YANKEES (21-19)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Raul Ibanez DH
Nick Swisher RF
Eric Chavez 1B
Dewayne Wise LF
Chris Stewart C

LHP CC Sabathia (5-1, 3.77)
Sabathia vs. Reds

REDS (20-19)
Chris Heisey LF
Drew Stubbs CF
Joey Votto 1B
Brandon Phillips 2B
Jay Bruce RF
Ryan Ludwick DH
Todd Frazier 3B
Ryan Hanigan C
Zack Cozart SS

RHP Johnny Cueto (4-1, 1.89)
Cueto vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m., YES Network

WEATHER: Beautiful day. So far I’m glad I left my jacket in the car.

UMPIRES: HP Tony Randazzo, 1B Alan Porter, 2B Larry Vanover, 3B Brian Gorman

NEED THE LONG BALL: According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Yankees are the only team in the Majors to have not won a game in which they have not homered this season. They’re 0-9 in those games. This is the longest such losing streak to start a season in franchise history (previous high was 0-8 to begin 2007).

KEEP HIM IN THE LINEUP: In a platoon role, Raul Ibanez ranks second on the Yankees with 25 RBI this season. Those 25 RBI have come on 28 hits. His 13 RBI in May are the most by a Yankee this month.

FOR THE SERIES: The Yankees are 3-2 in rubber games of three-game series this season. They’ve won three of four such games at home.

UPDATE, 1:41 p.m.: Through two innings, the pitching matchup is living up to its billing. Both CC and Cueto look sharp. Five strikeouts, no walks, two singles.

UPDATE, 1:59 p.m.: Nice little play by Phillips to turn the double play. Jeter has seen 15 pitches in two tough at-bats against Cueto.

UPDATE, 2:03 p.m.: Plenty of boos as Rodriguez pops out and slams his bat to the ground, leaving runners at first and second.

UPDATE, 2:06 p.m.: I never get sick of watching Cano make that play going to his right. He routinely makes the play, but you always know it’s not a routine play.

UPDATE, 2:20 p.m.: The Reds have thier first hit, a one-out single by Todd Frazier in the fifth inning.

UPDATE, 2:34 p.m.: The Yankees have scattered some singles, but it’s hard to do much against Cueto. This guy’s good.

UPDATE, 2:47 p.m.: That’s an awfully good pitch from Sabathia to get out of the sixth with a runner stranded at third.

UPDATE, 2:52 p.m.: Rodriguez pops out. Ibanez goes deep. His ninth homer of the year gives the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the sixth. He really never hits home runs into the lower deck. It’s second deck or bust with Ibanez.

UPDATE, 2:57 p.m.: First pitch to Ludwick is a solo homer to make it 2-1.

UPDATE, 3:00 p.m.: Well that was fast. Second Reds home run this inning, and it’s a tied game again.

UPDATE, 3:14 p.m.: Sabathia has walked three straight, including Phillips with the bases loaded. Don’t see that every day.

UPDATE, 3:20 p.m.: Sabathia not at all pleased with himself as he walks off the mound shouting. He struck out Bruce to end the inning, but the damage is done and the Reds are leading 3-2.

Joe Girardi has started Alex Rodriguez at designated hitter 11 times this year. He’s put Robinson Cano at DH twice. He’s given Derek Jeter one full day off and six half days.

But Curtis Granderson has played every single inning in center field.

It’s odd for Girardi, who is sometimes labeled as overly cautious when it comes to resting his players. He was hesitant to give Mark Teixeira days off to deal with his lingering cough, but when he did rest him, he gave him three full days. Granderson seems to be the exception to the rule.

“I do know that we have an off day coming on Thursday,” Girardi said. “Part of the plan is that I would like to give him a half day (at designated hitter). It’s been difficult. He might get one in the next three days. I’ll continue to talk to him. He’s been a guy, though, that hasn’t really needed them in the past and has been able to play every day. I’ve talked to him a couple of times this week to make sure he feels ok, and he’s said he feels ok.”

I honestly thought today would be the day. With Teixeira sitting out again, Girardi could easily have put Raul Ibanez back in left field, moved Dewayne Wise to center and let Granderson’s legs get out of the outfield for an afternoon. But Girardi prioritizes resting his older players — for obvious reasons — and this would have been five days in a row for Ibanez in the field.

“I think (rest) puts more life in their body,” Girardi said. “I think they physically feel better. I think their bats are more explosive. It’s not like they’re getting a lot of days off. It’s not like they’re getting two days off a week. It’s a half a day, and they still do a lot of work. I’m just trying to keep them from getting hurt. I think one of the biggest reasons players get hurt is because of fatigue.”

Granderson has told Girardi he’s fine, and for now, Girardi’s choosing to trust him and let him play.

• Although Brett Gardner had not yet been evaluated by the doctor, Girardi said the Yankees are planning to wait until Thursday to have Gardner pick up a bat again. “He’s still progressing fine and he’s starting to feel better,” Girardi said. “Hopefully that’s going in the right direction. … We’re just not comfortable with where he’s at right now to do it.”

• A plan for Thursday came as news for Gardner, who didn’t expect any decision to be made until he’d seen the doctor later today. “It feel good,” he said. “But I haven’t picked up a bat.” Amazing that it’s been a full month since Gardner got in a game.

• This is one of those incredibly quiet Sundays when the clubhouse is nearly empty and there seems to be nothing going on pregame. Granderson and Andruw Jones were laughing at the Not Top 10 list on SportsCenter — a Little League umpire’s over-the-top strike-three call had them cracking up — but really, this place was dead all morning.

• Things will get a little more lively with a terrific pitching matchup between CC Sabathia and Johnny Cueto. “He’s got deception because he gives you the big turn,” Girardi said. “He’s got a good changeup, good slider. I do appreciate these matchups. They’re fun to watch.”

• Of course, the Yankees are hoping that they can build on last night’s ninth inning, when they finally seemed to put a little bit of a rally together before coming one hit short of a complete comeback. “You get a couple of guys to get a couple of hits with runners in scoring position, they relax, everyone relaxes and you start putting together some big innings,” Girardi said.

Associated Press photo

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Raul Ibanez DH
Nick Swisher RF
Eric Chavez 1B
Dewayne Wise LF
Chris Stewart C

LHP CC Sabathia

Last time Alex Rodriguez hit a home run was May 6 in Kansas City.

He’s had exactly 40 at-bats since then, and he’s hit exactly .300, but a pair of doubles have been his only extra-base hits. Tonight he very nearly went deep with a fly ball to the warning track, but it’s clear that Rodriguez’s power has been absent for the much of the season.

“I’ve been working my tail off with Kevin Long and I think we’re in a good place now,” Rodriguez said. “One of the things I’m working on is to improve the ratio of ground balls to fly balls. I’ve been putting the ball on the ground a little bit too much, and the last two or three days have been much better, so I’m very encouraged.”

Throughout his career, Rodriguez has had a nearly even ground-to-fly ratio. Last year, it was 1.31 grounders for every fly ball. This year he’s had 2.23 ground balls for every fly ball, and that’s the ratio he’d like to fix. His ground ball rate has been increasing gradually the past few seasons, but this would be an extreme jump.

Speaking of extreme…

“Extremely confident,” Rodriguez said. “I’m in a good place, and the body feels good. I’m working very, very hard every day with Kevin Long. My numbers are going to be there at the end of the year, there’s no doubt about it. The thing is, we’ve got to put it to work right away because our team needs victories. Our offense and coaches expect a lot from me, and I’ll be there.”

Associated Press photo

Career-high 12 strikeouts? Ivan Nova wasn’t impressed.

“It doesn’t matter if I get a strikeout or not,” he said. “I used to pitch with a lot of ground balls. This year I haven’t. I guess I’ve just got to go back and do exactly the same thing as last year, getting my ground balls and a strikeout when you need it.”

Last season, a little more than 52 percent of the balls hit off Nova were grounders. This year, it’s a little more than 45 percent. Obviously he had swing-and-miss stuff today, but when the Reds hit him, they drove the ball. No hit was bigger than Joey Votto’s three-run homer in the fifth when Nova left a slider in the middle of the plate. Nova’s allowed six home runs in his past four starts, and he’s allowed 10 for the season. He gave up 13 all of last year.

Recent production from the offense has generated most of the coverage this week — for obvious reasons — but Nova is also trending the wrong way lately.

“I’m just falling behind hitters,” he said. “When you’re falling behind, you have to go to the middle, and when you make a mistake, they hit it hard. Especially when you’re walking guys. They are really good hitters. The last couple of times, like the other day in Baltimore, I gave up two homers with two changeups. It’s something we’ve got to do, go back to work and try to find a way to make the right pitch.”

Russell Martin said the difference between Nova last year and Nova this year isn’t all that noticeable from behind the plate.

“There’s not much of a difference between last year and this year,” Martin said. “The difference is maybe the fastball being up a little bit more. I don’t really see much of a difference between him last year and this year. Same velocity. I think maybe he’s a bit more consistent with his offspeed pitches, but it’s the same Nova.”

• Before Nick Swisher’s RBI single in the ninth inning, the Yankees were hitless in their previous 22 at-bats with runners in scoring position. The topic has pretty much been exhausted at this point, but Swisher and Jayson Nix began to change the story in the ninth inning. One more hit and the Yankees would have at least forced extra innings. “We just didn’t get the last hit that we needed to try to put them away,” Joe Girardi said. “It’s good that we were able to come back, but it’s frustrating that you get so close and you lose.”

• With the tying run in scoring position, the Yankees had their batting average leader and home run leader coming to the plate, but Derek Jeter grounded to third and Curtis Granderson grounded to first. “Anytime there’s guys in scoring position you want to get the job done,” said Russell Martin, who struck out in the ninth. “Really, you don’t think about numbers when you’re up there hitting. You try to get a good pitch. As of late we haven’t been getting the job done. It just takes one day for that to change. We’ve got great hitters on this team all through the lineup so I don’t think it’s going to stay this way for too much longer.”

• David Phelps was kicking himself for throwing that ball away in the eighth. He’d just made a great diving catch and knew right away that he’d messed up by trying to rush the throw to first. He didn’t get his body set — he kind of sidearmed the ball with his chest pointing directly at the bag — and Nick Swisher never had a chance to catch it. The error helped the Reds score an insurance run that mattered in the end.

• Nova said his ankle felt fine all night. “No problem,” he said.

• After Phelps struck out the side in the ninth, the Yankees finished with 15 strikeouts, tying a season-high for the team.

• Nova is the first Yankee since Don Brennan in 1933 to have at least 12 strikeouts while also allowing at least five earned runs.

• Jeter extended his hitting streak to eight games. He also has an eight-game interleague hitting streak.

• This was the eighth three-hit game of Jayson Nix career. He has two homers in his past 12 at-bats. Before that, he’d gone 45 at-bats without a home run in the big leagues.

• Clay Rapada got the Yankees first pickoff of the season.

• Girardi said pregame that Brett Gardner would see the team doctor today. Turns out, he’s not seeing him until tomorrow. Gardner doesn’t know what test he’ll have done — he’s supposed to see the doctor at the Stadium, but he said he could be sent for an MRI at the hospital — but Gardner is hoping that he’ll be given the green light to begin swinging a bat within a day or two. He hasn’t picked up a bat since coming out of that Triple-A game almost two weeks ago.

• According to Elias, this is the 10th straight season that the Yankees have had a stretch of at least 20 hitless at-bats with a runner in scoring position.

Associated Press photos

Ivan Nova struckout a career-high 12 batters this afternoon. He also took the loss. Joey Votto’s three-run homer in the fifth inning was the big blow in a 6-5 Reds win at Yankee Stadium. Nova struck out the three batters after the home run — and got his first seven outs on strikeouts – but the Reds offense did enough to beat a Yankees lineup that did too little, too late with a ninth-inning rally. Raul Ibanez doubled to start the ninth, Nick Swisher and Jayson Nix each had RBI singles — Nix had a three-hit game — but the tying run was left stranded at third base when Curtis Granderson grounded to first.

Associated Press photo

YANKEES (21-18)
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Robinson Cano DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Raul Ibanez RF
Nick Swisher 1B
Russell Martin C
Dewayne Wise LF
Jayson Nix 2B

RHP Ivan Nova (4-1, 5.44)
Nova vs. Reds

REDS (19-19)
Chris Heisey LF
Drew Stubbs CF
Joey Votto 1B
Brandon Phillips 2B
Jay Bruce RF
Todd Frazier 3B
Mike Costanzo DH
Devin Mesoraco C
Wilson Valdez SS

RHP Homer Bailey (1-3, 4.35)
Bailey vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m., YES Network

WEATHER: Beautiful day. So far I’m glad I left my jacket in the car.

UMPIRES: HP Brian Gorman, 1B Tony Randazzo, 2B Alan Porter, 3B Larry Vanover

LIKE YOU REMEMBER HIM: Remember when Robinson Cano stunk earlier this season? Since May 6, he’s hitting .444 with seven doubles, three home runs and 12 RBI in a span of 12 agmes. He has hit safely in 15 of his last 16 games.

IBANEZ GOING DEEP: Raul Ibanez has five home runs in his past 10 games. Five of his eight home runs this season have come in the sixth inning or later, and five have come with two outs. Five of his past eight hits have been homers.

PUT IT ON THE BOARD: Last night, Alex Rodriguez snapped a nine-game streak without an RBI. He drove in a run with a ground out in the fourth inning. For a while, that was the only scoring in the game.

UPDATE, 1:18 p.m.: A game-opening strikeout was promising, but Nova followed it with back-to-back walks and an RBI single. He’s one out away from limiting the damage, but obvoiusly things could be better at this point.

UPDATE, 1:21 p.m.: Back-to-back strikeouts strand runners at the corners. Take away those walks and this was an impressive inning, but Nova lost his command for a little bit and it cost him a run.

UPDATE, 1:25 p.m.: Take away the wind and Jeter might have had a home run there. Instead, Bruce just has a hard time tracking down a fly out to the wall in right field.

UPDATE, 1:33 p.m.: Wind gave Bruce trouble in the bottom of the first, and now it’s blown a ball out of Ibanez’s reach in the top of the second.

UPDATE, 1:38 p.m.: There’s another double and now it’s a 2-0 Reds lead. Nova looks pretty good for a guy who’s allowed a run in each of his first two innings.

UPDATE, 1:53 p.m.: Hey look, Russell Martin got a hit! And it’s a home run! It’s a 2-1 game. Don’t look now, but Ivan Nova has eight strikeouts already.

UPDATE, 2:07 p.m.: Nine strikeouts through four innings for Nova. As has been the case most of the week, the Yankees just need some runs.

UPDATE, 2:14 p.m.: Alex Rodriguez just hit the ball hard, but it was caught at the warning track in center field for the second out of the fourth inning.

UPDATE, 2:17 p.m.: Two-out RBI double by Ibanez has tied the game at two. Now Swisher is up with a chance to do the impossible: Get a hit with a runner in scoring position.

UPDATE, 2:33 p.m.: Rodriguez bobbled a potential double play, then Nova gave up a three-run homer. Hard to say how Nova’s approach to Votto might have changed with first base open. As it is, the Reds have a 5-2 lead and Nova has 11 strikeouts.

UPDATE, 2:40 p.m.: The guys on the beat swear that Jayson Nix and I look exactly alike. That’s not at all important, but Nix did just hit a solo homer to make it 5-3.

UPDATE, 2:51 p.m.: I was covering the Phillies organization when Mike Costanzo was drafted. Until today, I didn’t know he was still in the game, but he just got his first big league hit. Good for him. He’s been at this for a while.

UPDATE, 3:39 p.m.: Nice diving catch by Phelps — reminds me of Joba’s catch a few years ago — but Phelps threw the ball away trying to get the double play and now he has runners at the corners with one out.

Rest was the final option. Mark Teixeira had seen multiple doctors and been prescribed several remedies. When nothing solved his lingering couch, Joe Girardi met with him last night to suggest taking three days off. Teixeira sat out last night, he’ll sit out today and Girardi said he “might” give Teixeira tomorrow as well.

“Originally he told me no last night,” Girardi said. “It’s difficult. He wants to be out there. Tex is a ballplayer and wants to play every day, but I just said, ‘You know what Tex, watching what you’re going through, I just don’t think a day is enough. Let’s try something else.’ And if we can’t get rid of it with two or three days off, we’ll know that the rest isn’t necessarily going to help it and we’ll have to find some other way.”

Teixeira got sick at the Welcome Home dinner last night, and although doctors say the virus is gone, his airways are inflamed, making breathing difficult. He’s had coughing fits during games, he’s occasionally skipped batting practice and his energy level has been affected.

Through it all, Teixeira has insisted he’s healthy enough to play, and he’s actually hit .296/.345/.481 in his past seven games. His overall production, though, has been far worse than the Yankees hoped and expected.

“We’ve tried everything,” Teixeira said. “That’s why rest is like the last effort here. I’ve taken more medicine than I’d like to. I think we’re done with that option. Rest is kind of the final straw here for us. … I’ve seen specialists that say it may just be a matter of time. Unfortunately you want it to be better right away, but nothing to be worried about because all the tests are OK. It is what it is.”

• What if rest doesn’t do the trick for Teixeira? “Then you just adapt,” he said. “I think that’s the issue. I’ve been fighting through it for over a month so I’ll be able to do it again.”

• Dave Robertson still felt discomfort in his oblique on Thursday (he could feel it when he coughed). That’s not a huge surprise because he was supposed to wait 10 days before really testing it, and that’s still the plan. He last pitched last Friday. “We’ll wait until day 10 and then we’ll make a decision if he’s ready,” Girardi said.

• Brett Gardner will be evaluated today to determine whether his elbow is ready to begin swinging a bat again.

• Girardi said he’ll monitor Ivan Nova during warmups and through the early innings to make sure he’s not favoring that sprained ankle. The Yankees don’t expect it to be an issue.

• Both David Phelps and Freddy Garcia are available in case Nova’s ankle doesn’t let him pitch.

• Nick Swisher has started at first in back-to-back games because of Teixeira’s absence. Girardi said he might use Eric Chavez at first base tomorrow and put Swisher back in right field (personally, I can’t help wondering if Dewayne Wise might start in center field tomorrow so that Curtis Granderson can get his first DH day of the year, but that’s strictly a guess).

• Why not just send Teixeira home to rest rather than have him sit around in the dugout? “You could do that,” Girardi said. “But you do have emergencies when you might need him. And sometimes – put this in a nice way – when you have young kids, you get more rest at the ballpark.”

Associated Press photos

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Robinson Cano DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Raul Ibanez RF
Nick Swisher 1B
Russell Martin C
Dewayne Wise LF
Jayson Nix 2B

RHP Ivan Nova

After pitching an absolute gem in tonight’s 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds, Andy Pettitte talked about the inevitable fear that crept into the back of his mind when he decided to make his comeback. Even though he’s been a borderline Hall of Fame pitcher in the past, there was no way knowing if he still had it until he got onto the mound and faced big league hitters.

In his first start, he proved that he could still get outs. In his second start, he proved that he could still be dominant.

“I felt good, there’s no doubt about it,” Pettitte said. “Everything was working. You try to figure out what you were doing last game, and I was having trouble with my cutter and my four-seamer. I felt like I was kind of forcing it. I didn’t think that I might have been a little uptight last game, but I just feel like I wasn’t quite as relaxed as I needed to be when you’re trying to make pitches. It was good to get in a good rhythm.”

The 39-year-old left-hander exceeded even his own wildest expectations tonight, getting through eight scoreless innings while allowing just four hits and one walk and striking out an uncharacteristically high nine batters to earn his first major-league win since July 8, 2010. Amazingly, this marked the first start of Pettitte’s career in which he pitched at least eight scoreless innings with four hits or fewer and at least nine strikeouts.

No one may have seen this coming, but Joe Girardi called it before the game — well, sort of.

“In the pregame Suzyn (Waldman) said, ‘What do you want out of Andy today?’ ” Girardi recalled. “I said, ‘Can I be greedy?’ And she said, ‘Sure.’ I said, ‘I want eight innings of shutout baseball.’ ”

Girardi got just what he wanted.

• While Pettitte gave the Yankees a quality effort in his first start on Sunday, pitching into the seventh inning, it didn’t have the same easy feel that tonight’s start had. He didn’t have all of his pitches working in that outing, but that was not the case tonight. “The adjustments come whenever you’re unable to do some stuff and you have to figure out a way to get guys out,” Pettitte said. “I was able to throw everything that I wanted tonight to both sides of the plate, so that makes it a lot easier.”

• The amount of pitches that Pettitte has in his arsenal is what makes him so effective. By my count, he throws a standard four-seam fastball, cutter, sinker, curveball, changeup and slider. That’s a lot to think about when you’re at the plate. “He’s got more weapons to go to, that’s the bottom line,” Girardi said. “When I caught him years and years ago, it was fastball, cutter and curveball. He had a changeup, but we just didn’t throw it much. But he didn’t throw a back door his cutter, and he didn’t throw a sinker, so he’s got many more weapons to go to. Hitters can’t sit necessarily on the ball coming into them, so I think he is better.”

• Catcher Chris Stewart was asked when he could tell that Pettitte was on tonight: “In his bullpen before the game. He was throwing his pitches where he needed to, all of his pitches were breaking well and he was locating his offspeed in specific spots.”

• Pettitte is not usually known as a strikeout pitcher, but he whiffed nine batters tonight — eight on swings. He talked about his cutter being especially sharp, which is the pitch that generated the most swing-and-misses.

• Pettitte also displayed pinpoint control tonight, throwing 78 of his 115 pitches for strikes. The pitch count seemed a bit high, which is why I was surprised to see him come out for the eighth. It’s a long season, and after taking a year off, the Yankees are going to want to be careful about not pushing him to far in May. “It’s not something I want to do on a consistent basis,” Girardi said. “He looked like his stuff was still really good. I know he has to go in five days, and then he gets an extra days rest, and I thought about that. And I talked to him – I looked him in the eyes.”

• Pettitte also talked about the fact that, while he doesn’t think he has the best pure stuff in the league, he’s always felt that he has an edge when it comes to what’s going on between his ears. Girardi concurred. “It has a lot to do with it,” he said. “Focus is taking one pitch at a time and making that pitch. Something goes wrong behind you or somebody gets a base hit, it’s about letting it go, and Andy has always been really good at that. … That’s an art.”

• A perfect example of that came in the first inning. Pettitte struck out leadoff batter Zack Cozart, but the ball got by Stewart, who made a throwing error to first base. Pettitte responded with three consecutive outs — two via strikeout. “You never want to start off the game like that,” Stewart said. “He bailed me out, luckily.”

• While Pettitte’s performance stole the show, he bailed out a Yankees offense that continues to struggle with runners in scoring position. The Yankees are now hitless in their last 19 at-bats with runners in scoring position. “Some of it is luck, and I think it’s a skill,” Girardi said. “The skill part is being able to relax and not go outside of who you are. The luck part is hitting it hard and not hitting it at somebody.”

• The biggest letdown for the Yankees’ offense came in the bottom of the sixth. Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson led off with back-to-back singles, which was followed by a walk to Robinson Cano to load the bases with no outs. An offense as talented as the Yankees has to plate a run there, but they somehow managed to avoid scoring any. Jeter was called out on a very close play at home for the first out, which was followed by a fielder’s choice from Raul Ibanez and a pop out to short from Nick Swisher.

• The Yankees finally added to their 1-0 lead in the bottom of the eighth, but none of the hits came with runners in scoring position. Cano absolutely hammered a solo shot into the RF bleachers, and then Ibanez nailed a two-run blast after an A-Rod single to make it 4-0. “Being able to put a couple more up there was huge,” Ibanez said. “It was nice to go into the ninth with a four-run lead. Andy pitched his tail off.”

• I’ll give Reds manager Dusty Baker the final word on Pettitte’s performance: “He must have been doing something real good while he was retired,” Baker said. “He didn’t look like (he just came out of retirement) at all. He looked as sharp as I’ve ever seen him.”

Associated Press photos