The LoHud Yankees Blog

I’m not sure whether there’s an unofficial date when we’re all supposed to start debating the MVP candidates, but the last off day before September call-ups seems to be as good as any.

For the Yankees, that means Curtis Granderson, whose all around game — power, speed, defense at a premium position — has him featured prominently in that discussion.

Alex Rodriguez knows first-hand what an MVP season looks like.

“There’s no question,” Rodriguez said. “When people compare him to other players, you can’t forget that he’s a center fielder and he’s playing a high-quality defense out there. He’s scoring a bunch of runs and RBIs. Those are the two most important stats in baseball. He’s helping a first-place team do what we’re doing. In my mind, he’s the MVP.”

Joe Girardi has been the manager plugging Granderson into the lineup every day.

“Nothing he does really surprises me any more,” Girardi said. “You just kind of expect him to do something great every day. Whether he’s facing a left-hander or a right-hander, you know that he’s going to put good at-bats, and he’s extremely dangerous.”

Granderson is the 30-year-old moving quickly among the game’s elite.

“It’s interesting how some of the stuff kind of takes shape,” Granderson said. “At the same time, the main thing each day is trying to do anything I can at any point, whether it be a sac bunt, hit-and-run, defense, steal a base, drive the baseball, to help this team win a ball game. And we’re trying to win as many as we can. The focus on that one as the most important game, like today was. Tomorrow’s an off day, much needed, and we come back to the park on Tuesday and our job mentally is going to be to get ourselves ready to help this team win, no matter how it happens to be.”

Associated Press photo

This was a good trip for the Yankees. They did what they needed to do against two of the weaker teams in the American League, and they’re coming home still in first place in the American League East. Their third baseman is back, their MVP candidate is thriving and their two young starters are grabbing ahold of rotation spots. Just a few thoughts right before Erik Boland, Wally Matthews and I get on the plane.

• With guys like Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano surging, the Yankees lineup looks really, really deep with Alex Rodriguez added to the middle. I know some people would have preferred a drastic shakeup, but there was no sense looking too far outside the box. Going back to the May batting order made sense.

• If Eric Chavez is playing against right-handers and Andruw Jones against left-handers, those dwindling Jorge Posada at-bats are going to become really tough to find.

• Russell Martin’s been somewhat inconsistent at the plate, but he’s such a power threat that he’s been a productive part of that lineup. Given the bat and the glove, Martin might be playing his way into a role next season as well. He’s arbitration eligible, and having Martin around could make it easy to break in Jesus Montero.

• It’s becoming harder and harder to so much as think about taking Ivan Nova or Phil Hughes out of the rotation. If the Yankees won’t move A.J. Burnett, is Bartolo Colon the most logical option? The workload seems to be affecting him, and he could shine in that relief role he had out of spring training.

• Ian Kennedy is pitching very well in Arizona, but I still the Yankees would make that trade.

• If Burnett were in the last year of his contract like Javier Vazquez was last year, then the rotation situation might be different. But the Yankees have to think about Burnett beyond this season. Long-term, it’s in their best interest to try to get him right and not just give up on him. Whether they can afford to do that in this division race is debatable.

• This team has exactly one player who wasn’t in the organization on Opening Day. It’s Cory Wade, and he’s really been a terrific signing.

•There were a few times this season that I though Luis Ayala might be DFA, but he’s stuck around and pitched well in a limited role. Unless he’s designated for Garcia this weekend — DFA someone right before September call-ups? — he’ll be one of the more obscure minor league signings to stick.

• Is everyone still worried about Mariano Rivera?

Associated Press photo

Curtis Granderson was fine, he just needed a minute. He’d just sprinted around the bases, slid head-first for an inside-the-park home run, and now he was retreating into a sea of high fives in the dugout.

That’s when he realized he was winded.

“It was good until everyone wanted to talk,” Granderson said. ” As we’re coming in, everyone was asking about it, and I couldn’t really talk too much.”

Here’s the play-by-play of the home run, in Granderson’s words:

“I thought the way they were going after it, OK, it’s going to hit the wall, let’s go ahead and make sure we get to third. My normal read is, if they don’t have it by the time I get to second, I’m advancing to third base, and sure enough, that’s what I did.

“… The only time I realized it was when the third baseman wasn’t covering third once I had already rounded second base. I saw our third-base coach, Rob Thomson, then beginning to wave, and I could hear our dugout saying keep going. At that point I wasn’t sure I was going to make it because I could see the catcher getting himself ready to make a play, and luckily the throw was up the line and gave me the back side of the plate to slide in safely.”

As you might expect, Joe Girardi said the whole thing started with Granderson going hard out of the box.

“That’s where it starts,” Girardi said. “Curtis is a guy that hits a lot of triples, and to get that, you have to run hard. That’s the way Curtis plays. It’s an outstanding job. In a lot of ballparks, that’s a homer the normal way and you don’t have to run so hard. This is a big ballpark, it hit off the wall high and took a long bounce. Curtis was hustling the whole way.”

Associated Press photo

The Yankees had already stranded the bases loaded twice. Mark Teixeira had committed his first error since May 6, and by the time Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher let a fly ball drop between them, it seemed this might not be the Yankees day. The Twins had runners at second and third with no outs against rookie Ivan Nova.

“When you look at that inning, you try to tell yourself, ‘It’s okay to give them one, let’s try not to give them two,’” Joe Girardi said. “‘Don’t give them a multiple (run) inning, and we can come back.’ He made it even better. He didn’t give them any. It was an outstanding job of pitching and an outstanding job by Russ. The game plan they executed today was great.”

Maybe you prefer that two-hit start against the Rangers in early May, or maybe those eight terrific innings against the Reds in mid June, or the 10-strikeout game against the White Sox earlier this month. Whatever the pecking order, this was clearly one of Nova’s finest starts of the season. It was the first time he allowed no runs, and it was his fifth win in as many starts since coming back from Triple-A.

“The big leagues is the big leagues,” he said. “Nobody wants to be in the minors. I came a long way from my hometown to be here, and now that I’ve got the opportunity to be here, I don’t want to lose it. You’ve got to stay here in the big leagues and try to do your job every time.”

It was that fifth inning that defined Nova tonight. He’d already pitched around an error in the third inning and induced a double play in the fourth. With runners at second and third in the fifth, he got back-to-back strikeouts before Drew Butera rolled over a routine grounder. All three outs came on a slider, the pitch that’s turned Nova from a promising but inconsistent rookie into a reliable and occasionally dominant starter.

“It’s not like the beginning,” Nova said. “I was throwing only fastball, curve. I wasn’t throwing my changeup either. And now we’ve really got all my pitches going. It’s a lot different. I think the hitter doesn’t know what pitch you’re going to.”

Here’s Nova. He’s now 13-4 with the most wins for a Yankees rookie since reliever Ron Davis won 14 in 1979. He has the most wins for a Yankees starter since Doc Medich in 1973.

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• Curtis Granderson was briefly tied for the Major League lead in home runs, but Jose Bautista also went deep today. Granderson said he never thought his ball was going to leave the park, but he was surprised to see Rob Thomson waving him home. “The one we never really work on happens and we’re going one more base to home,” Granderson said. “Mechanically, it was probably the most incorrect thing because the angles were all off because I was getting ready to stop at third base.”

• It was Granderson’s third career inside-the-park home run, but Granderson initially said this was his second. Someone had to remind him that he had an earlier one against the Angels (the one he remembered was against the Yankees). The last Yankee to have an inside-the-park homer was Derek Jeter last season.

• Mark Teixeira’s third-inning error was his first since May 6, snapping a streak of 87 consecutive games without an error, the longest single-season streak of his career.

• Oh yeah, Teixeira also homered in the game.

• Speaking of defensive mistakes, both Granderson and Swisher said their misplayed ball in the fifth was a matter of bad communication. Granderson ranged well into right field, and Swisher didn’t hear him calling the ball until the very end (that’s when he tried to stop). Granderson knew he was supposed to take charge, but he also knew he’d come well into Swisher’s area and he worried Swisher hadn’t heard him, so he tried to stop as well. “Guys were busting Curtis and I a little,” Swisher said. “And I said, ‘What are you taking about? You should thank us.’ After that, Nova got filthy.”

• Derek Jeter had another hit and is now three away from Rod Carew for 22nd on baseball’s all-time hits list. Jeter also drew a walk, and he’s now 16 away from being the sixth Yankee to reach 1,000 walks in his career.

• Alex Rodriguez reported no soreness after the game and said he was happy with the way he felt. Girardi acknowledged that Rodriguez’s timing might have been off at the plate, but he made a great play on an early bunt.

• Rodriguez on the bunt play: “That was a good test just because he runs so well. It was a bang-bang play. That’s a play that I’m going to have to make, so it was good to make it.”

• Rodriguez expects other teams to try to bunt on him for a while until he’s proven that knee is 100 percent. “It’s going to happen,” he said. “It’s not going to stop now. For the next two weeks, I’m going to have to make that play over and over again.”

• Dave Robertson got out of a bases-loaded jam again. Does this even count as a note any more? The three base runners reached base without getting the ball out of the infield (two infield singles and a walk).

• Mariano Rivera got his 33rd save.

• Robinson Cano matched his season-high with a 13-game hitting streak. He hasn’t done that since April. His double led to the Yankees first run in the sixth inning.

• Freddy Garcia is scheduled to throw 65 pitches or four innings for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre tomorrow. Right now, Garcia and Nova are lined up to start that doubleheader in Baltimore.

• One of those random clubhouse notes: A.J. Burnett shaved that blonde hair off his head today.

Associated Press photos

What a difference this was. One start after Ivan Nova struggled in Kansas City — and one day after A.J. Burnett was knocked around here in Minnesota — Nova delivered an absolute gem in a 3-0 Yankees win against the Twins. Wrapping up a five-win road trip, Nova was as good as he’s been all year. He pitched out of jams — most of which weren’t his fault — to finish with seven scoreless innings, his first scoreless outing of the season. Alex Rodriguez was hitless in his return, but Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh. Granderson’s was an inside-the-park homer and moved him into a tie with Jose Bautista for the most home runs in the big leagues.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (76-48)
Derek Jeter DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner LF
Eduardo Nunez SS

RHP Ivan Nova (12-4, 4.21)
Nova vs. Twins

TWINS (54-70)
Ben Revere CF
Trevor Plouffe 2B
Joe Mauer 1B
Jason Kubel RF
Jim Thome DH
Danny Valencia 3B
Rene Tosoni LF
Matt Tolbert SS
Drew Butera C

RHP Nick Blackburn (7-10, 4.53)
Blackburn vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 2:10 p.m., YES Network / TBS

WEATHER: Day game on our final day in the AL Central. Weather has been absolutely perfect these three days in Minneapolis.

UMPIRES: HP Ron Kulp, 1B Chad Fairchild, 2B Jim Wolf, 3B D.J. Reyburn

UNDER THE SUN: The Yankees are a Major League-best 33-8 in day games this season. They have a .281 combined day batting average (second-highest in Majors) and an American League-most 54 daytime homers. The pitching staff has a 2.96 ERA in day games (second-best mark in the Majors behind Texas).

SUPER NOVA: Ivan Nova is undefeated in his past nine starts, going 8-0 with a 3.90 ERA. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first Yankees rookie to win eight straight decisions as a starting pitcher since Whitey Ford in 1950.

SECOND AT SECOND: According to SABR’s Trent McCotter, Russell Martin last night became the second Yankee to play both catcher and second base in the same game. Rick Cerone did it in 1990 against Kansas City.

UPDATE, 2:38 p.m.: Well, A.J. Burnett did not have the shortest start of this series. Blackburn is out after three straight walks in the second. He seems hurt.

UPDATE, 2:51 p.m.: A scoring opportunity gets away. Nunez struck out. Jeter flied out. And the Yankees left the bases loaded in the second.

UPDATE, 3:19 p.m.: Nova lost the no-hitter with one out in the fourth. Hardly counts a no-hitter watch, but still. He’s pitching well.

UPDATE, 3:35 p.m.: Rodriguez pops up to leave the bases loaded in the fifth. Second time the Yankees have stranded the bases full. It’s still a scoreless game heading into the bottom of the fifth. The silver lining for the Yankees: Nova has been tremendous.

UPDATE, 3:42 p.m.: Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher let a ball drop between them, and now the Twins have runners at second and third with no outs in the fifth. Looks like Granderson was calling for the ball, but had to pull back because he was about to collide with Swisher, why tried to get out of the way at the last second. Misplayed, obviously, and now Nova needs to get out of trouble.

UPDATE, 3:49 p.m.: Nova stranded the runners with two strikeouts and a ground ball to third. Even against a weak bottom of the order, that’s big-time pitching from the rookie. Still a scoreless game.

UPDATE, 3:56 p.m.: Cano doubles, takes third on a fly ball to left and scores on a sac fly to center. Simple as that, it’s a 1-0 Yankees lead.

UPDATE, 4:16 p.m.: Granderson’s 35th home run of the season is an inside-the-park job off the wall in right-center. To be fair, it would have been out of almost every other park in the world.

UPDATE, 4:17 p.m.: Make it back-to-back. Teixeira just went deep to left and it’s a 3-0 Yankees lead in the seventh.

UPDATE, 4:35 p.m.: I have to think Nova’s finished for the day. He’s given the Yankees seven scoreless, a significant return to form after a sloppy outing last time in Kansas City.

Things went a little later than usual pregame today, so I’ll try to make these notes quick.

As expected, Alex Rodriguez is back. Yesterday, both he and Joe Girardi hinted that he might play the field, and sure enough, he’s in there at third base, batting in his usual cleanup spot.

“He feels good, and with the day off tomorrow we thought it made sense to play him at third base today and see how he does in the nine innings,” Girardi said. “He should be fresh… I think you just kind of have to watch how long the games are, how he’s moving, how he’s recovering from day to day. I’ll talk to him tomorrow to see how he feels so you get kind of a temperature on how he’s recovering.”

The Yankees have been encouraged by Rodriguez’s work the past three days. They’re hopeful that they’re getting the guy who was driving the ball early in the season, not the hobbled singles hitter they had before he went on the disabled list.

“This is the middle-of-the-order hitter,” Girardi said. “This guy has been a run producer for years and years and years. Before he hurt his knee his home runs were good and his RBIs were good. Once he hurt his knee his power kind of went away a little bit, but he was productive.”

• Derek Jeter is hitting .342 since coming back from the disabled list. With those numbers, there was no chance of Girardi dropping him to the bottom of the order, which meant Brett Gardner dropped. “There’s nothing set in stone,” Girardi said. “We’ve played with things, and if I feel we have to play with it (I will). The way Jeet’s swinging the bat, maybe it costs Gardy four at-bats a week. Maybe. But they’re still together. Most of the game they’re going to be together, and we like that combination.”

• The only alternative would have been breaking up the Yankees two through five hitters — Granderson, Teixeira, Rodriguez and Cano — and Giradi wasn’t willing to do that. He prioritized getting those four at-bats. “You’re talking about two, three, four and five extremely productive guys that hit the ball out of the ball park,” Girardi said. “You don’t really want to move those guys down. You want to get those guys up as much as you can. That’s why we’re doing it.”

• To make room for Rodriguez, Aaron Laffey was optioned to Triple-A. “He’s a guy that we believe could help us against left-handers as we move forward here,” Girardi said. “He’s not going to be able to throw for a couple of days, anyway.”

• Russell Martin is catching a day game after a night game. “I was able to get him out from behind the plate after six innings (last night),” Girardi said. “He didn’t catch Thursday.”

• Girardi said he could easily have flipped Gardner and Eduardo Nunez in the order, but he thinks of both of them as basically the same guy on the bases. Either one puts speed on the bases ahead of Jeter and the Yankees power hitters.

• Girardi on Ivan Nova: “Big start. We expect him to pitch well. I thought in his last start he hung some breaking balls is what hurt him. You can say pitch selection. To me it was the execution of his pitches. He hung some pitches.”

TWINS
Ben Revere CF
Trevor Plouffe 2B
Joe Mauer 1B
Jason Kubel RF
Jim Thome DH
Danny Valencia 3B
Rene Tosoni LF
Matt Tolbert SS
Drew Butera C

Associated Press photos

Looks like Aaron Laffey was optioned to open a roster spot. His name is not listed in the bullpen.

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

Assuming he didn’t wake up with a broken leg or some sort of unexpected soreness, Alex Rodriguez will be in the Yankees lineup this afternoon. It will be his first big league game since early July, and Joe Girardi has committed to putting him back in the cleanup spot.

So what happens to the rest of the lineup?

My guess is we won’t see anything drastic this afternoon. The Yankees are facing a right-hander, and my guess is that Girardi will go back to the lineup he was using back in May: Brett Gardner will drop to the No. 9 spot, Derek Jeter will be the leadoff hitter, and Curtis Granderson will once again be the most dangerous No. 2 hitter in baseball.

But maybe not.

The lineup should be posted fairly shortly, and I guess my question is this: What are you hoping to see hanging on that clubhouse wall? Assuming Rodriguez does slide into his familiar spot in the batting order, where would you slot everyone else?

Here’s what was shown on television.

A.J. Burnett had just walked Joe Mauer in the second inning. When Joe Girardi pulled Burnett from the game, Burnett began walking off the mound, turned suddenly and cursed toward Girardi and the gathered Yankees. Girardi seemed to react, but it was hard to tell whether he said anything back to Burnett. When Burnett got to the dugout, went straight to the stairs leading to the Yankees clubhouse. When Girardi got to the dugout, he also went directly to the stairs leading to the clubhouse.

Here’s what was said after the game.

“You can write what you want,” Girardi said. “You can say what you want, but he was pissed because he thought he struck out Joe Mauer. I asked if they thought it was a strike and the guys said they thought it was a strike.”

Girardi grew truly agitated when asked about following Burnett into the clubhouse.

“This is silly,” he said. “This is really, really silly. You know what? We had a fistfight, is what we had. I came in and looked at the pitch. Our video room is right down there. Everyone always seems to want to blow it up about A.J., A.J., A.J. Nothing happened between me and A.J. I went and looked at the pitch. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of people looking for something between me and A.J. Me and A.J. have mutual respect for each other. I cheer for this guy, he cheers for me and we cheer for this team. I want the guy to do well. Everyone’s always trying to say there’s something between me and A.J. What do you want, the pitcher to want to come out of the game? I mean, this is ridiculous.”

It might have seemed ridiculous to Girardi, but watching the scene unfold, it seemed ridiculous for another reason. Burnett seemed to be showing up his manager on the field, and Girardi seemed to be chasing his pitcher to have a chat about those actions. That’s certainly what it looked like.

“No,” Burnett said. “Russ came out and he said, ‘That’s a strike.’ I said, yeah. I was not talking to Joe, absolutely not. No matter how mad I get, that guy’s taken my back every day I’ve been here, (including) last year. No matter how boiling I’m going to be, I’m not going to say a swear at him. Not him. No chance.”

Girardi was supportive as ever after the game. He said he still has confidence in Burnett and the Yankees will work to get him back on track. But this is a bad Twins lineup, and Burnett couldn’t pitch out of the second inning. Freddy Garcia comes off the disabled list in a week, and then the Yankees have to make a rotation decision.

“We’re still on a six-man rotation just because we need to,” Girardi said. “We need this guy to pitch. That’s the bottom line; we need him to pitch like he’s capable of pitching.”

Here’s Burnett.

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Here’s Girardi.

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• Burnett said he and Girardi had a conversation “two or three innings later” so that Burnett could explain saying what he said coming off the mound. “We talked about it, for sure,” Burnett said. “I made sure and told him, look man, not you. I told him, as ticked off as I am, not at him. No chance.”

• Burnett said Girardi didn’t tell him to come back to the dugout after he was pulled from the game. “You don’t have to tell me that,” Girardi said. “I’ve been around the game long enough. I came in, put my stuff down and went back to the dugout.”

• Both Girardi and Burnett seemed to think his curveball was alright at moments tonight, but he had no control of the fastball. “It’s a hiccup, man,” Burnett said. “I had a bad night. I’m going to be frustrated and upset about it, but I’m going to come ready to work and ready to get back on a roll. It’s not going to stop me.”

• Burnett thought his last pitch to Mauer was a strike, but he also seemed to know he had no room for argument. “You’re not going to give somebody a strike who’s all over the zone,” he said. “That’s the case there.”

• Martin on ball four to Mauer: “If it missed, it missed by a hair. He called that pitch later in the game. Nothing you can do to change that, but it was a good pitch. He just didn’t call it. Whether it was a strike or not; if it missed, it missed by an inch or two. Normally you get that pitch if you’re around the zone. He hit the spot.”

• Martin on Burnett: “It just seemed like they were hitting every fastball that he threw over the plate. He had a hard time locating his curveball for a strike, and when that happens, they kind of just spit on the curveball, spit on the breaking stuff and wait for their fastball. When they got their fastball, they didn’t miss it.”

• Burnett’s 1.2 innings were his fewest in a start since he threw one inning on June 20, 2004 against Atlanta as a member of the Marlins. His 61 pitches were the fewest he’s thrown in a game since September 27, 2010 in Toronto. This was his shortest start as a Yankee.

• Four of Burnett’s five hits went for extra bases. He entered tonight’s game tied for fifth in the American League with 59 extra-base hits allowed.

• Robinson Cano extended his hitting streak to 12 games and is hitting .373 in that span. Cano’s season-high hitting streak is 13 games.

• Martin played second base for the first time in his Major League career. He’s played third three times this season.

• Andruw Jones went deep for the second time in as many games. This one did not go into the third deck.

•  On the day he got to the Yankees, Aaron Laffey made his debut and allowed two runs on five hits through three innings. He said before the game that he grew up a Yankees fan. “My dad was a big-time Mantle and DiMaggio fan,” he said. “I just kind of fell into the same role. Growing up watching some of these guys, it’s just an honor to be in the same locker room as them.”

Associated Press photos