The LoHud Yankees Blog

Alex Rodriguez is penciled in the line to bat fourth and play third base, although Joe Girardi said Rodriguez can still be scratched depending on how he feels in a pregame workout.

Also, Eduardo Nunez is at short today. Derek Jeter will DH.

Derek Jeter DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixiera 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Russell Martin C
Eduardo Nunez SS
Brett Gardner LF

Phil Hughes SP

Pregame notes to follow…

Hey everyone, Josh Thomson in for Chad today. Long time, no write…or however you’d say it.

I’m already rolling on Twitter so if you have a question the next couple hours post it there. I’ll drop the lineup on there when it’s posted and will return to the blog when I’m back in the press box. Here’s hoping the rain holds off until 4.

Remember when Yankee’s-A’s was a big rivalry? It’s a sign of just how far the Athletics have fallen that tonight marked the first time Oakland beat the Yanks in consecutive games since 2007. Yikes.

The Bombers are still 5-3 against Oakland this season, but the last two games sting. Tuesday they came back from 6-0 down and were within a few feet of a game-winning grand slam. Tonight they had a 2-1 lead in the eighth with C.C. Sabathia pitching. Both times they lost to an inferior club while Boston beat up on Texas.

It is only their third series loss over their last 21.

There’s going to be a lot of anger at Rafael Soriano after he surrendered the deciding home run to Coco Crisp. He’s engendered mixed feelings since he walked through the door in March.

“It just looked like he left a breaking ball up to Coco and a breaking ball up to Sizemore,” Joe Girardi said. “And they took advantage of it.”

Soriano didn’t help himself by claiming after the game that he hadn’t picked up on any hitting patterns on either hitter.

“I never think about the hitters, what they’re going to do,” he said through a translator. “I just try and pitch my game.”

He said he didn’t feel any tightness from not pitching in a week.

• After his last start, Sabathia said he was just slinging the ball, not really pitching it. That wasn’t the case today.

“I felt great tonight,’ he said. “I wasn’t so strong, my mechanics was good, I was throwing the ball where I wanted to. It just didn’t work out.”

He felt no ill effects of being in a six-man rotation.

By making his 350th start tonight, he became the youngest to do so since Vida Blue in 1980. CC is 31 years, 34 days old.

• Crisp and Scott Sizemore probably both had the best batting days of their lives today. Sizemore was 4 for 4, his first career four-hit game. Crisp was also 4 for 4, with two home runs, a career-high five RBI, and a walk.

• Although Bartolo Colon insisted last night that he feels no effects of his high workload, Brian Cashman said today that it’s definitely something he’s aware of.

“He’s been a godsend for us no doubt about it, ” Cashman said. “But how the back end of those innings are going to affect him, it’s fair to speculate based on how he’s performed.”

Colon is at 131 innings, more than he’s thrown since 2005 and more than the last three seasons combined.

• Derek Jeter stands 21st on the all-time hit list, tied with Rickey Henderson. He needs five more for 3,060, the number held by Astro great Craig Biggio. Two hits tonight gave him a .490 average over his last 12 games.

• Mark Teixiera hit his 35th home run, tying him with Curtis Granderson for second in the majors behind Toronto’s Jose Bautista.

• Nick Swisher has 16 home runs over his last 75 games after hitting two in his first 46 games.

• Robinson Cano extended his hitting streak to 15 games.

YANKEES (77-49)
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Eduardo Nunez 3B
Francisco Cervelli C

LHP CC Sabathia (17-7, 2.96)
Sabathia vs A’s

A’s (58-70)
Jemile Weeks 2B
Coco Crisp CF
Hideki Matsui DH
Josh Willingham LF
Brandon Allen 1B
Conor Jackson RF
Kurt Suzuki C
Cliff Pennington SS
Scott Sizemore 3B

RHP Trevor Cahill (9-12, 4.17)
Cahill vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., YES

WEATHER: Clear and windy. Winds will be blowing out to left and center field.

UMPIRES: 3B Gary Cederstrom, HP Cory Blaser, 1B Adrian Johnson, 2B Fielden Culbreth

Second time’s a charm: The Yanks are 29-12 in Game 2 of series and just 21-21 in Game 1. If they lost tonight it would mark just their third series loss in their last 20.

Jeter stays hot: With his three hits last night, Jeter is batting .351 over his last 41 games. His .418 average in August is the fourth-highest among all players. If it continues he’ll have his first month over .390 since July of 2006.

UPDATE 7:11: Home run Coco Crisp. There goes the no-hitter.

UPDATE 7:20: Jeter has moved past Rod Carew into sole possession of 22nd place on the all-time hit list.

UPDATE 7:56: Matsui is batting .361 since the all-star break, fifth in the AL. Hasn’t done much against the Yankees though. he just bounded out to end a third-inning threat.

UPDATE 8:01: That was a cool play by Oakland’s middle infield. Brett Gardner hit a ball up the middle that 2B Jemile Weeks snagged going to his left. Knowing he didn’t have time to stop and throw, he tossed it to SS Cliff Pennington who was coming toward him. Pennington made a strong relay to first. Gardner was safe, but had the runner been anyone else, the play might have worked.

UPDATE 8:05: With that RBI single, Jeter tied Rickey-be-Rickey Henderson for 21st on the all-time hit list. Jete has reached base in six straight plate appearances.

UPDATE 8:25: That looked like Nunez’s ball hit the dirt behind home plate. It certainly sprayed up some dirt. If so it should have been a foul ball and Eduardo should still be batting.

UPDATE 8:32: That strikeout of Suzuki was CC’s seventh. If not for the Crisp home run he’d have a real gem on his hands.

UPDATE 8:35: Top of the lineup coming up for the Yankees.

UPDATE 8:41: A little while ago I put up a post about Carlos Pena being claimed off waivers by the Yankees, which ESPN is reporting. If you want to join the discussion about that move, use that separate blog post.

UPDATE 8:48: Wow, I did not think there was a chance to get Weeks there. Most players would have held up at second base, but Weeks streaked through the bag without slowing down a bit. Once he turned the corner with a full head of steam I thought he was definitely safe. Beautiful relay by Cano there.

UPDATE 9:08: Would you be taking Cahill out if you were Bob Melvin? Yes, he’s thrown 100 pitches, but he’s been keeping the Yanks in check so far. I guess Melvin really wants a lefthander in there.

UPDATE 9:17: Guess it was the right decision. Brian Fuentes gets out of a 1st-and-3rd, no-out situation.

UPDATE 9:36: That double play was lucky.

UPDATE 9:40: No Pesky Pole home runs for Teixiera. That tater was a man’s home run. We’re tied again at 3-3.

UPDATE 10:10: Pennington’s hit brings up the dangerous Scott Sizemore. Wait, did I just say that? …. Sure enough, as I type that Sizemore picks up his fourth base hit.

UPDATE 10:13: I guess when you allow four hits to Sizemore and another four to Coco Crisp, you deserve to lose. The Rafa Soriano experiment isn’t working out so well, huh?

According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Yankees have made a waiver claim on Cubs first baseman Carlos Pena. The report came minutes after general manager Brian Cashman said there would probably be no roster moves for the rest of the season.

“I’m going to continue to scan everything, but no, I’m not optimistic that we’re going to do anything,” he said. “I think this is most likely what we’ve got.”

If the team acquired Pena, he would likely fill their designated hitter role. Eric Chavez has struggled since coming off the disabled list and Jorge Posada has show his age.

Pena is hitting just .223 but has a .342 on-base percentage and 23 home runs.

If the report is true, the Cubs can either relinquish Pena and the remainder of his $10 million salary to the Yankees, pull him back off waivers, or work out a trade.

Alex Rodriguez used two terms yesterday to describe the status of his sprained thumb. He said he thought it was a “one-day injury” and a “day-to-day” one.

At the time I considered them the same thing. How wrong I was. A-Rod is out of the lineup again today, making the thumb at least a two-day injury.

“Give him today and we’ll see how it is tomorrow,” Joe Girardi said.

He felt well enough to field ground balls and do team toss. That means he’ll at least have a glove on, which he said is the most painful part. Girardi said there was a chance, though it sounded slim, that if he feels so pain-free during those drills that he begs back into the lineup, he’d get the green light. But with the manager tending toward caution I think it’s unlikely.

Rodriguez was seen with a giant wrap on his left hand yesterday in the dugout, but Girardi said that looked scarier than it was.

“That’s Geno,” Girardi said of trainer Gene Monahan. “These are old-school medicines that Geno puts on people.”

Rodriguez suffered the injury backhanding a ball on Sunday.

• Brian Cashman said the current roster is likely going to be the one you see down the stretch and in the playoffs. He doesn’t see the club making any deals.

“I’m going to continue to scan everything, but no, I’m not optimistic that we’re going to do anything,” he said. “I think this is most likely what we’ve got.”

• Trevor Cahill, tonight’s Oakland starting pitcher, has not been bad this season. His 4.17 ERA is just a bit above average. But the Yankees have absolutely destroyed him. He’s 0-2 with a 14.54 ERA in two starts against them this year, and 0-4 with a 13.50 in four career starts.

“This is a young man that has good stuff but we seem to be able to make him work,” Girardi said. “We got some fortunate hits off him last time. We got some walks that hurt him.”

• Today is Brett Gardner’s 28th birthday. I asked him if he ever feels like he’s getting old or worries what age will eventually do to his legs, which are essentially his livelihood.

“Some days you feel young and some days you feel old,” he said. “Sometimes you get tired but for the most part, knock on wood, this season I’ve been healthy and I’ve felt really really good. Age is just a number.”

He leads the team with 36 stolen bases. He is the first Yankee since Alfonso Soriano in 2001-03 to steal 30 bags in consecutive seasons.

Similar to yesterday but Nunez and Cervelli replace Chavez and Martin, respectively.

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixiera 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Eduardo Nunez 3B
Francisco Cervelli C

Boston beat Texas 11-5 last night, sending the Red Sox back into a first-place tie with the Yankees. Adrian Gonzalez had two home runs and John Lackey did a credible job against the Ranger lineup.

As if it needed saying, the AL East division race is going to come down to the bitter end. But should it?

The two teams are 8.5 games up on the Angels. It would take a major fold over the last 36 games (or a typical season by the Mets) to cost the Yanks a playoff spot. Is it worth it then to fight for a division title if it means overplaying the veterans down the stretch?

Joe Girardi said last night that his goal is always home field advantage. That means winning the division. It means treating this division race like a big deal, rather than an issue of semantics.

It also means ignoring first-round matchups. If the season ended today, the AL East winner would play the Detroit Tigers, who sit three games behind Texas. The Tigers are potentially a scarier opponent because of the presence of Justin Verlander.

So while the Yankees lost a tough one last night, feet away from a Nick Swisher grand slam, is it even a big deal?

If you believe it is, and you want the division title and all that comes with it, you’d like to see them come back to take this series from a pretty crummy A’s team. While Oakland can pitch a little pitch, its lineup is dreadful. The fact that they got six runs off Bartolo Colon and company is a bad sign. In four previous games Oakland scored a total of nine runs.

C.C. Sabathia opposes Trevor Cahill tonight. If A-Rod comes back from his sprained thumb then the Yanks have to win this one.

With the Yankees languishing offensively, Nick Swisher breathed life into the club with his home run in the eighth inning. With the Yankees on the verge of an unlikely victory, he wanted to finish what he started. But no such luck.

Swisher’s fly ball with the bases loaded in the ninth inning went 390 feet but stayed in the park for the last out of a 6-5 defeat to the Oakland A’s.

“You always want to be the guy in that spot, at least I do,” Swisher said. “You always want to be the hero. And for a while I thought I was.”

Off the bat he was thinking grand slam. It was only when CF Coco Crisp settled under it with his back nearly touching the wall that he knew it was not to be.

Swisher’s three-run homer with two outs in the eighth had started the rally. Before that the Yanks had been listless against A’s righthander Brandon McCarthy. McCarthy was locating well and never looked worried until the home run, which sent him to the showers.

Jorge Posada went yard to make it 6-4 in the ninth. The Yanks eventually loaded the bases for Mark Teixiera, who fouled out.

“I’d love to come through there,” he said.

Robinson Cano walked on a close 3-2 pitch to force in the fifth run.

• Jeter went 3 for 3 with a walk, raising his batting average to .295. It’s the second-best mark on the team behind Cano.

His third hit was the 3,053rd of his career, tying Rod Carew for 22nd on the all-time list. Carew was 39 when he got his last hit, two years older than Jeter is now.

Despite the big night Girardi opted to bunt him with two on and no outs in the ninth. He said his decision was based on factors. For one, Granderson and Teixiera were coming up next. For another, he wanted to stay out of the double play.

• Alex Rodriguez received X-rays during the game, which came back negative. He has a sprain of the left thumb and is considered day-to-day.

“We’ll just go day by day,” Girardi said. “Hopefully he’ll be better tomorrow.”

• Bartolo Colon denied that he is getting tired from being a full-time starter. Colon hasn’t started a full season since 2007. He’s already thrown more innings this year than he did in the three previous years combined.

His performance has slipped since the all-star break. He’s surrendered nine runs over his last two starts.

“I feel really healthy, very strong,” he said through an interpreter. “All I have to do is keep working hard and see what happens.”

He was fine with today’s outing, saying, “I think I pitched good.”

He admitted to going away from his two-seam fastball because he’d been taken deep on that pitch twice in his last start. He used only four seamers today, except for two occasions.

• See if you can figure this one out: the Yanks are 21-21 in series openers and 56-28 in all other games. Is it a sample size thing or does it mean something? Why would they slack off in the first game of every series?

• Cano extended his hitting streak to 14 games, longest by a Yankee this season.

YANKEES (77-48)
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

RHP Bartolo Colon (8-7, 3.54)
Colon vs A’s

A’s (57-70)
Jemile Weeks 2B
Coco Crisp CF
Hideki Matsui DH
Josh Willingham LF
Brandon Allen 1B
David DeJesus RF
Cliff Pennington SS
Kurt Suzuki C
Eric Sogard 3B

RHP Brandon McCarthy (6-6, 3.74)
McCarthy vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., MY9

WEATHER: Clear and a bit cool.

UMPIRES: 3B Gary Cederstrom, HP Cory Blaser, 1B Adrian Johnson, 2B Fielden Culbreth

UPDATE 7:45: That was Eric Sogard’s first home run in 41 career at-bats. Check out his player page. He looks like my accountant.

UPDATE 7:53: I posted the A’s lineup at the top of this blog post before the game but I just noticed that it got erased somehow. Not sure how that happened. It’s back up now.

UPDATE 7:58: Jeter’s second hit gets his batting average up to .294, second highest on the team behind Robbie Cano. Pretty amazing when you think about where he was a couple months ago.

UPDATE 8:09: Another fine play by Mark Teixiera. David DeJesus lined to Tex’s right at about eye level and Tex snagged it out of the air. The runner on first didn’t even bother looking back as he knew he’d be doubled off.

UPDATE 8:30: I wonder if it’s weird for Posada to watch Jeter bat from the basepaths. Throughout their long Yankee careers, Jeter has always batted at the top of the lineup and Posada near the middle. It’s not often been that Posada was on base by the time Jeter came up.

UPDATE 8:43: Word just came down that A-Rod’s X-rays were negative. He has a sprained thumb and is day to day.

UPDATE 8:58: That Kurt Suzuki double was Colon’s last pitch. Boone Logan is in.

UPDATE 9:18: I didn’t mention this in the pregame notes, but A-Rod said during his impromptu press conference today that he’s scheduled to meet with MLB officials on Friday in Baltimore to talk about his alleged participation in a series of allegedly illegal poker games. Allegedly. He promised to talk about it to reporters before Friday’s game.

UPDATE 9:23: If the Yanks have any chance they better score a couple here in the eighth. McCarthy is on cruise control.

UPDATE 9:24: Jeter’s JumboTron photo at Yankee Stadium makes him look disturbingly like Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino from MTV’s Jersey Shore. Incidentally, Bartolo Colon is shaped like Snooki.

UPDATE 9:35: OK, that counts as something. Swisher’s homer makes it 6-3 in the eighth. But was it too late?