The LoHud Yankees Blog

Alex Rodriguez was encouraged by a more aggressive workout this afternoon, but his return to the Yankees lineup will likely wait another full day. Joe Girardi said today that he doesn’t expect to activate his third baseman until Sunday at the earliest.

“We’ve got to do the best thing possible,” Rodriguez said. “But I think after today, this is definitely a step in the right direction. We have another big day tomorrow and we’ll take it from there. But I’m definitely not counting this weekend out.”

Girardi said Rodriguez was definitely not ready yesterday, which is why the team wanted to see him go through drills today. They want to see him go through more drills tomorrow before making a decision. Girardi didn’t rule out activating Rodriguez tomorrow, but said he would “lean against doing it.”

“I think everything was better,” Rodriguez said. “I think Mick called me defensively game ready as far as speed. I trust his eyes. He’s my defensive coach. Kevin and I thought our offensive session was really good. But the most drastic thing for me was going from first to third. Skip made me do five first to thirds, pretty much close to 100 percent, and more than anything else the recovery time was much better so Dana was happy about that.”

Rodriguez has been wearing a soft, blue brace on his knee. He said he’ll keep wearing it for a few weeks after he returns, but he expects to get rid of it eventually.

Here’s Alex.

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• Aaron Laffey broke into the big leagues as a starting pitcher, and Girardi said he plans to use him as more than a left-handed specialist. “He’s a guy that can give you multiple innings,” Girardi said. “But he’s another left-hander for us. That’s why we went and got him.”

• Laffey is expected to be here tomorrow. Lefties are hitting .250 against him this season. He had a 1.87 ERA before the all-star break, but a 12.00 since. He was once a fairly highly touted prospect, and he’s still just 26 years old.

• Girardi said Boone Logan’s role won’t change because of Laffey. Logan will still be the top lefty in the bullpen, but it helps that he won’t be the only lefty. “The only time it really limits you is when he throws two or three days in a row,” Girardi said. Now, on days Logan’s not available, the Yankees will have Laffey.

• Freddy Garcia reported no problems throwing his splitfinger today, and it’s pretty clear that he preferred to start in Minnesota on Sunday rather than go to Scranton on Monday. “We just thought it was the safer route,” Girardi said. “When you’re a starter, you’re used to working every fifth or sixth day, and he hasn’t pitched in two weeks. We just thought it would make sense to see how he comes out after today’s bullpen. Have him throw on Monday somewhere and test the finger to make sure it’s OK, and just to get sharp again.”

• The plan is for Garcia to start one of those doubleheader games next Saturday.

• Girardi didn’t have a pitch count for Garcia on Monday. “I’ll see how many pitches Larry wants him to make,” Girardi said. “It will be more than an inning.”

• A possible added bonus of Garcia’s situation: The cut has helped to limit his workload and give him a little rest. “It definitely could help him,” Girardi said. “He was throwing the ball well, and when a guy is throwing the ball well, you hate for him to have all this time. With the rehab start on Monday, that should help. In the long run, this could really help him.”

• Mustaches are 0-for-2 in the Yankees clubhouse. Following Russell Martin’s lead, Eric Chavez has shaved his.

TWINS
Ben Revere CF
Trevor Plouffe RF
Joe Mauer C
Justin Morneau 1B
Jason Kubel DH
Danny Valencia 3B
Rene Tosoni LF
Luke Hughes 2B
Tyuyoshi Nishioka SS

Associated Press photo

Freddy Garcia will make a rehab start for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Monday. That lines him up to start one of those doubleheader games next Saturday in Baltimore.

Garcia threw a full bullpen today — with splitters — and said everything felt fine. He’s clearly not thrilled about being on the DL, but it probably made the most sense for the Yankees.

The Yankees have placed Freddy Garcia on the disabled list. The move opens a roster spot for Aaron Laffey, who needed a roster spot but isn’t expected to get here until
tomorrow.

Gustavo Molina was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.

No word on when Garcia will be activated. Because the move is retroactive, he could be activated as early as Tuesday.

The Yankees have claimed left-handed reliever Aaron Laffey from the Mariners, and Mark Feinsand reports that he’ll be in Minneapolis tomorrow. Could be looking at four roster moves before tomorrow’s game: Add Laffey, activated Alex Rodriguez and two moves to make room for them.

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

In the first game after the all-star break, Andruw Jones got the start in Toronto and went 2-for-3 with two home runs and four RBI. It was a flash of brilliance from a guy who’s job seemed to be in jeopardy through much of the first half.

Since the all-star break, Jones has hit .349/.481/.674, establishing himself as exactly the player the Yankees were hoping for when they signed him this offseason.

“Right after the all-star break, I went home and looked at old tape,” Jones said. “My mom called me and told me, ‘Hey, look at your old tapes.’”

Jones mother told him she didn’t like the way he was setting his legs in his stance. Seriously, she got that specific. Jones looked at tape from last year, and decide to go back to a more open stance.

“I kind of opened up a little bit and made an adjustment, trying to be more quiet and more on time,” Jones said. “And everything has been working out good since the all-star break… We went with closed (in spring training), and not getting consistent at-bats, it wasn’t working. So, I kind of opened up and trying to put my leg down and be ready for whatever pitch they throw me.”

It actually sounds a little bit like what Curtis Granderson did last year, creating a quieter swing that’s ready to attack.

Here’s Jones after last night’s game.

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Just wanted to post a real quick reminder that I’ll be hosting a chat here on the blog at noon. Stop by if you can. If it means blowing off work for a little while, I think that’s acceptable.

Alex Rodriguez was stuck on the disabled list the day he turned 36 years old. When he finally comes off the disabled list in a few days, he’ll have to spend some time as the Yankees designated hitter before resuming his role as an everyday third baseman.

Given his age and his recent injury problems, could this be the start of a trend? I think it’s generally assumed that Rodriguez eventually will need more and more time at DH, and less and less time in the field, but is this the moment that transition begins?

“I look at Cal Ripken,” Rodriguez said. “He was always my role model. He played to about 40 or 41. The one thing about third base is (you need) a strong arm and one step and dive. When you think about center field or the middle of the infield, you have to do so much more. As a shortstop, I always felt like that. As a third baseman, even if you have limited range, if you have good hands and a strong arm, I think you can play there forever.

“As long as you’re driving the ball offensively, it’s very important to be out there at third base because it allows your team, your roster and the organization to have a solid bat at DH, or have it as a rotator where you can have guys like Tex, Jeet, myself and Robbie to occupy it. You kind of strangle the team a little bit by just being an everyday DH when you can go out and play third base. You can always go out and find a guy that has a little more range at third, but if you can be a guy that can produce 30 runs, drive in 100 runs and make 10 or 12 errors, I think anybody would sign up for that.”

Maybe it’s overly optimistic, but it’s also a fair point. The Yankees won’t need Rodriguez to be a Gold Glove defender as long as he remains a capable fielder and a productive hitter. Of course, the level of production the Yankees would have in mind would require a return to the power numbers that seemed to escape Rodriguez during those three weeks leading to last month’s knee surgery.

“It was a strange thing because I was hitting for a high average and making good contact with the baseball and driving in runs, but I just wasn’t driving the ball out of the park,” Rodriguez said. “And that’s something I really haven’t been used to. The last two or three weeks (before surgery), I was playing with a lot of pain, and I thank our staff for advising me to have the surgery because I would have just kept playing right through it… I think that’s the reason we chose to have the operation. Although I was swinging the bat well and producing and getting hits, my value is to do a lot more than just getting base hits.”

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*** Don’t forget, chat today at noon! ***

Associated Press photo

Hoping for a nice, clean, review-free game tomorrow night? After the botched replay last night, and the overturned home run tonight, Joe Girardi brought up the idea that we should expect more of the same on Friday.

“Things go in threes, right?” he said.

It was strange enough to see it happen twice. As soon as Justin Morneau drove a ball to the right-field corner in the first inning, it was impossible not to think of last night’s home run call. This was another questionable homer, and Girardi was jogging onto the field, and it was going to be reviewed.

“It’s almost like, we need to get paid back,” Mark Teixeira said. “… Huge break. Two runs in the first inning against a good pitcher, that could have given them some momentum. I’m always a big believer that if you give CC a lead, he’s going to hold it. Because of that we were able to give him a lead in the next couple of innings, and he held it.”

Ultimately, the Yankees got two insurance runs in the ninth, and the two-run homer didn’t loom quite as large when the final score was 8-4, but through most of the game, it was a difference maker.

Sabathia got off to a slow start tonight, and the overturned homer felt like a kind of reprieve. Coming off back-to-back losses — his first back-to-back loses of the season — Sabathia allowed five base runners in the fist two innings, then he settled in and looked like the ace the Yankees are used to seeing. He said his slider got much better in the middle innings, and he found the arm angle on his fastball. He was “slinging” the baseball early — and a few times late — but Sabathia considered this fairly significant step forward from the previous three starts.

“I thought in the middle of the game I felt good,” he said. “I was making pitches. I was downhill. It just kind of got away from me at the end of that last inning, but when I needed to I thought I made some pretty pitches.”

Here’s Sabathia.

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• This is supposed to be a pitchers’ park, but the Yankees went deep three times. Of course, it was Andruw Jones’ third-deck shot that had the clubhouse buzzing afterward. “I couldn’t hit it up there with a 3-wood,” Nick Swisher said.

• Jones said he never saw where his homer landed. As soon as he knew he’d gone deep — and he knew quickly — he lowered his head and started jogging. “I never really look at where balls land,” he said.

• The other two home runs were a second-deck shot by Mark Teixeira, and a two-run shot just over the wall by Swisher. “We had all three decks covered,” Swisher said. “And I had the scraper.”

• Teixeira and Sabathia both said they had no idea whether Morneau’s home run was fair or foul, but Girardi said he was pretty sure it went foul. He asked for a replay without having seen or heard about one himself. Girardi said he didn’t suggest the umpires owed him one. “I didn’t say anything about yesterday,” he said. “Yesterday’s gone. There’s not anything we can do. You ask them to review it, and they’re good about it.”

• Sabathia said his changeup is still bothering him. He never really had it tonight, and he wants to work on it in his next bullpen. The slider, though, was much better tonight. “And I knew it was going to be huge for me tonight with all the lefties in their lineup,” Sabathia said.

• Sabathia has 14 regular-season wins against the Twins, tied with Tim Wakefield for second most among active players. Mark Buehrle has beaten the Twins 26 times.

• In the seventh inning, Girardi had Boone Logan ready in the bullpen, but he left Sabathia in to face lefties Mauer, Morneau and Thome. Yes, Sabathia’s a lefty, but he’d given up three straight hits that inning and it seemed like time to pull him. “If he gets into a long at-bat with someone, you have to see what happens to him,” Girardi said. “Once he got Mauer out, I was going with him all the way through Thome.”

• Underrated play of the night: Robinson Cano getting Jim Thome out to end that seventh inning. Cano had to go well to his left to make the play. “That’s a huge play,” Girardi said. “That’s CC’s last hitter, then it’s 6-5 (if he doesn’t make the play). That’s a big play.”

• Derek Jeter had two more hits tonight. The guy is hitting .291 now, and he has 17 hits in his past 32 at-bats. That’s a .531 batting average in seven games.

• The only player in tonight’s Yankees lineup with a higher batting average than Jeter was Robinson Cano. That’s unreal.

• Curtis Granderson’s triple gave the Yankees 30 triples for the season, the second-most in the American League. It also gave Granderson double digits in triples (10), doubles (18), homers (32) and stolen bases (22). Since 1913, when stolen bases became an official stat, only seven other Yankees have finished with double digits in those four stats (Ben Chapman, Lou Gehrig, Joe Gordon, Tony Lazzeri, Bob Meusel, Babe Ruth and Snuffy Stirnweiss). The last to do it was Stirnweiss … in 1945! That’s accoriding to Elias.

• The Yankees knew before the game that first pitch would be pushed back to 8:15 ET for the pregame ceremony for Thome (which was excellent, by the way). The game started a little later than that, and Girardi suggested that might have contributed to Sabathia’s rocky start, but Sabathia said it had no impact on him. “It went a little bit later, and that happens,” Girardi said. “The guy deserves the due that he got. I understand that. We’ve had it happen at our ballpark where it goes a little longer. Jim Thome deserves everything he got tonight. I don’t have a problem with it.”

• The Yankees confirmed that A.J. Burnett will start Saturday instead of Freddy Garcia. Sunday’s starter remains TBA. It will be either Garcia or Ivan Nova.

Associated Press photos

This time, a home run call went the Yankees way, and for a while that seemed to make all the difference. A two-run Twins homer was overturned in the first inning, and that stood as the difference until the Yankees pulled away in the ninth for an 8-4 win in Minnesota. Justin Morneau’s first-inning homer was reviewed and ruled foul, and that loomed large until Francisco Cervelli’s two-out, two-run single in the ninth. Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones went deep for the Yankees, with Swisher and Jones going back-to-back in a key three-run fifth. CC Sabathia allowed 10 hits, but four of them came in the first two innings, and he settled in (for the most part) to strikeout nine and get his first win since August 1.

Associated Press photo