The LoHud Yankees Blog

This is not the bullpen the Yankees meant to build. Boone Logan’s not supposed to be their top left-hander. Cory Wade’s not supposed to be pitching out of trouble in the sixth. Rafael Soriano is not supposed to be pitching the seventh, and Dave Roberton is not meant to be handling the eighth.

It’s not exactly how the Yankees drew it up this winter, but it might be just as good as they hoped.

“We have to do our job,” Mariano Rivera said. “We have enough people out there that can do the job.”

Tonight was really the first time we saw the Yankees full bullpen as it’s currently designed. It was the first time Soriano pitched in a significant spot since coming off the disable list, and having him in the seventh let everyone else fall into place. Five relievers were brought in for very specific jobs, and they all got it done. That’s why the Yankees are in first place.

Sure, the defense played pretty well tonight, and the lineup was able to scratch across some runs on Jon Lester, but this win rested on the pen. The Yankees relievers have allowed two earned runs on the road since July 15, a span of 26 innings with a 0.69 ERA. This was the second time in three games that the bullpen pitched four-plus innings.

“Our bullpen has been excellent, and we’ve had a lot of guys step up,” Joe Girardi said. “Booney, we go all the way back to Cincinnati, he’s been outstanding ever since Cincinnati. You get a big out from Cory Wade. Soriano, we get him back for his third appearance. Goes through a tough spot, does a good job, ends up getting Ellsbury out; this guy’s playing as good as anyone. Robby comes in and some guys that have had some success, he gets them out. And then Mo just does what he does. Our bullpen was outstanding.”

Here’s Girardi.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

—

Logan’s strikeout in the fifth inning was certainly the biggest out of the night, and it’s in the conversation for the biggest out of the season so far.

Given what was at stake. Given who was at the plate. Given the fact the Yankees hadn’t beaten the Red Sox since April. This game would have gotten out of hand had Gonzalez ripped a double into the corner, but Logan struck him out on three pitches.

“When he swung at that first slider I threw, I knew he had no chance,” Logan said. “If I just get this ball down in the dirt, he’s going to swing over it.”

Logan’s been much better since that first month and a half, and given all the lefties in this Boston lineup, he’s going to be crucial in the division race and possibly in the playoffs.

“He’s aggressive going after people,” Larry Rothschild said. “The velocity is up and when it’s there, he’s going at people aggressively.”

Here’s Logan.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Pretty good line from Derek Jeter about finally beating the Red Sox: “Percentages were probably on our side to win a game, right?” the captain said. “We can’t worry about how we played against them earlier in the season. We feel as if we’re playing well. We’re pitching well. It’s a big win, but you want to continue to play well. No one in here is talking about what happened earlier in the year.”

• An eight-game winning streak is the Yankees longest of the season.

• The Yankees struggled against Jon Lester, but in the sixth inning they scratched out three runs with timely hits and good at-bats. Even Robinson Cano’s double play came in a nine-pitch at-bat and resulted in the tying run. “Jon is a heck of a pitcher, there’s no doubt about it,” Nick Swisher said. “We had him on the ropes, and whenever you have a guy like that on the ropes, you have to put him down. You have to do your best to get that last run in.”

• Swisher on his go-ahead double past third base: “I thought Youkilis made a great play on it, because I lost it when it went by him. I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Then I saw it bouncing and I was like, ‘All right – yippee!’”

• Yes, Swisher actually said, “Yippee!”

• Jeter and Eduardo Nunez were both thrown out attempting to steal. The Yankees had been caught stealing only three times in their previous 51 attempts. The last time two Yankees were caught in the same game was way back on June 20 in Cincinnati.

• Bartolo Colon showed a lot of velocity and seemed to have good life on his fastball, but the Red Sox made him work. He was at 94 pitches after 4.2 innings, and after that infield single loaded the bases, Girardi didn’t want to take any chances with Colon against Gonzalez. “He had seen Bartolo a few times,” Girardi said. “I just thought, he’s getting a little tired, he’s thrown a lot of pitches this inning. I don’t want him to leave a ball up or a ball in the middle of the plate. I’m going to make a change.”

• Colon recorded his 100th strikeout of the season when Carl Crawford struck out in the fourth inning. It’s the first time Colon has struck out at least 100 batters in a season since 2005 when he had 157 Ks with the Angels.

• The home run Colon allowed to David Ortiz snapped his four-start homerless streak that dated back to July 14. Of the 12 home runs he’s allowed, 13 have been solo shots.

• Colon also walked a guy. The Yankees didn’t walk anyone during the White Sox series.

• Jeter’s run in the sixth inning was the 1,742nd of his career, passing Honus Wagner for 21st place on baseball’s all-time runs scored list… Rivera moved into a tie with Jose Mesa and Lee Smith for 10th on baseball’s all-time games pitched list. He’s pitched in 1,022 games.

• Last word goes to Swisher: “Right now, we feel pretty confident. It’s not a cocky confident, it’s a confidence on the inside that we know when we take that field, we’re going to give it all we got. We’ve been playing great baseball the past couple weeks, so we just want to continue it and keep it going.”

Associated Press photos

The Yankees have regained control of the American League East. In the opener of a three-game series at Fenway, the Yankees rallied to beat the Red Sox 3-2 and take over first place in the division. Nick Swisher drove in the go-ahead run in a three-run sixth inning, but it was the Yankees bullpen that did the heavy lifting with 4.1 scoreless innings. Boone Logan and Cory Wade got key, inning-ending outs, and the late-inning trio of Rafael Soriano, Dave Robertson and Mariano Rivera handled seventh, eighth and ninth. It was the Yankees eighth straight win, and the first win against Boston since April 9.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (68-42)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Andruw Jones LF
Russell Martin C
Jorge Posada DH
Eduardo Nunez 3B

RHP Bartolo Colon (8-6, 3.30)
Colon vs. Red Sox

RED SOX (68-42)
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
David Ortiz DH
Carl Crawford LF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia C
Josh Reddick RF
Marco Scutaro SS

LHP Jon Lester (11-4, 3.17)
Lester vs. Yankees

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

WEATHER: It’s been sunny ever since I landed, highs in the 70s. Not bad at all. Doesn’t look like there’s much chance of rain until Sunday.

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

SINCE THE LAST TIME: This weekend’s series is the first between these teams since Boston swept three games at Yankee Stadium in early June. Since that sweep the Yankees have gone 35-15 (.700), with the best winning percentage by an AL team over the stretch. They’ve won seven straight games and seven straight series, and they’ve gone 12-1-2 in series play since that sweep by the Red Sox.

DON’T WALK THIS WAY: The Yankees pitching staff did not walk a batter in their four-game series at U.S. Cellular Field. According to Elias, the Yankees became the third team in the Modern Era (since 1900) to not issue a walk while sweeping a four-game series. Boston did it twice, once as the Americans in 1905 and once as the Red Sox in 1968.

ROBBIE AT HOME IN FENWAY: Robinson Cano is a career .366 hitter at Fenway Park. According to Elias, that’s the fourth-highest all-time batting average at Fenway Park among visiting players with at least 200 at-bats. Elias also says that he has the highest career average among Yankees all-time at Fenway, and he’s hit safely in his last eight games in this park. In 55 career games here, he has never gone hitless in consecutive games.

UPDATE, 7:44 p.m.: The Yankees squandered an opportunity in the top of the second. The Red Sox grounded into a double play in the bottom half. Still scoreless heading into the third.

UPDATE, 7:52 p.m.: Hard takeout slide by Nunez lets Jeter reach, but he’s immediately thrown out trying to steal.

UPDATE, 8:07 p.m.: Good at-bat by Ellsbury, who just doubled off the monster for  a two-out RBI double in the third. It’s 1-0 Red Sox.

UPDATE, 8:26 p.m.: GameDay has it as an 88-mph fastball. I thought it looked like a slider. Whatever it was, Ortiz hit it out for a solo home run and a 2-0 Red Sox lead after four innings.

UPDATE, 8:36 p.m.: It seems the entire press box knew Andruw Jones was about to be doubled off about four seconds before he realized it. That’s pretty terrible base running from a guy who seems to have a good reputation on the bases. Still 2-0 Red Sox heading into the bottom of the fifth.

UPDATE, 8:49 p.m.: There’s the Yankees first walk in the month of August. It puts two on with two out for Pedroia here in the fifth.

UPDATE, 8:57 p.m.: Here’s Boone Logan to face Adrian Gonzalez with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth. If Boone gives it up, the Internet might explode.

UPDATE, 8:58 p.m.: Three-pitch strikeout by Logan. That second slider had Gonzalez completely off balance, clearly expecting a fastball.

UPDATE, 9:16 p.m.: The Yankees have tied it in the sixth, but the tying run scored on a double play ball after a nice at-bat by Cano. They still have a chance to take the lead with Swisher at the plate and a runner at third.

UPDATE, 9:18 p.m.: Swisher sneaks a double past third base and the Yankees are in front, 3-2.

UPDATE, 9:48 p.m.: The Red Sox guessed right with the pitchout and nailed Nunez stealing to end the top of the seventh. It’s still 3-2, and it looks like the Yankees are going to try to roll out Soriano-Robertson-Rivera to close it out.

Also, Gardner is now playing left.

Ivan Nova went running through Boston with strength coach Dana Cavalea today. He wasn’t sure of the exact route, but at one point he was running along the river and over a bridge. For whatever reason, Nova seemed to enjoy telling that story. Mostly, he’s just happy he’s still with the team.

Until he’s told otherwise, Nova is going through his usual routine, preparing as if he’s going to start in five days. That seems at least vaguely possible, because his fifth day would be Tuesday, and Phil Hughes won’t be able to start that day if the Yankees use him out of the bullpen this weekend.

“We’ll decide if we plug in Nova another day or what we decide to do,” Joe Girardi said. “Our focus right now is to make sure we get through these three days and that we have enough pitching… (Hughes would be available) if we needed some distance out of a guy and we had used the other guys and our bullpen was a little light, Sunday would be his fifth day.”

It’s a bit of a strange situation, because the Yankees don’t want to give CC Sabathia too much extra rest, but they like the idea of giving Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia a few extra days. Girardi said it’s hypothetically possible that the Yankees could skip one of those starters entirely one turn through the rotation, giving them “a mini All-Star break.” Nova could help make that possible.

“It is a little tricky, but it doesn’t hurt every once in a while for those guys to have an extra day,” Girardi said. “At this time of the season with the innings that they’ve logged, it doesn’t hurt. Bart’s been in uncharted water if you look at the last five years and Freddy is on pace to blow by what he’s thrown at any point in the last five years. We just want to make sure that our pitchers are staying strong and that they’re healthy.”

The Yankees are hesitant to move Nova into the bullpen because he’s never pitched in that role, and also because they want him as a starter. There’s value, Girardi said, in having a guy like Nova waiting as a sixth starter.

“The concern about not having someone built up that has experience in Triple-A is the one thing you always worry about,” Girardi said. “Hypothetically, let’s say you send Nova to the bullpen and you lose his ability to be a starter and give you 100 pitches. What if somebody goes down or you need a spot start? Then you’re talking about calling up someone that has no experience. As close as our race is, every game is extremely important.”

Basically, it’s still up in the air, but Nova gives the Yankees options, and they like that. What’s next is still unclear, but right now, Nova’s not going anywhere.

Here’s Girardi’s pregame press conference.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Girardi wanted to maximize his right-handed hitters against Jon Lester, that’s why Jorge Posada is in there and Brett Gardner is not. Lester has allowed a .205/.268/.274 slash line against lefties and a .240/.322/.415 against righties. “I just thought, I’m going with my right-handers,” Girardi said. “Jorge had good at-bats off of Lester last time we faced him – a couple of knocks – and that’s what I’m doing.”

• It was actually Lester’s start against the Yankees in June that Girardi’s thinking of — Posada went 3-for-3 filling in for Mark Teixeira — but the point still stands. Posada was out of the lineup the last time the Yankees faced Lester. Andruw Jones homered off Lester that day. Gardner went 0-for-4 that day.

• There’s also this regarding the decision to sit Gardner: “We had talked about giving him maybe a day at some point during this 10-day stretch,” Girardi said. “He played both games of the doubleheader in the field and he’s been running all over the place. With what Jorge’s done off of Lester, I thought today was a pretty good day to do it.”

• Girardi said there’s nothing new about Alex Rodriguez. The intensity of his workouts increased today, but there’s still no scheduled day for him to begin batting practice or to go on a rehab assignment. “I think you have to start see him start to take BP and run the bases and then you have a much better idea,” Girardi said.

• One more quick note on Nova, who impressed everyone with his slider last night: “I wasn’t throwing it too much here because I don’t really have the confidence to throw it,” he said. “Once I got sent down, I think it was the right moment to start working on it, and I work hard on my slider down there in Triple-A and I’ve got the confidence. The first time that I pitched in Triple-A I struck out 10 guys too, mostly with the slider. You have more confidence in that pitch, and situations that you have to use it, you have to use it. Especially days like yesterday, they can’t hit it, so I don’t see why I’ve got to go to other pitches if they can’t hit my slider.”

• Yankees Low-A starter Steve Evarts has been suspended 50 games after testing positive for a performance enhancing substance. I’m not sure I’d ever heard the name until today. He had a 5.65 ERA in seven starts for Charleston. He’s a lefty originally drafted by the Braves and signed by the Yankees in December.

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

Associated Press photos

I’ll have more later, but very quickly…

Ivan Nova is still on the active roster, and the plan is to keep him with the team, but his role is still undecided.

Phil Hughes will be available as an emergency long reliever on Saturday and Sunday. The plan is still for him to start on Tuesday, but if things get crazy this weekend, Hughes will be available out of the bullpen, and if he’s used, next week’s rotation will be shuffled.

As it stands, Hughes and A.J. Burnett are still the probable starters for Tuesday and Wednesday, and Joe Girardi said it’s possible Nova could start on Thursday, which would give CC Sabathia an extra day of rest. But that’s still undecided.

Basically, keeping Nova around gives the Yankees options in the way they use Hughes this weekend, and it gives them options for their rotation next week.

“I just know that I’m here,” Nova said.

Here’s the Yankees lineup and the latest on Alex Rodriguez from The Associated Press down in Tampa. Right now there’s no player move indicated on the lineup sheet.

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Andruw Jones LF
Russell Martin C
Jorge Posada DH
Eduardo Nunez 3B

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Alex Rodriguez has increased the intensity of his infield drills.

The Yankees third baseman took grounders on the infield dirt for the first time since having right knee surgery on July 14. He also doubled his swing total in tee and soft toss sessions during the second day of work at the Yankees’ minor league complex.

Rodriguez is encouraged and said Friday’s workout was better than the day before.

“The first two days have been good,” Rodriguez said. “I think it’s how I’m going to wake up (feeling), how my body reacts the next week or so.”

A-Rod took 40 grounders on his knees at around 70 feet, 10 on the edge of the infield and 10 more at the normal third base position. He also talked with a group of Atlanta Braves minor leaguers, who were at the complex for a rookie-level Gulf Coast League game.

Rodriguez took 55 swings off the tee and 63 more during soft toss.

The Yankees expect Rodriguez to rejoin the team in mid-August.

Tonight
RHP Bartolo Colon (8-6, 3.30)
vs.
LHP Jon Lester (11-4, 3.17)
7:10 p.m., YES Network / MLB Network

Saturday
LHP CC Sabathia (16-5, 2.55)
vs.
RHP John Lackey (9-8, 6.23)
4:10 p.m., FOX

Sunday
RHP Freddy Garcia (10-7, 3.22)
vs.
RHP Josh Beckett (9-4, 2.20)
8:05 p.m., ESPN

More than 100 games into the season, the Yankees and Red Sox are tied in the American League East. Head-to-head, though, the season series remains lopsided.

The Red Sox have won eight. The Yankees have won one.

“How do I explain it?” Derek Jeter said. “Pretty simple. They’ve played better than us. If you’re playing a good team like Boston has, and you don’t play well, they’re going to beat you. They’ve played well against us and we haven’t played well. Is it surprising? It’s not surprising because they did better than us. It’s like two years ago when we started out poorly and everyone said it was a problem and then it flipped. In baseball sometimes you can’t explain it.”

The Yankees have a chance to flip it this weekend. A three-game series in Boston will — for now — determine control of the American League East. The two teams are tied now. They won’t be tied on Monday. While the Yankees packed their things last night, they seemed to know they were heading for a showdown. They also knew they were playing well heading into the biggest series of the season so far.

Joe Girardi — “There were some times we were playing pretty decent going to face them, but I think we’re different. I think our guys are playing really well right now. I think things have kind of settled down on the injury front. We’re getting Alex back soon. Our rotation has been good. There were a lot of questions about our rotation, how long guys could do it. They’ve continued to do it, so the questions aren’t asked quite as much. Some younger players have more confidence. Gardy’s playing better now. I think we’re a little different.”

Mark Teixeira – “I think it’s fitting. We’re supposed to be batting with these guys, we knew it was going to be a tough year in our division and it’s proved to be that. They’re a great team, we’re playing well right now, so it’s going to be a fun series.”

CC Sabathia – “I think we want to win the division. That’s always the goal. The wild card would be nice to get into the playoffs, but the No. 1 goal is always to win the division… I think we’ve been playing good. No matter what happens over the weekend, we’ve still got to keep going out and playing hard, try to hold it down until Alex gets back and we’re all the way healthy.”

Russell Martin – “It’s good (to get a sweep) going into anywhere, especially going in to play a tough team. We’re not really going to change anything with who we’re playing. We’re playing our baseball, competing every day, and we know it’s going to be a tough series over in Boston. They’ve got a tough team. The team that plays the best is going to win, so we’ll see.”

Nick Swisher – “There’s two months left to play. Every time these teams get together, it’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be intense, for sure. You don’t have to get up for those games, because you’re already up for those. Right now, our season is completely turned around and we’re playing some great baseball. Right now would be the time that we would want to catch those guys.”

Derek Jeter — “In the first two weeks of the season everyone was saying Boston’s season was over. No team in history had ever – what was it? – made the playoffs after being 2-10. You play the games and you see what happens. They have a good team. I told you at the time when they were 2-10 that they had a good team. So we need to play well. If we play well, then I like our chances, but you have to play well. The better teams that you play, the better you have to play.”

Associated Press photos

Joe Girardi and Russell Martin agreed: This was the best Ivan Nova looked all season. His slider was a real weapon, and he was hitting his spots with his fastball. Girardi said he makes no decisions based on one game, but this one game was pretty hard to ignore.

“Now I have to scratch my head a little more, don’t I?” Girardi said. “It’s a great thing to have, a lot of pitchers throwing the ball well. It’s a great problem to have. It’s finding spots for all of them and how you go about it, that’s something we have to determine.”

What does Nova think will happen next?

“I think I have a game in five days no matter if I pitch here or anywhere,” Nova said. “That’s what I’ve got my mind on. Four days to start working hard again and pitch in five days.”

Nova’s attitude through this entire situation has been pretty amazing. He said it’s been easy to block out the distractions — “I’m a happy guy,” he said — but it’s hard ignore the possibilities. A six-man rotation is hard to figure out under any circumstance, and it’s especially difficult when there’s an off day coming up and some veteran pitchers clearly prefer a regular five-day routine.

Regardless of whether he thinks about it when he’s on the mound, Nova clearly knows that his spot is uncertain, but today he put together one of the finest pitching performances the Yankees have seen all season.

“The first thing is my game,” Nova said. “I always say, if you pitch a good game, you still have a chance to stay with the team and the rotation. The first thing that you have to the field with is a good mindset that you’re going to do you’re job, and you’re going to win a game… When you have a day like today, I’m not going to lie, it’s hard to think that you have to go down or anything like that, but I’m trying to be quiet and trying to keep my mind clear.”

One other thing Girardi said: “It was tough to send him down the first time.”

One other thing Nova said. “I’m happy right now because I win today. I’m not frustrated at all. I keep waiting, and hopefully I stay here.”

Here’s Nova.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

And here’s Girardi.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Heading into a weekend series in Boston, the Yankees and Red Sox and now tied for the first time since June 22. The Yankees have a share of first place for the first time since July 7. “I think it says that we’ve been playing well,” Girardi said. “We’ve been chasing them for a while now, so it says a lot about this club and what we’ve been through, how we’ve overcome some things. It is significant.”

• The Yankees have matched their longest winning streak of the season. The Red Sox have gone 4-4 in their past eight games, and their loss tonight against the Indians cost them a one-game lead in the division.

• This was the Yankees first four-game sweep on the road since winning five games in Boston in 2006.

• Girardi said he’ll talk to Brian Cashman tonight and tomorrow and could have a move to announce before tomorrow’s game, possibly to add a bench player. “We’ll discuss it tonight, we’ll discuss it tomorrow and we’ll decide what we’re going to do,” Girardi said. “You don’t necessarily have to make a move, but we’ll talk about it. We’ll talk with Brian and talk it over.”

• Girardi did say that, in theory, Phil Hughes could be available out of the bullpen this weekend. Obviously if he were used in relief it would knock him out of Tuesday’s start. Not saying that’s likely, just that Girardi said it’s theoretically possible that Hughes could be used that way.

• Russell Martin’s evaluation of Nova’s night: “Today was the best I’ve seen him, absolutely. He was executing almost every pitch. He didn’t really miss much, and when he missed, he missed in a good spot. I just like his attitude out there. He’s focused. He’s competitive, and it’s every pitch he’s in the game. I like it. I appreciate it.”

• The one run that scored off Nova might not have scored if not for a botched pitchout. Martin corrected guessed that the runner was going, but Nova’s pitchout was high and over the plate. Nova said he got the sign, just missed his location. He said it’s the second time it’s happened to him this season, and he seriously — I think he was serious — wants to work on pitchouts in the bullpen to make sure he doesn’t mess up another one.

• The Yankees homered seven times in this series and they outscored the White Sox 34-11.

• Robinson Cano homered in back-to-back games fort he first time since June 14-15 in Texas. he hit .467 with seven RBI and five runs this series.

• Martin matched a career-high with four RBI.

• Martin’s three-run homer in the ninth was an absolute bomb. Where does it rank among the longest home runs he’s ever hit? “I’m not sure,” Martin said. “It’s up there. I don’t hit them that far that often, but that one felt good, for sure.”

• The music played in the clubhouse postgame: Lean On Me from Nick Swisher’s new album.

Associated Press photos

If Ivan Nova is about to be bumped from the rotation, he’s not going down without a fight. With 7.2 brilliant innings tonight, the Yankees rookie starter pitched the team to a 7-2 win Chicago and moved them into a tie for first place heading into this weekend’s series in Boston. The Red Sox lost, and the Yankees have now won seven in a row. The end result was lopsided, but Nova did most of his pitching in a tight ball game. The Yankees took the lead on Brett Gardner dash for home on a ground ball in the sixth, and they put it out of reach on Russell Martin’s towering three-run homer in the ninth. Robinson Cano also homered tonight.

Associated Press photo