The LoHud Yankees Blog

One way or another, the Yankees keep winning baseball games. Early in the season, the lineup’s surprising power stole the show. For a while, the rotation seemed to be carrying the most significant load. Lately, it’s been the bullpen that’s provided the stability. Through injuries and call-ups and minor trades, this team has defied expectations in every which way, and surely there’s some satisfaction in that.

“I don’t know if anybody cares,” Travis Hafner said. “We just want to win. I don’t think anybody cares what people think. (There are) a lot of guys just coming together that just want to win ballgames and get to the playoffs and go from there.”

One thing that’s noticeable in the absence of some familiar veterans is that the Yankees clubhouse hasn’t changed all that much. It’s still a generally friendly place, relatively soft spoken and business-like. Veterans have filled the leadership role, and young players have been developed to fall into place.

The Yankees might be defying your expectations, and they might be defying my expectations, but there’s a sense that none of that matters in that room. It was never about your expectations or my expectations.

“What I’m seeing is guys are coming through,” Joe Girardi said. “Guys are getting the job done. There’s no quit. They come to the ballpark excited to play every day, and they’re finding ways to win games. Sometimes when you look at our stats, we’re not at the top of anything. But these guys have just done a really good job.”

Tonight’s was a game of expectations being destroyed. The Yankees haven’t blown a lot of leads this season, but they blew two of them tonight — with CC Sabathia on the mound, no less — yet they found a way to win by coming back against Jim Johnson and the Orioles bullpen, which fully asserted itself last year.

Four home runs in the first nine innings, culminating in Hafner’s tying shot in the ninth. Then the Yankees played small ball in the 10th, taking the lead on doubles by Ichiro Suzuki and Vernon Wells. Mariano Rivera, of course, did what he’s done 17 times already this season.

The Yankees didn’t make it easy on themselves, and at times they didn’t make it look pretty, but if you expected them to lose, they proved you wrong once again.

“We definitely keep you guys on your toes, that’s for sure,” Wells said. “We haven’t gone out and slaughtered too many teams. We need to go out and score a few more runs, let the back end of our bullpen relax a little bit. We’ve kept them taxed for pretty much every day of the season. We need to hopefully do a better job. It will come, we just have to continue to be consistent and win these close ones. We’re starting to get pieces of the puzzle back here slowly but surely, so things will work out.”

They have so far.

• Of course, this was supposed to be a day of rest for Wells. He would up driving in the winning run. “Nice and refreshed,” he said. “… The way the game was shaping up, close ballgame, any time any of us have an off day we want to be ready in case something happens. Joe asked me if I was ready in the eighth and I said, ‘Sure.’ He said, ‘Go play.’ Obviously the most important one came in my second at-bat. It was good to get in that situation. Early on in the at-bat I was trying to get him over, but he’s got good stuff. I got to two strikes and it was just a matter of trying to put the bat on the ball.”

• With his 10th inning double — the one that ultimately led to the go-ahead run — Ichiro now has a 20-game hitting streak at Camden Yards. He has the third-highest batting average (.353) among active players against the Orioles.

• Of course, that 10th inning also included Hafner’s second hit of the night, an RBI single. His first hit had been the game-tying homer in the ninth. “You’re just kind of looking for a pitch to drive, something up,” Hafner said. “He made a pretty good pitch there, and I put a good swing on it and hit it out the other way. I was pretty pumped about that.”

• Jim Johnson has now blown three straight save opportunities. Before this slide, he had a club-record 35 straight regular-season saves.

• Lyle Overbay’s home run off Troy Patton was his first homer off a lefty since May 28, 2011. That’s nearly two years! “I know he throws a fastball, slider,” Overbay said. “It’s just a matter of getting a pitch up in the zone and taking it from there. I swung at a bad one earlier in the count – kind of go too aggressive – and obviously he hung that pitch, and I was able to put a good swing on it.”

• Robinson Cano’s home run made him the first American League hitter to reach 13 home runs this season. An inning later, Chris Davis also hit his 13th.

• Big night for David Adams, who went 2-for-4 with his first big league homer. “It was something special,” Adams said. “After that we took a early 2-0 lead, so I was pretty happy. And then, when they took the lead, I was like, oh man, this isn’t what it’s all supposed to be. I was like, man, now I’m going to be upset after the game. And then freaking Hafner came up with that clutch hit so it’s like, OK, now I can smile again. It’s something special to be a part of.”

• The Yankees security team actually tracked down the person who caught Adams’ home run ball and was able to get it for Adams. “If I saw (the security guys) coming at me, (I’d say), ‘Here, whatever you want,’” Adams said. As you can imagine, the Yankees security guys are big boys. Very, very nice guys, but plenty intimidating.

• Rivera tied Hoyt Willhelm for fifth place on baseball’s all-time games pitched list. … Dave Robertson tied Fritz Peterson for 19th on the Yankees all-time games pitched list. … Shawn Kelley struck out three more guys as the bullpen continues to come up big for the Yankees.

• Austin Romine was knocked in the head by a Steve Pearce backswing in the fifth. The Yankees medical staff came out to check on him, but Romine said he was fine. “They came out and asked me questions I don’t even know the answers to, even if I wasn’t concussed,” Romine said. “I was laughing. They asked me where we were, and I said, I don’t even know what day of the week it is, come on. He knew I was joking around. If I was in a daze, I wouldn’t have been able to joke around.”

• It’s easy to overlook it now, but CC Sabathia allowed 11 hits tonight. He didn’t walk anyone, and he did a nice job limiting the damage until the seventh, but it nearly cost the Yankees. “Just not being able to make pitches, leaving some balls up,” Sabathia said. “And I’ve just got to do a better job with two strikes of making pitches and getting outs. We took the lead right there, and it’s just up to me to shut the door.”

• We’ll give the final word to Wells: “Those are fun ones. Those are the ones we act like little kids in the dugout. You’ve got Johnson on the mound and he’s one of the best there is, I don’t care if he’s going through a rough patch or not. He’s one of the guys you’d love to have on the mound when you have a lead. Travis was fortunate enough to work his way into a hitter’s count and he didn’t miss a heater. That’s impressive coming off a guy like that. It’s not easy to do.”

Associated Press photos

The Yankees have been especially good at winning the games they’ve had a chance to win. They’ve rarely let games slip away, and rarely squandered opportunities. They nearly did both tonight, which made a 6-4 win against Baltimore all the more thrilling. Travis Hafner tied the game with a solo home run in the ninth before a two-run 10th inning gave the Yankees a wild win in their series opener at Camden Yards. The Yankees are now 19-0 when scoring first and 28-2 when leading at any point in any game this season. In the first nine innings, the Yankees had only five hits, but four were solo home runs. Robinson Cano hit his 13th of the year — first in the American League to reach 13 this season — David Adams hit the first of his career, Lyle Overbay hit his first against a lefty this season, and Hafner had his dramatic game-tying shot in the ninth. Ichiro Suzuki and Vernon Wells each doubled in the deciding 10th. CC Sabathia allowed four runs on 11 hits through 6.1 innings, but the bullpen delivered 3.2 scoreless, ending with Mariano Rivera’s 17th save.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (27-16)
Brett Gardner CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Lyle Overbay 1B
Curtis Granderson LF
David Adams 3B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Reid Brignac SS
Austin Romine C

LHP CC Sabathia (4-3, 3.19)
Sabathia vs. Orioles

ORIOLES (23-20)
Nick Markakis RF
Manny Machado 3B
J.J. Hardy SS
Adam Jones CF
Chris Davis 1B
Matt Wieters C
Danny Valencia DH
Steve Pearce LF
Alexi Casilla 2B

RHP Freddy Garcia (0-2, 5.51)
Garcia vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., YES Network and ESPN

WEATHER: Legitimately warm outside, but with a threat of rain most of the night.

UMPIRES: HP Jeff Kellogg, 1B Eric Cooper, 2B Paul Schrieber, 3B Chad Fairchild

ROOKIE ROMINE: Austin Romine has started each of the last two games. Tonight, he’s becoming the first Yankees rookie to start three straight games behind the plate since Francisco Cervelli in 2009.

SWEATY: The Yankees will face Freddy Garcia, who pitched the last two seasons with the Yankees. This is the first time the Yankees will face Garcia since his time in pinstripes. They went 3-0 in three games last year in which they faced a starting pitcher for the first time since he had pitched for the Yankees (Hector Noesi, Bartolo Colon, and Aaron Laffey).

NUMBERS GAME: The Yankees have used 35 players so far this season. Once Reid Brignac steps on the field tonight, they will have used 36. And once Dellin Betances gets in a game, it will be 37. Last year, the Yankees did not use their 36th player until July 29 (Ramiro Pena) or their 37th player until August 1 (Casey McGehee and Joba Chamberlain were Nos. 37 and 38 on the same day).

UPDATE, 7:30 p.m.: Middle of the second inning. Garcia has allowed two hits, but they’re both home runs. One for Cano, and the first ever for Adams.

UPDATE, 7:38 p.m.: Cano hit his 13th homer in the first inning, now Davis has his 13th homer here in the second. It’s 2-1 Yankees.

UPDATE, 8:22 p.m.: When you get rid of Steve Pearce, he will come back to double against your ace and bonk your catcher in the head. This is simply a fact of baseball.

UPDATE, 8:27 p.m.: There’s an RBI single by Markakis, and here we have a tied ballgame.

UPDATE, 8:32 p.m.: Pretty nice play by Adams to get Sabathia out of the fifth inning with the score still tied. The guy’s playing awfully well in his first few big league games.

UPDATE, 8:41 p.m.: Yankees caught a break there. Gardner was definitely out on the snap throw — despite a pretty crafty slide – but he’s called safe and the Yankees are in business with two on and one out for Hafner.

UPDATE, 8:47 p.m.: Garcia is pumped, and with good reason. Just got a tough double play — great turn by the Orioles infield — to get out of the sixth with the game still tied at 2.

UPDATE, 8:52 p.m.: Eric Cooper is clearly wearing a Yankees t-shirt underneath his umpire uniform.

UPDATE, 8:59 p.m.: The Yankees have just four hits, but three of them have been solo homers, which is enough for a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh. Overbay just went deep to center field to put the Yankees in front.

UPDATE, 9:12 p.m.: Sabathia coughs up the lead with two runs on three hits here in the seventh. He’s chased by a go-ahead double by J.J. Hardy and it’s now a 4-3 Orioles lead — their first of the game — as Shawn Kelley comes in to pitch.

UPDATE, 9:21 p.m.: Shawn Kelley strikes out everyone. Does anyone miss Abe Almonte?

UPDATE, 9:57 p.m.: Yankees fifth hit of the night is their fourth homer, a solo shot by Travis Hafner to tie the game with one out in the ninth.

UPDATE, 10:13 p.m.: Big strikeout for Robertson to get Davis and get out of the ninth with a runner left at second. We’re heading into the 10th, tied at 4.

Mark Teixeira first at-bats since March came in a simulated game at the Yankees minor league complex. It’s likely he’ll continued to play in simulated games for a while so that the Yankees can guarantee at-bats from both sides of the plate. It’s kind of like his own little simulated Grapefruit League down there.

“I guess you could look at it that way,” Joe Girardi said. “Or you can look at it as like a couple days before games where you’re facing some live BP. It’s definite progress for him. We want to see him have a lot of at-bats and see how the wrist responds to that. Today was the first step, so I’m really curious to see how he feels tomorrow.”

Teixeira wasn’t the only injured Yankee making progress in Tampa…

ALEX RODRIGUEZ
Although he fielded ground balls today — which seems like a significant step forward — Girardi cautioned that the timetable for Rodriguez hasn’t changed. His progress is going to have to be slow and step-by-step. “There’s a lot that has to happen,” Girardi said. “There’s a lot of hurdles. Two months from the All-Star break – less than that – so he’s going to have to go through basically a full spring training.”

KEVIN YOUKILIS
Took batting practice and fielded ground balls, but he’s almost certainly a week away at best. “Is it possible we see him on this road trip? Maybe,” Girardi said. “But I would expect to see him maybe a little bit the following week if everything goes OK.”

IVAN NOVA
Limited to roughly 60 pitches, Nova pitched 3.2 innings today. Girardi said the Yankees intentionally kept his pitch count limited. It’s clear they aren’t trying to rush him back, and Girardi said he’s not sure what’s next on the schedule. “We’ll talk about it,” Girardi said. “Whatever it is we know he needs a couple days off.”

EDUARDO NUNEZ
Took dry swings and fielded grounders today, but Brian Cashman told the New York Post that it will be another 10 days before the Yankees can even consider activating Nunez.

• Here in Baltimore, Chris Stewart said he no longer feels pain in his groin, but he can also tell it’s not 100 percent healed. Stewart doesn’t expect to play until Tampa, but Girardi said he would be willing to use Stewart as his emergency catcher tonight. “He felt no pain (doing tee and toss),” Girardi said. “But I think he’s aware that it’s there so I don’t think that it’s quite ready.”

• Derek Jeter is out of his walking boot but still not doing much, according to Girardi.

• Girardi said he liked the idea of giving Vernon Wells two consecutive days off, and this seemed like a good time to do it facing Freddy Garcia after last night’s rain out. “Left-handers have had a lot more success off of Freddy than right-handers, so let’s just do it today,” Girardi said.

• Phil Hughes gets the ball tomorrow, trying to rebound from last week’s two-out, seven-run debacle. Hughes said that video showed he was getting on the side of the ball, something that happens to him when he overthrows. No drastic change, just has to keep himself under control tomorrow.

• Speaking of starting pitchers, tonight CC Sabathia gets the ball on extra rest, which isn’t always great for him. “If you get two or three extra days, you worry a little bit,” Girardi said. “He’s had extra days before. Hopefully it makes him a little bit stronger. These guys have been going at it pretty hard and we’re going to have another long stretch after this. It’s not such a bad thing.”

Associated Press photos

Brett Gardner CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Lyle Overbay 1B
Curtis Granderson LF
David Adams 3B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Reid Brignac SS
Austin Romine C

LHP CC Sabathia

For the first time since injuring his wrist, Mark Teixeira got some at-bats today. I assume they happened in extended spring training. Teixeira tweeted that he went 1-for-2 with a double and a walk.

Tonight
LHP CC Sabathia (4-3, 3.19)
vs.
RHP Freddy Garcia (0-2, 5.51)
7:05 p.m., YES Network / ESPN

Tuesday
RHP Phil Hughes (2-3, 5.88)
vs.
RHP Miguel Gonzalez (2-2, 4.58)
7:05 p.m., MY9 / MLB Network

Wednesday
RHP Hiroki Kuroda (6-2, 1.99)
vs.
RHP Jason Hammel (5-2, 5.72)
7:05 p.m., YES Network / ESPN

The Yankees will bring a 27-16 bottom line into Camden Yards for tonight’s opener of the three-game series against the Orioles. They will also bring a staff ERA of 3.53.

Coincidence? We think not. And tonight’s starter thinks not.

“We’ve been pitching great,” CC Sabathia said. “It’s fun to watch. We knew that coming into the year, for us to have a good year, it was going to depend on our pitching. And so far we’ve been pretty good. Hopefully we can keep that up.

“Our bullpen is the strongest point of our team, so we need to keep these guys fresh. The starters need to pitch better and go deeper into games and try to keep the guys fresh.”

Sabathia will take the mound at 4-3 with a 3.19 ERA through nine starts.

Here’s a link to my feature story today on the latest newcomer to this team, Reid Brignac, who was going to start at short yesterday before the game against the Blue Jays got rained out. And here’s a link to my notebook article with an item on the rainout’s impact on the rotation, plus updates on Mark Teixeira, Chris Stewart and Francisco Cervelli. Chad will be back with you later in the day.

Photo by The Associated Press.

Austin Romine got off to a slow start behind the plate after being called up when Francisco Cervelli went down with a broken hand.

There was that forgettable first start April 29 against the Astros at Yankee Stadium. Andy Pettitte lost his cutter in the first inning and Romine struggled to get on the same page with him. The Yankees ended up losing 9-1.

But the 24-year-0ld rookie catcher has taken some steps forward back there since then. Good thing, too. Because Cervelli’s primary replacement, Chris Stewart, hurt his groin Thursday night and has been only available in a pinch. It sounded like Stewart won’t be starting the first two games in Baltimore. So Romine, who has guided the pitchers to a 2.25 ERA during his 60 innings, will get more time.

“I think he’s gotten in a better rhythm with our pitchers,” Girardi said. “He has a better understanding. He’s been able to watch them a couple of times. He’s gotten back there with I think almost everybody at this point. So I think he’s just getting more comfortable.

“It’s always tough when you come in the middle of the season as a catcher, and especially when you’re a young catcher, to feel like you know exactly what they want to do. That can be difficult. It could be a day when the guy doesn’t have everything, and that even makes it harder. But I think he’s adjusted really, really well.”

Romine is also 3 for 6 at the plate over the last two games after starting out 1 for 16.

Photo by The Associated Press.

It was supposed to rain until 9 p.m., according to Joe Girardi. So no game, the first rainout here this season. CC Sabathia took his start being washed away in stride.

“I’m not very intense before I pitch,” Sabathia said. “Either way, I wasn’t really worried about it. I was sitting on the couch, and they told me it was canceled. So I played catch. I’ll be fine.”

So the Yankees will fly on to Baltimore this afternoon.

“They’ve got a team that can go to the playoffs again,” Robinson Cano said.

Sabathia will start Monday night against the Orioles, followed by Phil Hughes and Hiroki Kuroda. Vidal Nuno was originally going to start Monday night or Tuesday night, but he will be skipped and work out of the bullpen for a few days. After Thursday’s off day, David Phelps is set to start Friday night at Tampa Bay.

As far as today’s ticket situation, fans with paid tickets can use them when the game is made up or exchange them for any regular-season game, subject to availability (and there seems to be availability this season). Complimentary tickets are only good for the makeup date, which hasn’t been announced.

Photo by The Associated Press.