The LoHud Yankees Blog

The latest from The Associated Press in Tampa about Alex Rodriguez’s rehab from knee surgery. The last paragraph provides a most unexpected update on Pedro Feliciano (remember him?).

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has stepped up his workouts while recovering from knee surgery.

There’s still no timetable, though, on when he’ll rejoin the team.

Rodriguez had Monday’s session moved from the Yankees’ minor league complex to their spring training site at George Steinbrenner Field because of rain.

A-Rod took part in a situational hitting drill during a 57-pitch batting practice session. Rodriguez says his progress so far is “thumbs up.”

Rodriguez is hitting .295 with 13 home runs and 52 RBIs. He had surgery on his right knee July 14.

Also, left-handed reliever Pedro Feliciano, who hasn’t pitched this season because of a tear in left shoulder, has resumed working off a bullpen mound. He might be ready to throw batting practice next week.

The Yankees have announced the upcoming rotation.

Tuesday: A.J. Burnett
Wednesday: Ivan Nova
Thursday: Bartolo Colon

Without making it official, Joe Girardi made it pretty clear that CC Sabathia will start Friday’s game against Tampa Bay. That leaves Saturday’s game as a toss-up between Freddy Garcia and Phil Hughes.

The Yankees have used 40 different players this season, a list that includes brief stints by Buddy Carlyle, Steve Garrison, Brian Gordon, Jeff Marquez, Amauri Sanit, Brandon Laird and Greg Golson. They’ve sent 17 different players to the disabled list, including two starting pitchers, two setup relievers and two starting infielders.

But after 113 games, the current roster looks remarkably similar to the Opening Day roster. Only three current Yankees were not on the team on March 31.

Francisco Cervelli
In place of Gustavo Molina
Really, this was Cervelli’s job all along. It was momentarily up for grabs when Cervelli was hurt in spring training, but his temporary replacement, Molina, got exactly three at-bats before Cervelli was activated. It might be a different story had Jesus Montero won the job out of camp, but he didn’t, and Cervelli’s taken his familiar spot on the bench. He’s more-or-less become Sabathia’s personal catcher in a behind-the-place rotation that lets Russell Martin get a regular day off every five days. So far the Yankees have stuck with Cervelli rather than call Montero up from Triple-A.

Cory Wade
In place of Joba Chamberlain
I guess this is the way it’s worked out: Rafael Soriano has replaced Chamberlain in the seventh inning, Dave Robertson has replaced Soriano in the eighth, and Wade has replaced Robertson as the middle-innings, get-out-of-trouble reliever. Signing Wade to a minor league deal on June 13 was one of the best and least noticed moves of the season. He has the lowest WHIP on the team, even lower than the closer. For a while it seemed that Luis Ayala was emerging as the the top reliever beyond the late-inning trio, but that distinction clearly belongs to Wade these days. He got a big out for the Yankees on Friday, and he’s been without question the organization’s best in-season addition.

Hector Noesi
In place of Alex Rodriguez
With Rodriguez on the disabled list, the Yankees are carrying an extra pitcher, and essentially that’s the spot Noesi is filling. He’s taken the role that belonged to Bartolo Colon on Opening Day — a multi-inning reliever capable of pitching key late innings if necessary — and now that Colon has joined the original five starters, Noesi is filling the open spot in the bullpen. Given the Yankees young rotation depth, it’s inevitable that some young starters are going to be moved into the bullpen, and Noesi has taken to the role. He’s had some rocky outings — he struggled on Saturday — but as a long man, he’s been generally reliable and occasionally outstanding.

If you’re in Manhattan and have some time to kill on your lunch break, stop by the Yankee Clubhouse Shop on 5th Ave. to meet Bucky Dent. Here’s the press release with the details.

WHO: Bucky Dent, three-time All-Star, former New York Yankee

WHAT: Bucky Dent will participate in a meet-and-greet and autograph session with SUBWAY at the fourth stop of the SUBWAY Baseball DeSIGNS tour, a unique traveling national tour of more than 40 baseballs designed by kids and autographed by celebrities.

Celebrities that have autographed baseballs in the tour include members of the cast of “Glee;” Ryan Seacrest; singer Katy Perry; actors Kellan Lutz, Ashley Greene and Selena Gomez; World Series Champion Ryan Howard; Blake Griffin of the LA Clippers; gold medalist Michael Phelps and Apolo Ohno; and Super Bowl champion’s Drew Brees and Joe Montana.

In addition to viewing the baseballs on tour, fans can also go to SUBWAYKids.com. At the end of the tour the baseballs will be auctioned online with all proceeds going to the Little League Baseball Urban Initiative.

WHEN: Monday, 11:30 a.m.

WHERE: Yankee Clubhouse Shop, 393 5th Ave. (between 36th and 37th Streets)

Sorry about the late notice. I meant to post this yesterday, but it completely slipped my mind.

The Yankees just won five games of a seven-game road trip. They’ve won eight games in nine days and they’re a game out of first place on August 8. Things could be much worse for this team.

Of course, they also just lost a game that was in their hands. They lost it at Fenway, with first place on the line, and the Red Sox have now won 10 of 12 against the Yankees this season.

“Coming in, that’s all we heard about,” Phil Hughes said. “To be so close to taking two out of three, it’s kind of a hit, but we have an off day and can refresh and get back to playing at home and hopefully have a good home stand.”

A few quick thoughts before I get on a plane back to New York…

• One thing that makes these back-to-back loses especially tough to swallow for the Yankees: They lost when they had CC Sabathia on the mound, and they lost when they had Mariano Rivera on the mound. When those two are involved, the Yankees expect to win.

• One thing that makes this series especially tough to swallow: The loses were more memorable than the win. Friday was a nice, gritty victory for the Yankees, but Saturday was a blowout and Sunday was a win that got away. The Red Sox score more runs on Saturday than the Yankees scored all weekend.

• Brett Gardner’s finally got this base-stealing thing figured out, doesn’t he? It was strange to see him get off to that terrible start this season, because he’d never been a guy to get thrown out a whole lot.

• Rivera’s Sunday and Hector Noesi’s Saturday aside, the bullpen was terrific this series (and this trip, really). With Rafael Soriano back in the mix, that group looks pretty good again.

• Two key’s to the bullpen: Dave Robertson stepping up to replace — and surpass — the injured setup relievers, and Cory Wade stepping up to replace Robertson.

• Josh Beckett is crushing the Yankees this season.

• If Eric Chavez hadn’t been injured, how much sooner would the Yankees have benched Jorge Posada? His career earned him some slack, and Posada bought some time with that terrific month of June, but eventually the Yankees had to move on.

• I just looked at the numbers again: Posada hit .382/.419/.588. It’s amazing that he could be that good through 22 games, and so bad the rest of the season.

• My complete guess for the Yankees upcoming rotation: Ivan Nova on Tuesday, A.J. Burnett on Wednesday, Phil Hughes on Thursday, CC Sabathia on Friday and Freddy Garcia on Saturday. I think this is a chance to skip Bartolo Colon. As Brian Cashman has said, the Yankees are in uncharted waters with him. There’s no way of knowing how he’ll handle this workload, and giving him a little break right now might be a good thing.

• Just when I was beginning to believe the Yankees were ready to call-up Jesus Montero, Girardi’s comments have me thinking otherwise. If the Girardi doesn’t trust Montero to handle the pitching staff, then I’m not sure they can carry him. Unless it’s September, it’s hard to have Cervelli, Posada and Montero taking up three spots on the bench.

Associated Press photo

The Yankees had Mariano Rivera on the mound with a one-run lead, three outs away from capping a wildly successful road trip that would put the Yankees back in first place in the American League East.

Had Rivera gotten those three outs, all we’d be talking about this morning would be a gritty series at Fenway and a Yankees team playing incredibly well for a week and a half. Without those three outs, we’re left with this.

“I don’t call it disappointment or frustration, it just happens,” Rivera said. “That’s baseball. We just have to continue playing the baseball we’ve been playing. We’ve been doing great. Yeah, we lost the series, but we’re going home and we’ll play our ball.”

There was something stunning in the finality of it all. Marco Scutaro doubled and scored. Then David Ortiz doubled, the Yankees setup the double play, and Josh Reddick lined a first-pitch curveball into the left-field corner. It was past midnight, and it was over. In the last few minutes of Sunday night, the Yankees were winning a great game. In the early minutes of Monday morning, they were losing a heartbreaker.

Phil Hughes said he had no problem getting loose. In fact, he was ready for it. He started throwing his bullpen — in preparation for Tuesday’s start — as soon as Rivera came into the game. When the Red Sox tied it, he stopped throwing and treated it as a warmup because he figured he would be the next guy in the game. Sure enough, Girardi went to his starter, and Hughes threw all of 13 pitches, four of them intentional balls to Carl Crawford.

“I’ve got to do a better job in that situation,” Hughes said. “We pitched so well all game, and then I’ve got to give us as many innings as we need to score runs, and I just couldn’t do it.”

Here’s Hughes.

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• Joe Girardi said he wasn’t ready to announce a rotation for the upcoming series, but Hughes won’t be available to start Tuesday or Wednesday. Ivan Nova said he’s gone through his regular between-starts routine, so he might be the best bet for Tuesday.

• Hughes said he could start Tuesday if necessary because he threw so few pitches. The fact Girardi didn’t rule him out for Thursday makes me wonder — just a guess — whether that will ultimately be his day. “I felt like I made some good progress in my last start, so if I have to wait around, it won’t be something that’s fun to deal with,” Hughes said. “But I don’t really make these calls.”

• Hughes on his pitch to Reddick: “It was sort of an 0-0 get-me-over curveball, and I kind of saw him think take — everything kind of slows down — and then it seemed like at the last second he was like (swing). He stayed back real well on it and shot it into left. I wasn’t exactly sure where Gardy was playing, but when I saw it tailing away from him, I pretty much figured that was it.”

• Hughes on the Ortiz double: “I haven’t even looked at it on video yet. I made a decent pitch on a 2-1, it was a changeup. I figured we could go in again, that’s usually where we like to go on him. I’m not sure if it was in or not, or in enough, and he put a good swing on it.”

• Rivera was asked whether his inning was a matter of bad pitches or good hitting. I assume his response was about the Scutaro double, but he could also have been talking about the Pedroia sac fly. “It wasn’t the pitch that I wanted it to be,” he said. “It was a little bit down and it should have been a little bit up. I can’t blame nothing but myself. I didn’t get it done.”

• On the sac bunt, Rivera said he didn’t think the Yankees had time to make the play because it wasn’t a force. “It’s a hard play,” he said. “If there’s two guys on base and it’s a force, it’s a little different. You have to tag the guy, so you have to be in position to be there. Even though he bunted it right back at me, I didn’t think we had a chance to get all the way back there and get him out.”

• Carl Crawford is 2-for-15 in his career against Hughes, but Hughes said he was fine with the decision to walk him. “In that situation you want a double play,” Hughes said. “The manager made the call, and that’s what you’ve got to live with. I was fine with it.”

• The Yankees are now 63-3 when leading after eight innings this season.

• Freddy Garcia walked his usual tightrope and regularly got out of trouble. He wasn’t great, but he gave the Yankees enough to get the win. He still hasn’t allowed a home run in 64.2 innings, the longest streak of his career.

• Random historic stat of the night: Eduardo Nunez, at 24 years and 53 days old, became the youngest Yankees third baseman to homer at Fenway Park since Clete Boyer did it at 23 years and 191 days old back in 1960. But you probably already knew that.

• Nunez hadn’t homered in 22 games. He’d gone 75 at-bats since his home run against the Mets.

• This was Brett Gardner’s first career game that included a home run and multiple stolen bases. He was 3-for-5 and is now 30-for-34 on stolen base attempts since May 20. He’s swiped 21 in a row without being caught, the longest such streak by a Yankee sing Derek Jeter stole 22 in a row from July 20, 2001 to June 2, 2002.

• Dave Robertson hasn’t allowed a run in 23.2 road innings this season. That’s a span of 23 outings.

• Rivera has blown 14 saves against the Red Sox, his most against any team (Baltimore and Anaheim are second with eight). This was his fifth blown save of the season, matching last year’s total.

• The Yankees were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Those numbers pretty much speak for themselves.

Associated Press photos

The Yankees will leave Boston back in second place. They handed a one-run lead to closer Mariano Rivera, but Rivera blew the save and the Red Sox rallied to beat the Yankees 3-2 in tonight’s series finale at Fenway. Starter Phil Hughes came out of the Yankees bullpen and gave up Josh Reddick’s game-winning single. The Yankees had the game in hand after Eduardo Nunez homered to tie the game in the fifth, and Brett Gardner homered to put the Yankees in front in the seventh. Rivera allowed a leadoff double in the ninth, and the Red Sox turned that into the tying run with a sacrifice bunt and a sac fly.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (69-43)
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Eric Chavez DH
Russell Martin C
Eduardo Nunez 3B

RHP Freddy Garcia (10-7, 3.22)
Garcia vs. Red Sox

RED SOX (69-43)
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
David Ortiz DH
Carl Crawford LF
Josh Reddick RF
Jason Varitek C
Marco Scutaro SS

RHP Josh Beckett (9-4, 2.20)
Beckett vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 8:05 p.m., ESPN

WEATHER: It’s a rainy, cloudy day here in Boston.

UMPIRES: HP Tim Timmons, 1B Jeff Kellogg, 2B Eric Cooper, 3B Mark Carlson

IN THE END: The Yankees are 24-12 in series finales this season, 11-6 in series finales on the road and 11-4 in rubber games of three-game series.

CROSSING THE PLATE: Curtis Granderson leads the Majors with 100 runs this season. That’s 16 more than any other player (Jacoby Ellsbury is second with 84) and already 24 more than Granderson scored all of last season. He’s 22 away from his career high and of 122 and on pace to score 145.

SAVE THE DATE: Mariano Rivera’s next save will be his 30th of the season. He would tie Trevor Hoffman’s record of 14 consecutive seasons with at least 30 saves.

UPDATE, 8:53 p.m.: Garcia had himself on the verge of getting out of this jam. He got a strikeout and a popup and needed just one out to stranded the bases loaded, but Scutaro got a ground ball through the right side for a 1-0 Red Sox lead in the second.

UPDATE, 8:56 p.m.: Fly out by Ellsbury ends the second. All things considered, the Yankees are fortunate to have gotten through it with just one run.

UPDATE, 9:13 p.m.: That’s a nice play by Jeter for the second out of the third inning. Jump throw to second to get the lead runner, and Cano’s arm is strong enough that he was almost able to turn two.

UPDATE, 9:33 p.m.: Granderson walked and got to third, but Swisher’s deep drive to center landed in Ellsbury’s glove and the threat was over.

UPDATE, 9:44 p.m.: Garcia did his usual high-wire act in the fourth inning and again go through it, this time with two runners left stranded. It’s still 1-0.

UPDATE, 9:50 p.m.: Martin gets a little too aggressive, thrown out stretching a single. He slammed his hand on the bag after the call, clearly upset with himself, not the umpire.

UPDATE, 9:51 p.m.: Girardi wanted Nunez in the lineup, and the kid just came through with a game-tying solo shot over the Monster. It’s tied at 1 in the fifth.

UPDATE, 10:23 p.m.: Strike three looking, and Chavez knew it. He flipped his bat and walked away having stranded two runners in the sixth. It’s still 1-1, and the Yankees are going to the bullpen. Here comes Boone Logan to face David Ortiz, Carl Crawford and Josh Reddick.

UPDATE, 10:44 p.m.: After an infield single loaded the bases, Cory Wade was able to get out of the sixth with a shallow fly ball to left. It’s still tied at 1, and the Yankees have been walking a tightrope all night. The Red Sox are turning the game over to their bullpen.

UPDATE, 10:57 p.m.: Gardner goes deep, and now the Yankees have Soriano, Robertson and Rivera to try to close this thing. If they win this series, it will be largely because of the bullpen.

UPDATE, 11:57 p.m.: One-run game in the ninth. Here comes Mo.

UPDATE, 12:05 a.m.: Welcome to Monday morning. Rivera gave up a leadoff double to Scutaro, and the Red Sox turned that into a tying run with a sac bunt and a sac fly. We’re heading for extras.

Here’s the short version of Jorge Posada’s pregeame conversation with Joe Girardi.

“He said he was going to put the best lineup on the field, and he doesn’t know when I’m going to DH again,” Posada said. “So right now I’m sitting on the bench… I’m not happy about it, but right now I can’t do nothing about it. I put myself in this situation.”

That’s the current status of Posada’s steadily diminishing role with the Yankees. He lost the catching job this winter, became a bottom-of-the-order hitter by May, became a platoon player by mid-season, and now he’s on the bench with a .230/.309/.372 slash line. For four months, Girardi stuck with Posada in some regular capacity.

“Chavy came back,” Girardi said. “And Chavy started swinging the bat well. And Nuney’s been playing well. It’s just a chance to get them both in there was kind of the determining factor.”

Girardi kept saying that the Yankees are going to “try some different things,” but asked flat out if Posada is no longer in the mix to be a regular designed hitter, Girardi said, “correct.” At-bats could be even harder to find when Alex Rodriguez comes back, but Girardi said Posada’s roster spot is safe. He doesn’t anticipate losing Posada to open a spot for Rodriguez, and he believes the team can afford to carry a limited DH-type on an already thin bench.

“Jorge has a lot of pride and respect for what he’s done,” Girardi said. “You could see the disappointment and understand that, but at this time I felt we had to do what I did today.”

Here’s Girardi speaking a lot about the Posada situation.

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• Girardi it’s “very feasible” that Rodriguez could begin a rehab assignment on Friday, and should line him up for a return to the team during the next road trip. “Today, he did his tee and toss, he took regular BP and he took ground balls where he moved a little bit,” Girardi said. “He’s starting to do things that would get you to the point where he’s getting closer to a game. The last thing to come would be the sprinting and running the bases, and he’s still going to have to do that before he gets into a game.”

• Girardi did not dismiss the idea of calling up Jesus Montero to get some DH at-bats, but it sounds like he would be hesitant to carry Montero as the team’s backup catcher. “Bringing up someone who’s 21 and trying to learn a new staff in the middle of a season is not easy to do,” Girardi said. “That’s more of a concern about bringing in a new catcher than necessarily, is he ready to catch at this level? And I don’t care if he’s a veteran. This is the time of year you want your pitchers familiar with your catchers, and vice versa.”

• The Yankees still don’t have a pitcher lined up for Thursday’s game. Girardi said they’re planning to give CC Sabathia an extra day, meaning he’ll likely start Friday against Tampa Bay. Thursday’s starter would be either Ivan Nova or Bartolo Colon.

• Phil Hughes is available as a reliever tonight, but Girardi said his bullpen is pretty well rested and Hughes would probably be used only in extra-innings or if Freddy Garcia had to be pulled after only an inning or two.

• It’s no longer raining in Boston, but the clouds are rolling in and the sky looks really threatening. The radar’s not great. Could be in for a long night.

RED SOX
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
David Ortiz DH
Carl Crawford LF
Josh Reddick RF
Jason Varitek C
Marco Scutaro SS

Associated Press photos

I’ll have more later, but real quickly…

Joe Girardi had a conversation with Jorge Posada this afternoon, telling Posada that the Yankees are going with their best lineup and Posada’s at-bats could diminish. Posada had already fallen into a platoon situation at DH, but it now seems that Girardi prefers to have both Eduardo Nunez and Eric Chavez in the lineup against right-handers.

“We’re going to see how this works,” Girardi said. “We’re going to try some different things. We’ll see how this works, and I told Jorge, ‘You’re still going to be a big part of this, and we’re going to need you. We’re just going to do some different things.’”