The LoHud Yankees Blog

Yankees lineup
1. Brett Gardner LF
2. Derek Jeter DH
3. Curtis Granderson CF
4. Mark Teixeira 1B
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Nick Swisher RF
7. Eric Chavez 3B
8. Eduardo Nunez SS
9. Francisco Cervelli C
Bartolo Colon RHP 
Angels lineup
1. Erick Aybar SS
2. Alberto Callaspo 3B
3. Bobby Abreu DH
4. Torii Hunter RF
5. Mark Trumbo 1B
6. Vernon Wells LF
7. Maicer Izturis 2B
8. Peter Bourjos CF
9. Bobby Wilson C
Tyler Chatwood RHP 
Time/TV: 1:08/YES
Weather: Sunny, 79
Umpires: Mike Winters HP, Mike Everitt 1B, Chris Guccione 2B, Mike Muchlinski 3B 
Old friends: Colon pitched for the Angels from 2004-07, winning the Cy Young in ’05. He’s 8-5 with a 3.98 ERA in 16 career starts against them.
Touching home: Granderson leads the majors with 104 runs scored. He currently has a 20-run lead on Jacoby Ellsbury.
Closers: The Yankees are 13-6 in series finales at home this season. 
Update, 1:14: Colon came in under 15 pitches in a 1-2-3 first. He threw 105 in five innings and 94 in 4 2/3 his last two starts. 
Update, 1:19: Jeter singles to right. That’s hit No. 3,031, just 22 from tying Rod Carew for 22nd on the all-time list for those keeping score. 
Update, 1:22: Granderson double-play ball takes care of the inning. 
Update, 1:36: Colon gets into a bases-loaded, two-out jam and gets out of it with a grounder to short. 
Update, 1:58: Colon no runs, three hits allowed through three. Fanned Abreu with 95 mph fastball in the third. 
Update, 2:04: Gardner has a double, although he ran into first baseman Mark Trumbo en route. 
Update, 2:07: Jeter gets yet another infield hit, first and third, one out. 
Update, 2:11: Granderson raps into his second straight double play. Still waiting for a run. Now the fourth. 
Update, 2:20: Colon is at 57 pitches after four, threw 199 over his last two starts in just 9 2/3 innings. Cano singles with one out in the fourth. Now two outs. Yankees have five hits so far. 
Update, 2:30: Nothing across for the Yankees in the fourth, and now Callaspo hits one to the second deck in right in the fifth, so it’s 2-0, Angels. 
Update, 2:38: 1-2-3 fifth for Chatwood. 
Update, 2:47: 1-2-3 sixth for Colon, think is at about 90 pitches, two runs, five hits. 
Update, 2:50: I’m losing count on Jeter’s infield hits. There’s another. They all count, though. Leadoff single in the sixth. 
Update, 2:54: Granderson hits his fourth homer in three games, No. 32 overall. It’s a 2-2 game. Makes up for those two double plays. He needs just seven RBI for 100. 
Update, 3:00: First and second, one out. Chatwood is done. Ex-Met Hisanori Takahashi is on to pitch. 
Update, 3:06: Takahashi does his job, gets Chavez looking. Fernando Rodney will now come on to face Nunez. 
Update, 3:11: Nunez goes down swinging, 2-2, heading for the seventh.

Update, 3:15: Soriano is on for the seventh, his first try at a back-to-back since returning from the DL.

Update, 3:19: Bobby Wilson singles with one out. Soriano had turned in five perfect innings before this since he’d been back.

Update, 3:23: Soriano gets out of the inning just fine.

Update, 3:35: First and second, one out. Lefty Scott Downs will relieve Rodney and face Granderson in a big spot.

Update, 3:39: Can’t always hit a home run. Granderson goes down swinging at a curve. Teixeira up.

Update, 3:41: Izturis can’t get a hold of an easy bouncer, E-4, bases loaded, two outs for Cano.

Update, 3:44: Grand slam for Cano off the facing of the second deck in right, 6-2. Homer No. 20. He’s out for a curtain call.

Update, 3:49: David Robertson will pitch the eighth.

Update, 4:00: Easy inning for Robertson.

Update, 4:09: Gardner’s streak of 22 straight steals is over, ending the eighth. Cory Wade will pitch the ninth.

Update, 4:15: Second and third, one out. Rivera will be coming in.

Update, 4:19: Three-run homer for Branyan on the first pitch. This is alarming with Rivera, 6-5.

Update, 4:22: Yankees win, 6-5.

Joe Girardi indicated he probably will have his six-man rotation down to five by Sunday.

“We’re going to try to make our decision before we go into Kansas City,” Girardi said about Monday’s start to the road trip.

So does he know already what he’s going to do?

“Let’s just say if I did know, I’m going to announce it here today before we’re through with the rotation?” Girardi said. “No, it doesn’t make sense to me. It’s something we’ll continue to monitor. And you don’t know what’s going to happen in the next (few days). You have no idea.”   

*Bartolo Colon will start today. He hasn’t given the Yankees as much distance the last two starts, going five innings and then 4 2/3, although he only allowed two runs each time. Overall, though, Colon is 8-6 with a 3.33 ERA over 113 2/3 innings and 20 games, including 17 starts.

“He’s been the biggest surprise all year for us, pleasant surprise,” Girardi said, “because when he came to spring training, we had no idea what we were going to get from him. When we started the season, we weren’t sure how many innings we were going to get from him. He’s probably exceeded every one of our expectations. He’s one of the reason we are where we’re at.”

So will he be in the playoff rotation?

“I’m not going to get into that,” Girardi said. “Let’s just get to the playoffs first and then I can announce the rotation.”

Girardi doesn’t have any anxiety about what the 38-year-old Colon might have left for the rest of the season.

“I think the expectation from what I’ve seen is that he’ll just continue to do this now,” Girardi said. “Earlier on, I was a little bit worried about the innings as they started to mount. But now when I watch him pitch, I thought when he pitched against Boston (last Friday), he had some of the higher velocity we’d seen in the last four or five starts, some of the better stuff. So that made me feel pretty good.”

*Jorge Posada is buried on the bench now, but he will resurface at some point. 

“There are days I’m going to put him in there as a possible DH,” Girardi said. “He might be at first base and you DH Tex. There are some different things I can do. But obviously, yes, he’s going to need to play. I don’t have a game right now, though.”

*Alex Rodriguez is still on track to start his rehab assignment tomorrow as a DH. Girardi wasn’t sure about how long A-Rod would play at third Saturday in his second game, mentioning five or six innings as possibilities.

“I would think by Minnesota (Thursday) we’ll have him back,” Girardi said. “Will we have him in Kansas City? I don’t know.”

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

Ivan Nova showed something in this 9-3 win over the Angels. He showed up without his good slider and still was charged with just three runs and five hits over six-plus. Both Nova and Joe Girardi took that as an indication of growth.

“I thought he used his fastball really effectively and got a lot of ground-ball outs and guys played good defense behind him,” Girardi said. “When you don’t have your good stuff and you can do that, that’s a sign of maturing.”

It’s going to be rather hard to take Nova out of the rotation again, considering he leads all major-league rookies with 11 wins. That total also ranks him second on the staff behind CC Sabathia.

Nova is 11-4 with a 3.85 ERA, and he’s 7-0 with a 3.10 ERA over his last eight starts.

“We’ve seen him grow leaps and bounds from what he was last year and how he’s evolved and the way he’s taken ownership of his career and just went out and pitched really well,” Girardi said. “You talk about tough scenarios, the rumors that Phil Hughes is coming back from his injury; pitching in the American League East, a tough division. He’s responded very well.”

Nova kept a good attitude when he was sent to the minors July 3 to make room for Hughes.

“I think he took it as a challenge that this is the last time you’re going to send me down,” Girardi said.

And this 24-year-old pitcher indeed doesn’t want to see Scranton/Wilkes-Barre again. Nothing personal from Nova for those of you reading in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area.

“You never want to go back down,” Nova said. “When I got back here, that’s one of the first things I said, ‘I don’t want to go back down.’ It’s not good to have to take a bus eight, nine hours. You’ve got to leave everything you have in the game so you can stay here and don’t go back down.”

*Rafael Soriano has been brilliant since he returned from the DL July 29. Nova left him a bases-loaded, no-out mess in the seventh and Soriano cleaned most of it up in four pitches, allowing just one runner to cross on a double-play grounder and then getting a fly ball. Soriano is now perfect in five innings with five Ks since coming back. Soriano in the seventh, David Robertson in the eighth and Mariano Rivera in the ninth sure looks good on paper.

Girardi on Soriano: “I think he’s really back to himself.”

*Curtis Granderson had his third multihomer game of the season and 10th of his career. His 31 homers are a career-high, surpassing the 30 he sent up for the Tigers in 2009.

“It’s one of those things where I’m happy that I was able to get to that point, but it definitely wasn’t a goal by any means,” Granderson said. ”I didn’t go in saying I want to hit ‘x’ amount of home runs. It’s just one of the things when given the opportunity, if I have a pitch to drive, I just want to drive it. If it gets out of the ballpark, great. If not, we’ve got extra bases and we could run from there.”

Granderson and Mark Teixeira (32 homers) are the only teammates in the majors now with at least 30 homers. This was the Yankees’ 115th game. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the only Yankees teammates to get to 30 homers in less team games were Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in 1961 and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Actually, Ruth and Gehrig did it three times.

*The Yankees beat Garrett Richards, a significant achievement since they hadn’t won a game against a team with a starting pitching making his major-league debut since May 1, 2004. This snapped a six-game losing streak against those teams. 

“I hadn’t realized that,” Girardi said. “In the past, we’ve struggled against guys we haven’t seen a lot of. This year, we’ve been a little different.”

*In the series finale this afternoon, the starters will be Bartolo Colon and Tyler Chatwood.

Yankees lineup
1. Brett Gardner LF
2. Derek Jeter SS
3. Curtis Granderson CF
4. Mark Teixeira 1B
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Nick Swisher RF
7. Eric Chavez DH
8. Russell Martin C
9. Eduardo Nunez 3B
Ivan Nova RHP

Angels lineup
1. Erick Aybar SS
2. Howie Kendrick 2B
3. Bobby Abreu DH
4. Torii Hunter RF
5. Mark Trumbo 1B
6. Vernon Wells LF
7. Alberto Callaspo 3B
8. Peter Bourjos CF
9. Jeff Mathis C
Garrett Richards RHP

Time/TV/: 7:08/YES
Weather: Partly cloudy, 81
Umpires: Mike Muchlinski HP, Mike Winters 1B, Mike Everitt 2B, Chris Guccione 3B
New guy: The Angels will have one of their top prospects making his major-league debut in Richards. He was 12-2 with a 3.06 ERA at Double-A Arkansas.
More Joe Girardi on Nova and the upcoming cutting of the six-man rotation: “He has been one of our five best guys. If you look at his body of work the last three months, he’s been really, really good for us. Set everything else aside, our job is to win. We have to make a decision pretty quickly here, what is best for our rotation and what is best for the 12 pitchers you’re going to carry. … Could your mind change in the next week? Sure it can. … But it’s something that we’ll sit down and evaluate over the next four or five days. How do we make our 12-man pitching staff the best?”

Update, 7:13: Nova gives up a walk and a single but escapes unscathed in the first.

Update, 7:24: Welcome to the big leagues, Garrett Richards. Walk, walk, wild pitch, three-run homer by Curtis Granderson. That’s his 30th, tying his career high. This one hit the top of the fence and bounded over.

Update, 7:38: Martin shows off his arm again, catching Bourjos trying to steal, ending a scoreless, one-hit second for Nova.

Update, 7:45: Richards settles down, 1-2-3 second, helped by a nifty running grab in left-center by Aybar going back. Bet Richards was rather nervous in the first.

Update, 7:53: 1-2-3 third for Nova.

Update, 8:01: Eight in a row set down by Richards. 3-0, heading for the fourth.

Update, 8:08: Nova is dominating. The Angels couldn’t get the ball out of the infield in a 1-2-3 fourth.

Update, 8:12: Leadoff triple by Cano and RBI single for Swisher, 4-0.

Update, 8:14: Girardi’s decision to bench Jorge Posada paid off for him again. Chavez RBI double, 5-0.

Update, 8:29: Nova finally cracks. Bourjos just makes the front row in left, solo homer with two outs in the fifth.

Update, 8:37: Two homers for Granderson, now with a career-high 31. It’s 6-1.

Update, 8:46: 1-2-3 sixth for Nova, one run and three hits allowed so far. He’s only at 79 pitches. Not that the Angels are an offensive machine, but want to take him out of the rotation? Probably not. Richards is done. Joel Pineiro is making his first relief outing in three years.

Update, 8:55: 7-1, Martin RBI single.

Update, 9:06: Shaky opening to the seventh for Nova, walk, single, single, and it’s 7-2. Rafael Soriano is getting loose.

Update, 9:09: A walk, now bases loaded, no outs. Girardi is coming out to get Nova. Soriano is coming in. Nova gets a loud ovation.

Update, 9:13: Good job by Soriano, getting a double-play grounder out of Bourjos. The run scores, 7-3. Two outs, runner on third.

Update, 9:14: Fly to left. This is finally the Soriano the Yankees paid all that money for.

Update, 9:25: Two-run shot for Cano, No. 19.

Update, 9:27: Soriano is staying on to start the eighth. Actually, he’s not. Girardi comes out to get him before he can throw a pitch. Ayala is coming on.

Update, 9:36: One-hit inning for Ayala.

Update, 9:50: Yankees win, 9-3.

Brian Heyman here for Chad for these next five games here at Yankee Stadium. Joe Girardi said that Alex Rodriguez will probably be starting his rehab assignment Friday as a DH and then hopefully play Saturday at third for either Class A Tampa or the Gulf Coast League Yankees.

Girardi wasn’t counting on him being back for the start of the next seven-game road trip Monday in Kansas City, but he does believe he will be back during the trip, barring any setbacks, of course.

As for Mariano Rivera’s back-to-back bad outings, Girardi called them ”a blip.”

“Usually when Mo has his little blips in the screen, sometimes they come back to back,” Girardi said. “Then he usually runs off a really good streak. If my sense is right, I think that’s what will happen. It’s just a little blip here.” 

When asked about lefties starting to hit better against Rivera, Girardi said, “His velocity is not quite what it used to be.”

The topic that drew the most attention was the state of the rotation, with six good pieces and five holes. Ivan Nova starts tonight. Asked about whether Nova was pitching for a spot tonight, Girardi said, “No, I wouldn’t say that. Come out healthy.”

“He’s pitched very well for us,” Girardi said. “That’s the bottom line. As we know, none of our pitchers are going to be perfect. Sometimes they’re going to have some blips. But we feel very good about him taking the ball every sixth day right now. That’s something we eventually have to get down to five here, just for our roster and just for the routine for the guys.

“I think the biggest difference in (Nova) – a month of it he wasn’t really here, three weeks – but the last two and a half months or whatever has been his slider and the ability to get swing and misses and strikeouts on it, and the improvement of that. It’s different weapon for him than his other pitches.”  

Although it’s hard to envision it happening, Girardi did leave the door open a crack when he was asked about A.J. Burnett being able to pitch out of the bullpen, saying, “I think A.J. has the skillset to do anything.”

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

Before last night’s game Angels manager Mike Scioscia was asked about the Yankees lineup without Alex Rodriguez.

“You’ve got nine boxes of TNT,” Scioscia said. “If you’re taking one away, it’s still a deep lineup. They have speed all the way through their lineup. They have power all the way through their lineup. The fact that A-Rod isn’t in there definitely changes some dynamics, but I don’t think it’s anything that (the Yankees can’t overcome). If you look at what Granderson’s done or Teixeira, Cano, Swisher to a certain extent. They’ve got Chavez now really swinging the bat well. With the team speed, there’s nothing that they’re not going to be able to absorb for a short period of time.”

Way Scioscia sees it, the key here is pitching anyway. With or without Rodriguez, the Yankees have plenty of offense as long as the pitching holds up.

“Their lineup is so deep that they absorb most of that anyway,” Scioscia said. “There aren’t many guys, especially in this park, that aren’t going to be able to take the mistake and turn it into a three-run homer. So, the premium there is to pitch well. I think their lineup is deep enough where there aren’t any obvious matchups where you go, ‘There’s no way this guy’s going to beat us, but we really feel good about the next guy.’

“There could be some things you look at as the game goes on, but it’s tough to pitch around Granderson with Teixeira there, and Teixeira with Cano there. If you put Alex Rodriguez in the middle of that, I don’t think it changes too many of those dynamics. But what it does is take a lineup that’s already deep just incredibly deep. He’s obviously a premium player in the middle of the lineup.”

Associated Press photo

The Angels are calling up one of their top pitching prospects to pitch tonight’s game at Yankee Stadium.

Garrett Richards is being called straight from Double-A to make the start. Baseball America ranked the 23-year-old as the Angels’ seventh-best prospect coming into this season, noting that his fastball “sits comfortably at 92-93 with sink.” His slider is apparently his best offspeed pitch, he has a curveball and changeup, and BA says he throws with a bit of an odd delivery.

The Yankees struggled against young call-ups like this last season, but they’ve been better this year.

“You’re probably not going to be able to see a lot of video of the young man we’re going to face (tonight), just because there’s not going to be a lot of video out there,” Joe Girardi said. “To me, it’s see the ball, hit the ball. Be ready to hit from pitch one and get an idea of what he’s trying to do to you.”

—

Speaking of starting pitching, if you haven’t already heard, Chien-Ming Wang was terrific for the Nationals last night. Check out Adam Kilgore’s gamer about Wang rediscovering his confidence in his sinker.

After Bobby Abreu homered off Mariano Rivera last night, Yankees manager Joe Girardi asked his pitcher and catcher for the details.

“I asked about the pitch that Bobby hit, and they said it just didn’t cut,” Girardi said. “It just didn’t cut for whatever reason.”

Sometimes cutters don’t cut — even for Rivera — and sometimes that’s the only explanation necessary. But the Yankees closer is 41 years old, and he’s now coughed up a crucial run in back-to-back games. It’s hard not to wonder whether he’s becoming more and more human.

Career ERA: 2.23
2011 ERA: 2.23

Career WHIP: 1.000
2011 WHIP: 0.99

Career K per 9 IP: 8.21
2011 K per 9 IP: 7.92

Career BB per 9 IP: 2.05
2011 BB per 9 IP: 1.02

Career OpBA: .211
2011 OpBA: .243

Career HR per 9 IP: 0.5
2011 HR per 9 IP: 0.4

Two differences jump out: Rivera’s basically stopped walking people, but he’s giving up hits more frequently. In terms of base runners, it basically evens out — hence the almost identical WHIP — but there is some statistical evidence that Rivera’s giving up solid contact a little more often. His line drive rate and fly ball rate are climbing, but his batting average on balls in play also suggests some bad luck.

“I haven’t really noticed that (hitters are squaring up the ball more often),” Girardi said. “You look at the first hit he gave up, it was a jam shot that was hit between the second baseman and the right fielder. He just happened to throw a ball that didn’t cut. That was the biggest difference.”