Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The homers and RBI topped all Yankees minor-leaguers. He was also named the Eastern League MVP and rookie of the year.

This year, he was batting .266 with 10 homers and 49 RBI in 90 games at Triple-A where he was primarily playing third.

“He had kind of a tough spring this spring, swinging the bat,” Joe Girardi said. “We knew he was a much better player than that. We kept him around. We kept him playing. We sent him down sometimes when he wasn’t getting at-bats with us. He was a guy who was aggressive. You didn’t see him through his struggles ever be tentative. He seemed to fight through everything. I thought that was a good sign.

“I think it’s sometimes good to struggle because I think it brings out the toughness in you. Because the game’s not ever going to be easy. He got off to a slow start in Triple-A this year. But you look at his last three months and they’ve been very good. That’s a good sign as well. It shows me he knows how to make adjustments.”

Gerald Laird viewed the first hit with his Cardinals teammates in Pittsburgh.

“He said he just got in after the game,” Brandon said. “He said he kept everybody in the clubhouse to watch. He said they all went crazy. He gave me a call. He’s proud of me.”

Mark Teixeira played with Gerald Laird in Texas.

 ”I saw him get a hit in his first major-league at-bat,” Teixeira said. “I guess I bring good luck to the Laird family.”

*Maybe Joe Girardi is settling on a top six vs. righties in Alex Rodriguez’s absence. For the second straight game, it’s Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher.

*Girardi again didn’t seem particularly concerned over Phil Hughes’ bad start Friday night.

“We know what he can do,” Girardi said. “It’s just Phil has to go out and do it.”

1. Gardner LF
2. Jeter SS
3. Granderson CF
4. Teixeira 1B
5. Cano DH
6. Swisher RF
7. Martin C
8. Nunez 2B
9. Laird 3B
Burnett P

Phil Hughes had an easy victory. The Yankees handed him a 14-2 lead after three, and he couldn’t make it through five to get his second win. His fastball command was off and his curve wasn’t biting like last time in Toronto. He threw 98 pitches and left after 4 1/3. He was charged with seven runs, nine hits, four walks and one hit batter.

“I’m not frustrated I didn’t get a win, just frustrated that the outing didn’t go better, because I really felt I was making some good strides,” Hughes said.

Joe Girardi said: “You’ve got to look at it as a blip. You’ve got to move on. He’ll be back out there Wednesday.”

Hughes said it was really hot and he was glad this wasn’t a day game, but he wouldn’t blame the conditions – 100 degrees at first pitch.

“(Hector) Noesi went out there in the same heat and did a great job,” Hughes said. “… I don’t think that was really an issue.”

Noesi allowed two runners he inherited from Hughes to score, but the rookie right-hander was charged with no runs and four hits and no walks over 3 2/3 to move to 2-0. 

“I’m really pleased with the progress this kid has made,” Girardi said.

*Mark Teixeira broke a 70 at-bat homerless streak with his third-inning grand slam, when he was hitting left-handed. Teixeira went 1 for 4 with two walks. He’s batting just .240.

“July hasn’t been kind to me,” Teixeira said. “Hopefully this will get me going. … Left-handed I haven’t been feeling good the last month.”

Teixeira was dropped to fourth for just the second time. Brett Gardner led off, followed by Derek Jeter and then Curtis Granderson, who made his first career start in the three hole, moving down from No. 2. Robinson Cano batted fifth. Joe Girardi said this would probably be the order today as well when righty Rich Harden starts for the A’s.

“I like it,” Teixeira said. “I think it makes our lineup deeper. … I love having (Gardner) as the leadoff hitter right now.”

*Brandon Laird was thrilled when he got to pinch hit for Jeter in the seventh — his first major-league plate appearance. Joey Devine’s first pitch went sailing behind the rookie’s back.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Laird said. “I was just standing there and I looked in the dugout, and the guys were like, ‘What’s going on?’ ”

Laird, the brother of Cardinals backup catcher Gerald Laird, ended up working out a walk. He stayed in the game to play third and was even more thrilled in the home eighth when he delivered an RBI single through the middle for that first big-league hit.

“It was awesome,” Laird said. “All the fans were cheering. I looked up at my family all excited. It was amazing.”

*Eric Chavez played seven innings at third Friday night in his fourth rehab game for Single-A Tampa and doubled in four at-bats. It was his second straight start at third. 

*The AP reported that Marcus Thames worked out at the minor-league complex in Tampa Friday, and that the 34-year-old outfielder will report this coming week to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

*The Yankees have beaten Oakland 11 straight times and 24 times in the last 27 meetings.

“It’s been a long streak, but I’d hate to think that that gets in your head,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said.

*The 17 runs marked the most the Yankees have scored at the new stadium.

Yankees lineup
1. Brett Gardner LF
2. Derek Jeter SS
3. Curtis Granderson CF
4. Mark Teixeira DH
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Nick Swisher RF
7. Jorge Posada 1B
8. Eduardo Nunez 3B
9. Francisco Cervelli C
Phil Hughes RHP
A’s lineup
1. Jemile Weeks 2B
2. Coco Crisp CF
3. Josh Willingham DH
4. Hideki Matsui LF
5. Scott Sizemore 3B
6. David DeJesus RF
7. Conor Jackson 1B
8. Kurt Suzuki C
9. Cliff Pennington SS
Trevor Cahill RHP

TV/Time: MY9/7:08
Umpires: Marty Foster HP, Bill Welke 1B, Jeff Nelson 2B, Vic Carapazza 3B
Weather: Fair, 100 degrees, heat index of 106

Three-hole: Granderson is batting third for the first time this season.
Thievery: Brett Gardner has stolen 16 straight bases, the best single-season stretch of his career and the best by a Yankee since Johnny Damon swiped 16 in a row in 2007.
Staying in the park: Yankees pitchers have served up just one homer over the last nine games.

Update, 7:09: This is the first time the first-pitch temp here has been 100 since July 5, 1999. The Yankees’ last 100-degree first-pitch game was Aug. 4, 2008, at Texas. That time it was 101.

Update, 7:17: Bad beginning for Hughes. Two walks and a two-out RBI double by Scott Sizemore on a 92-mph fastball.

Update, 7:27: Teixeira, who came up at .240, struck out to strand Granderson at second. Granderson is taking a beating lately. He was drilled in the side of the right thigh, the third time he has been hit in the last four games. This time, he promptly stole second.

Update, 7:33: Hughes’ search for consistency is ongoing. Double, sacrifice and an RBI single by Cliff Pennington on a 91 mph fastball. It’s 2-0 in the second.

Update, 7:42: Hughes gets out of the bases-loaded, two-out jam after another single and a walk. Matsui grounds to second.

Update, 7:52: Nunez delivers here in the second, ground single to right for an RBI. So it’s 2-1.

Update, 7:54: Cervelli singles to right, bases loaded, one out.

Update, 7:56: Infield hit for Gardner with a headfirst dive, 2-2.

Update, 7:58: Two-run single for Jeter, 4-2. That’s hit No. 3,011. It breaks a tie with Wade Boggs for sole possession of 25th on the all-time list.

Update, 8:00: Sac fly for Granderson, 5-2. Now heading for the third.

Update, 8:04: Finally, a 1-2-3 inning for Hughes, although his velocity was down a bit, mostly 90-91.

Update, 8:12: Three-run homer for Swisher, still no outs in the third. It’s 8-2.

Update, 8:14: A mercy pulling. Bob Melvin is taking out Cahill – eight runs, eight hits, no outs, two on in the third. Michael Wuertz is coming on.

Update, 8:26: Wuertz walks Jeter to force in a run.

Update, 8:28: Wuertz walks Granderson to force in a run, 10-2, still one out.

Update, 8:29: Teixeira finally hits a homer, grand slam, No. 26. It’s 14-2.

Update, 8:33: Swisher singles with two outs. Batter No. 13 is up in the inning. My scorecard is deteriorating.

Update, 8:35: Posada fans. It’s over. The Yankees’ nine runs marked their biggest inning of the season. Now let’s see, if they have 14 runs after three innings, what are they going to wind up with? Sometimes the tap runs cold at this point. We’ll see.

Update, 8:42: Hughes is doing nothing to assure the Yankees that they don’t need to pick up another starter by the trade deadline. With a 14-2 lead, he has hit the first guy and given up a two-run homer to Pennington.

Update, 8:45: Hughes has nothing. Double, E-7 on the play, then RBI single. It’s 14-5. There’s action in the bullpen finally. It’s Luis Ayala.

Update, 8:52: Hughes gets out of the inning. Now Fautino De Los Santos will come on for Oakland in the fourth.

Update, 9:12: The first two A’s get singles in the fifth. Hector Noesi is warming.

Update, 9:16: Amazing. Hughes is handed a 12-run lead and he can’t be effective enough to get a win. Girardi is pulling him with the bases loaded and one out. Noesi will come in.

Update, 9:20: Two-run single for Weeks, 14-7.

Update, 9:44: There are two in scoring position with one out in the sixth for the A’s.

Update, 9:47: Noesi gets out of it. Brian Fuentes will come on for Oakland.

Update, 9:54: End of six, 14-7. The Yankees have 14 hits, but just two of them outside of the second and third innings.

Update, 10:06: Jerry Devine will come to pitch the seventh for Oakland. It’s down to 89 degrees here, 93 with the humidity. Brandon Laird will pinch hit for Jeter, his major-league debut.

Update, 10:11: Laird walks after Devine throws the first pitch behind his back. Devine looks rather wild.

Update, 10:16: Devine walked all three men he faced. So Brad Ziegler will come into a bases-filled, no-out spot.

Update, 10:22: Two-run single for Swisher. His five RBI ties his career high.

Update, 10:39: First big-league hit for Laird, RBI single to center. It’s 17-7 in the eighth.

Update, 10:49: Yankees win, 17-7.

1. Brett Gardner LF
2. Derek Jeter SS
3. Curtis Granderson CF
4. Mark Teixeira DH
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Nick Swisher RF
7. Jorge Posada 1B
8. Eduardo Nunez 3B
9. Francisco Cervelli C
Phil Hughes P

Brian Heyman here for Chad today. The Yankees got in at 3:30 a.m. from Tampa, so the players were allowed to report late and batting practice was cancelled. Also, it’s hot, 102 here right now. We’re still waiting on the Yankees’ lineup, although Curtis Granderson said he’s good to go.

There’s a memo up on the clubhouse door instructing players how to beat the heat. Not surprisingly, No. 1 is drinking lots of water and Gatorade. The players were also told not to drink alcohol after the game because that leads to dehydration, cramps, strains and pulls. There were also told to soak their legs in cold tanks afterward.

Joe Girardi said he has seen players use different methods to stay cool over the years, including putting lettuce on their heads.

As far as the rehab guys, the Yankees would like to see Eric Chavez play back-to-back games of nine innings in the minors and Rafael Soriano pitch in back-to-back games. Girardi said it’s “definitely possible” the two will return during this 10-game homestand. 

Hideki Matsui is back in the Bronx as the A’s DH. He said it still “feels a bit to be on the other side” here. He hit his 500th homer Wednesday, combined between the majors and Japan. So how did he celebrate?

“We just celebrated with everybody with champagne and then put a hole in the ceiling,” Matsui said through an interpreter.

He was kidding. Matsui, who kept his apartment in the city, said he celebrated with a nice dinner in New York Thursday night at “a secret Japanese place that I can’t tell you.”

Tonight
RHP Phil Hughes (1-2, 8.44)
vs.
RHP Trevor Cahill (8-8, 3.16)
7:05 p.m., MY9

Saturday
RHP A.J. Burnett (8-7, 4.19)
vs.
RHP Rich Harden (1-1, 5.00)
1:05 p.m., YES Network

Sunday
RHP Bartolo Colon (6-6, 3.43)
vs.
LHP Gio Gonzalez (9-6, 2.33)
1:05 p.m., YES Network

Last time the Yankees played at home, they were still feeling warm and fuzzy in the glow of Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit. Seems like that was three months ago. This eight-day road trip was a long one.

“Obviously you’d like to have done better,” Joe Girardi said. “But after how we started losing the first two, we finished up pretty good and it will be nice to get off the turf and get home for a while. I think we have 10 games in 10 days, and I think our guys are looking forward to that.”

Just a few thoughts before I get back to New York.

• Phil Hughes gets the ball tonight. It will be his first start at home since the start that convinced the Yankees he needed to go on the disabled list. It’ll be interesting to see if that curveball is as good as it was in Toronto.

• Be careful what you wish for at the top of the order. I can’t see Derek Jeter being dropped to the bottom, so moving Brett Gardner to the top only pushes Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher down a spot. As always, I’m of the belief that lineup construction doesn’t matter all that much.

• Also worth considering (as Sweeny Murti pointed out a couple of days ago): In the eight games since the all-star break, Gardner is hitting .517 with a .576 on-base percentage. In the eight games before the break, he was hitting .207 with a .281 on-base percentage. I think he’s the right choice at the top, but you have to accept that he’s a streaky hitter.

• Big spot in the seventh inning, who would you trust more: Luis Ayala, Hector Noesi or Cory Wade? Who do you think Girardi would most trust? I’m honestly not sure the right answer to either of those questions.

• Gardner, Jeter, Andruw Jones and Jorge Posada have each taken turns as the most anger-inducing Yankees hitter this season. Now it seems to be Mark Teixeira’s turn. He’s also a streaky hitter, and he always talks about waiting for that next hot streak that will turn his batting average around.

• Girardi when asked if he’ll have to eventually take Teixeira out of the No. 3 hole if the batting average doesn’t improve: “He has taken his fair share of walks and gotten on base. That’s the one thing Tex does. Sometimes people look at average a lot. We’re going ot look at on-base percentage too because he does take his fair share. You hit .250 and you’ve got a .370 on-base percentage or .360, you’re doing OK.” It’s a fair point — and Teixeira does have a higher OBP than Cano — but Girardi overestimated the numbers a little bit. Teixeira has a .240 average with a .341 on-base.

• If the Yankees are going to trade for a starter, they really only have a spot for a legitimately elite pitcher. They have plenty of No. 3 types. To find someone obviously better than what they have is going to cost a lot in terms of young players. Maybe it’s worth it, maybe it’s not, but it would be costly.

• I’ve always liked but never loved U2, but I absolutely loved this performance on Letterman. I’m surprised I haven’t broken the internet watching it over and over again the past few days. Say what you will about Bono, but the guy has a terrific voice and knows how to deliver a song.

• Kind of surprised that Eric Chavez was able to get in the field this quickly. Not much to lose there, I guess. The Yankees need to find out before July 31 whether he can help them in the second half.

• Dave Robertson just keeps doing it. Rafael Soriano has a longer track record, and there’s a lot to be said for that, but it’s hard to imagine him coming back and throwing any better than Robertson.

• George Kontos has to get to New York eventually, right? The Yankees could actually use a long man now, and Kontos has 64 strikeouts and a .210 opponents batting average in Triple-A. Also worth mentioning that D.J. Mitchell and Lance Pendleton just put together terrific back-to-back starts.

• Speaking of Triple-A guys: Jorge Vazquez’s numbers have fallen off quite a bit, but Kevin Russo is really hitting again. And if you were waiting for Jordan Parraz to fall off, it doesn’t seem to be happening.

• If Russell Martin really is a Gold Glove caliber catcher, and he keeps hitting exactly like this — low batting average with occasional pop — is he worth bringing back next season? All things considered, isn’t he still one of the better everyday catchers in the league?

• Don’t let the fact that you gave up on Boone Logan in the first half — or that he misplayed a ball three nights ago — keep you from seeing the fact he’s pitching much better. I know I’m usually a glass-half-full kind of guy, but since May 28 opponents are hitting .196 with four walks and 17 strikeouts against Logan.

• There’s still something very fun about talking to a guy who just got his first big league call-up. It was fun when I was covering the minor leagues, and it’s just as fun now that I’m covering the big leagues.

• Martin made the right choice. He put in a good effort and did everything the right way, but the mustache had to go. It was time. It really was, “ugly as (crap).”

Associated Press photos

“For sure.”

That’s what CC Sabathia said when someone asked whether he pitched better tonight than he had in some of those seven straight wins he had coming into this game.

“CC’s been pitching like that for a long, long time,” Derek Jeter said. “You’d like to see him get a win. He definitely pitched well enough to win, (but) we just couldn’t get anything going off Shields. He’s been doing that all year to most teams that he’s faced. He was better than us today.”

I thought Sabathia would say that he made three mistakes tonight, but he counted only two. In the first inning, he left a curveball up to Evan Longoria, and Longoria hit it for an early home run. The Yankees had gone eight games without allowing a home run, and Sabathia hadn’t given one up since Alfronso Soriano took him deep on June 19.

“Just a bad pitch,” Sabathia said.

The other mistake was a slider to Sam Fuld. It was supposed to be down and away, but Sabathia left it inside and Fuld was able to pull it for a two-out, RBI triple. I thought Sabathia would be disappointed in the two-out walk immediately before the triple — it came against .197 hitter Elliot Johnson — but Sabathia wasn’t sweating that at-bat.

“There was a lefty on deck,” he said. “I feel like I can make pitches and get those guys out most of the time.”

Here’s Sabathia.

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And here’s Derek Jeter.

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• Not much the hitters could say on a night like this. James Shields actually has a lower ERA than Sabathia this season, and he was terrific against the Yankees less than two weeks ago in New York. It’s not like they didn’t know what was coming. “(Shields) threw a lot of strikes, and we were chasing pitches,” Robinson Cano said. “We all know he can really pitch, so when he throws strikes, it’s hard to lay off pitches against him.”

• Shields beat the Yankees for only the fourth time in 18 career starts. Girardi said Shields command and curveball have gotten better. Jeter said it’s that notorious changeup that’s making the difference. “His fastball moves,” Jeter said. “It runs in, he throws his cutter, throws his curveball, but his changeup is his pitch. He lives and dies with his changeup. It’s really tough to pick it up.”

• The Yankees only sign of life came when Jeter and Cano both doubled in the eighth inning. Cano’s two-out RBI drove in the Yankees only run and chased Shields from the game. “It was a curveball,” he said. “That’s what he threw me the first time, so I thought he might throw another one here. That’s what he was throwing to lefties, guys he knows can hit home runs. That’s what I saw all game.”

• Obviously, the decision to pinch hit Curtis Granderson in the seventh was all about trying to get a two-run homer. “Just trying to tie it up with one swing of the bat,” Girardi said. “Grandy has the ability to do that. I talked to him after he did all of his treatment today, and he said he was OK to pinch hit.”

• Granderson put together a good at-bat in the ninth, but ultimately went down swinging to end the game. “He had some pretty good swings,” Girardi said. “He fouled a couple off, and as I said, our guys played hard on this trip and to lose this game you move on and you go try to win a series at home.”

• The Yankees stole 11 bases in the first three games of this series. They didn’t steal any tonight.

• Jeter’s eighth-inning double moved him into a tie with Wade Boggs for 25th on baseball’s all-time hits list. He has 3,010 and needs 10 more to tie Rafael Palmeiro for 24th all-time.

• Fuld’s triple was only the fourth extra-base hit and first triple that Sabathia has allowed to a left-handed hitter this season.

• Mark Teixeira did build a small five-game hitting streak during this road trip — that ended tonight — but he had only two RBI and 10 strikeouts during these eight games immediately after the all-star break.

• Eric Chavez went 1-for-3 with a double and played six innings at third base in tonight’s rehab game with Tampa. Rafael Soriano threw 16 pitches. He pitched one inning, allowing two hits and an earned run.

• Sabathia is now 0-2 in three career starts on his birthday.

Associated Press photos

In a replay of the last game before the all-star break, CC Sabathia and James Shields locked in a pitchers’ duel tonight. This time it was Shields who got away with the one-run win, 2-1, in the Yankees series finale at Tropicana Field. Sabathia was very good — two runs on five hits through eight innings — but a two-out walk came back to hurt him. Shields was just as good and didn’t allow a run until Robinson Cano’s two-out RBI double in the eighth. The Yankees went 4-4 on this first road trip after the break.

Associated Press photo