The LoHud Yankees Blog

Jim Leyland had a story to tell, and so he sat at the podium before today’s decisive Game 5 and began speaking before anyone asked a question.

“I have an announcement to make,” he said. “This will explain why you think I’m so old and grumpy and messed up. I got a telegram today from a professor from a prominent university. These are my instructions for tonight… I am supposed to pitch Valverde the first five innings tonight, then I’m supposed to pitch Verlander the last three, quote, ‘the seventh and eighth.’ So that’s where we’re at.”

Everyone, you see, has an approach to Game 5.

What interesting is that Leyland and Joe Girardi are approaching this Game 5 very differently. Leyland has shuffled his lineup again, going with the hot hand in Don Kelly at the top. Girardi has stuck with his regulars, whether they’re struggling or not. Leyland has talked about wanting to get through this game with a select group of rested relievers. Girardi has entertained the notion of every key reliever pitching more than an inning.

Mostly, Leyland and Girardi have differed in the way they plan to use their aces.

Leyland says Justin Verlander won’t pitch at all. In fact, Verlander already threw a bullpen this afternoon so that he’s prepared for a possible ALCS Game 1.

“I’m not going to use Verlander,” Leyland said. “I am not under any circumstances… You can argue till the cows come home, I’m not going to do it. I don’t think it’s a wise decision.”

Girardi has told CC Sabathia to be ready. Girardi’s thinks he could throw a “couple” of innings, and he brought up the idea of going to Mariano Rivera in the eighth inning, saving Sabathia to get the final few outs if Rivera runs out of gas before the end of the ninth.

“You can’t tell when you’re going to go to that move,” Girardi said. “There’s not an exact scenario.”

But would he be hesitant to use Sabathia, wanting to save his ace for Game 1 of the next round?

“You’ve got to win this one,” Girardi said. “(Otherwise) there is no Game 1.”

Here’s Girardi’s pregame press conference.

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• What’s the limit or Rivera tonight? “It’s more pitches than anything,” Girardi said. “You start to get around 35, 40 pitches you start to get into a gray area and you start to worry… That might be a situation where you have CC behind him. It could be something like that.”

• Girardi said it’s “very possible” that he’ll use Dave Robertson and Rivera to pitch the final three innings.

• A.J. Burnett is available if this game gets extremely crazy, but right now the plan is to have him in the rotation should the Yankees advance. “I imagine I would start him,” Girardi said. “I haven’t thought that far along, but yeah.”

• Girardi did not give any sort of pregame speech, and he didn’t ask a player or a member of the coaching staff to do so either. “I kind of watch what our guys are doing, and if they need something, they need something,” Girardi said. “I told you, I thought they were very loose the other day going into Game 4. I’ve seen some of the guys now, and they seem loose to me. I didn’t say anything magical to them in Game 4.”

• Today would have been a bullpen day for Sabathia, but he hasn’t thrown one yet. If this game becomes a blowout, and Sabathia starts to get loose, Girardi said that could be nothing more than a bullpen to prepare for the ALCS.

• Leyland explaining his Verlander decision: “One thing you have to remember, he went a little longer than CC the other night. He also was throwing 100 miles an hour in the eighth inning. He’s also thrown a lot of pitches under stressful circumstances. And I also remind you that Scherzer did a pretty good — he has more rest and he did a pretty good job against the Yankees. So Scherzer would be my first guy tonight if I needed a long guy.”

• Despite Leyland’s vow not to use Verlander, Girardi is approaching this game as if Verlander is available. “I know what Jim said,” Girardi said, laughing. “Sometimes circumstances change. You get into a crazy game and he might be the last guy. I’m not saying he’s going to put him in there, but I’m just saying, you get into an 18-inning game, you’re not putting Wilson Betemit out there, you know what I’m saying?”

Associated Press photos

It’s been a few days since Joe Girardi approached Mark Teixeira with the idea of moving Robinson Cano up to the third spot in the batting order. The move would have happened sooner, but it’s been a while since Cano, Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez were in the same lineup together.

“I told Joe, not only am I for it, I think it’s a great idea,” Teixeira said. “Obviously, left-handed, my average isn’t where it should be, and Robbie’s had a great season. He’s hot – he’s really hot – and why not mix it up against a righty and hit him third… I think that’s the plan (for the playoffs). I think we’re going to see how it works, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.”

Chances are, the Yankees are going to stick with this lineup into the postseason, but only against right-handers. Girardi said he’s “leaning” toward going back to the old alignment against lefties. Teixeira is still a good all-around hitter against left-handers, and Girardi likes the idea of splitting lefties Cano and Curtis Granderson.

“The thing about managing here is that we have a lot of really good hitters,” Girardi said. “We have a lot of guys who could hit third in other lineups. You try to space it out, try to make it difficult for teams to navigate through. We’re moving Robbie to the three-hole against right-handers and it’s something we could do against lefties, too.”

Teixeira said he’s been working with Kevin Long on changing his approach against right-handers. He’s squared up his stance a little bit, and he’s trying to use the whole field a little more. He admitted that the right-field porch at Yankee Stadium became a little too tempting and got him into some bad habits after his strong 2009 season. Now the defensive shift is frustrating him, and Teixeira is trying to correct the problem without losing his power.

“You don’t want me to turn into a slap hitter,” he said. “But at the same time, I think if I use a little bit more of the field – a little bit more of center field – some of those balls will start falling. I can’t get a ground ball hit left-handed right now. That’s not good for your average, so I need to kind of focus on keeping the ball up the middle and trying to use all of the field… I’m greedy. I want to have it all. I want to get back to being a high-.200s (or) .300s type hitter with the same amount of home runs and RBIs, and I think I can do that again. Actually, I know I can do that again.”

Girardi also admitted that it’s been hard not to notice that teams have been pitching around Cano lately, and that played a role in this decision.

“Hitting in the third spot, it’s a lot of responsibility,” Cano said. “You have to do everything right. You’re going to get pitches to hit because you’ve got a guy behind you that they don’t want to face, either. It’s a situation now where I’m going to get better pitches, so I have to continue doing what I’m doing right now. That’s not going to change my mindset. I’m going to keep playing my game and swing at strikes.”

Here’s Teixeira. He was good talking about his struggles and his attempts to fix them.

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• Major League Baseball has announced that the first game of the Yankees division series will be an 8:37 p.m. first pitch on Friday. The other American League division series will be a 5:07 start, but of course the Yankees got the late game.

• If the Red Sox and Rays have to play a tiebreaker, that game will be at 4:07 p.m. on Thursday.

• Derek Jeter has a standard day off. “He’s played the last three days in a row and I just thought I’d give him a day off,” Girardi said. “He’ll be back in there tomorrow.”

• Actually, Girardi said he expects to have most of his regulars in the starting lineup for tomorrow’s regular season finale.

• Still no Yankees starting pitcher for Wednesday’s game. Girardi said it depends on who pitches tonight. It could be almost anyone.

• Regardless of the score, Girardi definitely plans to use Dave Robertson and Rafael Soriano tonight, and he’ll probably pitch Mariano Rivera. He wants to get them into tonight’s game, then rest them tomorrow and Thursday.

• The Yankees coaching staff met with Brian Cashman today to talk about the postseason roster. “We do have some of the answers, but we don’t have all of the answers,” Girardi said. “We threw a lot of ideas out there. It’s something we have to chew on for a little bit. We have time. Some of it depends on who we play, but we did make some progress.”

• One thing that has been decided is that the Yankees will carry an extra position player in the division series. Girardi said the Yankees will carry 11 pitchers at the most, and they might carry only 10.

• Still no official decision on whether the Yankees will carry three or four starters in the division series, but Girardi said it’s “very possible.”

RAYS
Desmond Jennings LF
B.J. Upton CF
Evan Longoria 3B
Matt Joyce RF
Johnny Damon DH
Ben Zobrist 2B
Sean Rodriguez 1B
Kelly Shoppach C
Reid Brignac SS

Associated Press photos

Does one good start in an ultimately meaningless game mean anything?

Since joining the Yankees three years ago, A.J. Burnett had never beaten the Red Sox. He had a 7.36 ERA in two previous starts against them this season, and let there be no doubt, they were certainly playing for something this afternoon. It might have been a meaningless game for the Yankees, but it meant something for the Red Sox.

Did it mean anything for Burnett?

“It’s up to (Joe Girardi),” Burnett said. “I just wanted to come out and give him headaches. I’ve been giving him headaches all year, why not give him a good headache, you know? I got runs early the past month or so and haven’t been able to put it all together, so to go deeper in the game and keep the lead — I still made a couple mistakes to Ellsbury — but for the most part I was able to make pitches when I needed to.”

Burnett pitched 7.2 innings. He allowed two runs on five hits — only Jacoby Ellsbury’s home runs hurt him — and he struck out six. He’s 2-0 with a 4.34 ERA in September, but the last time he pitched this many innings with two runs or less was way back on June 13. He walked off the field to a standing ovation.

“There were lots of (goose bumps), lots of them,” Burnett said. “It means a lot, you know. They’ve been rough, but I’ve given them reason to be rough. That makes up for everything, walking off that mound to that ovation is incredible.”

What does it mean for his spot in the postsaeason?

“We’re going to continue to look at it and talk about it,” Girardi said. “And our opponent has something to do with who we’re going to pitch.”

Burnett hasn’t faced Texas this season, but he made two solid starts against the Tigers, and has pretty good career numbers against the current Detroit roster. Interestingly, Freddy Garcia has much worse career numbers against the current Tigers, and he gave up 10 hits — a season-high — against them earlier this season (Garcia has terrific career numbers against the Rangers and pitched six shutout innings against them this year). Is it possible the Yankees would lean toward Burnett over Garcia if they face Detroit in the first round? Girardi wouldn’t go into specifics.

“I’m just hoping I gave him something to think about, you know,” Burnett said. “He’s been nothing but positive toward me the whole season. He came out and shook my hand on the mound, and it was very professional of him. As many times I’ve gone away mad, he knows I’m not mad at him. He can call Cito (Gaston) and ask him how many times I got mad at Cito. He deals with it well, he deals with me well and when he put his hand out there, it meant a lot.”

Here’s Burnett.

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• Cool pregame ceremony to honor Mariano Rivera’s record-breaking 602nd career save. The Yankees kept it a surprise and announced it to the media pregame with strict orders not to announce it on blogs or Twitter. Rivera was given a fireman’s helmet and a huge picture commemorating the milestone.

• Jorge Posada was out there for the Rivera ceremony, and he got his own moment with a third-inning curtain call after his home run. “The fans have been amazing all through my career, but especially this year,” Posada said. “They’ve been very supportive and for them standing after Andruw gets strike one. I didn’t want to interrupt his at-bat. It’s special to hit a home run and even in the last regular season game.”

• This was the first time that Posada hit cleanup since September 28, 2009. he hit his first cleanup home run since April 10, 2008. Of his 14 home runs this season, 11 have come at Yankee Stadium.

• On the home run, Posada scored his 900th career run. His first-inning walk was No. 934 of his career, moving him past Roy White for sole possession of seventh place on the Yankees all-time franchise list.

• The Yankees scored their first two runs without getting the ball out of the infield thanks to bunt singles by Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter. “It had nothing to do with our game plan,” Jeter said. “I’ve faced Wakefield a bunch and I don’t know if I’ve ever bunted off him before. The opportunity presented itself, and I tried it.”

• Jeter’s batting average is up to .300. “I’m not playing for a batting average,” he said. “I’m playing for trying to stay sharp for the playoffs. (Hitting) .300 obviously is better than .200, but I’ve hit .300 before.”

• This is the first time Jeter’s batting average has been .300 or better at the end of a game since he was hitting .333 after the second game of the season.

• The Yankees are an even 16-16 in Burnett’s starts this season.

• Dave Robertson has allowed one run and 11 hits in his past 26 appearances dating back to July 26. He has a 0.35 ERA in that stretch. According to Elias, Robertson has held opponents hitless in his past 21 at-bats with men on base.

• Robertson leads all American League relievers with 99 strikeouts this season. That’s good news for High Socks for Hope.

• Francisco Cervelli went for further tests today but the Yankees haven’t heard back from the doctors.

• Girardi said he’ll probably announce a Tampa rotation after the second game.

• There’s still no plan in place — or, announced anyway — for Phil Hughes. “We’re going to talk about how we’re going to use him in the next couple of days,” Girardi said.

• The Yankees will finish the season 44-12 in day game, the highest all-time day winning percentage by any team since 1900 according to Elias.

Associated Press photos

CC Sabathia matched season-highs tonight by allowing 10 hits and four walks. He also matched a season-low by pitching only 5.2 innings.

Since the Yankees went to a six-man rotation at the end of July, Sabathia has made nine starts, seven of them on extra rest. He’s allowed 10 hits in five of those extra-rest starts, something he’d done only once in 23 starts before the six-man rotation became a somewhat permanent situation.

“I don’t think (extra rest has been the problem),” Sabathia said. “I’ve felt great. My arm feels good. My body feels good. It’s just been not executing pitches when I need to. The Lind at-bat, not being able to make the pitch and get out of the inning… Command is the big issue, but my stuff has been there. That’s what’s so frustrating.”

The Lind at-bat was in the fifth, when the Yankees had given Sabathia a 3-1 lead. Sabathia allowed a pair of two-out walks, then he faced Adam Lind with the bases loaded. Lind doubled in all three runs, and when Sabathia loaded the bases again in the sixth, Luis Ayala had to bail him out.

“I still felt good about him getting Lind out,” Girardi said. “Lind hurt us tonight with a couple doubles and a single. I still felt good about it. I thought his stuff was okay, and I thought he’d get him out. He didn’t… I still really believe in (Sabathia). I think he’s going to be great for us and he’ll continue to be great for us. Tonight, he struggled a little bit, but he gave us a chance to win that game. We weren’t able to score after we tied it up 4-4. I still think CC’s going to run off some good starts, I really do.”

Could extra rest be an issue? Sabathia notoriously thrives with less rest rather than more.

“It could,” Girardi said. “He’s going to be on regular rest his next turn, so we’ll get a good chance to see that. That’s just been the way it’s been for us, but we’ll get him on regular rest.”

Actually, to line up Sabathia for Game 1 of the division series, the Yankees might have to pitch him on short rest Sunday against Boston.

“The past couple of starts it’s just been tough, throwing a lot of pitches in a short amount of time. Just frustrating,”

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• After batting practice, Alex Rodriguez explained that he spent the day learning to hit with a ring of tape separating his uninjured top hand and his sore left thumb. He believes he’s allowed to use the taped bat during the game. “We’ve never tried it, but Kevin had me split my hands, and after that it felt really good because I didn’t put any pressure on the thumb,” Rodriguez said. “If it goes well — you know how us baseball players are, we just won’t change — it will definitely alleviate any pain on my thumb, because the only pressure I have is when I press down on the point of contact.”

• Rodriguez took a ton of swings today. He did tee and toss with Kevin Long before batting practice, then he took eight rounds of regular BP, hitting with two different groups.

• Girardi said after the game that he still plans to play Rodriguez tomorrow. Everything he saw in BP makes him think Rodriguez will be ready. “I’d like to pencil his name in there,” Girardi said. “I’d actually like to use a pen.”

• Sabathia’s short-and-sweet explanation of what went wrong on the pitch to Lind: “Just got a ball out over the plate. He put a good swing on it. He had been putting good swings all night and got a pitch he could handle.”

• Sabathia walked Jose Bautista three times. “I didn’t want Bautista to beat me,” Sabathia said. “He’s one of the better hitters in the league, and you never want that guy to beat you in the lineup.”

• The Yankees have lost six of their past nine games, five of their past six loses have come in one-run games.

• Three days ago, Cory Wade had not lost a game since joining the Yankees. He’s now allowed two straight walkoffs, giving up a walkoff homer on Wednesday and Jose Molina’s walkoff single tonight.

• Boone Logan took the loss after allowing a sharp leadoff double in that decisive ninth.

• Until the ninth, the bullpen had been a bright spot for the Yankees. Ayala got Sabathia out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, Rafael Soriano struck out the side in the seventh and Dave Robertson left the bases loaded in the eighth.

• Eric Chavez hit his second home run of the season… Nick Swisher twice tied the game with two-out hits… Derek Jeter’s 13-game hitting streak ended.

• Brett Gardner stole two bases tonight. He’s been successful in 40 of his past 47 attempts.

Associated Press photos

The Yankees are paying attention to what’s happening around them. They were well aware that tonight was a chance to increase their lead in the American League East, and they were well aware that they had their chances to win.

“You want to win this one,” Robinson Cano said. “Especially because the Red Sox lost today.”

The Yankees had just four hits tonight and got their only run on Nick Swisher’s home run. It wasn’t enough offense, even on a night when the pitching staff was tremendous except for two costly mistakes.

The wild pitch
Two outs, runners at the corners in the third inning, Nova threw a curveball to Miguel Olivo. It nearly hit the batter, shot past Russell Martin and let the Mariners take a 1-0 lead.

“It was a curveball that fell out of my hand a little bit, and I couldn’t get it down,” Nova said. “I didn’t give Russell Martin a chance to catch it. That happens. I don’t want that to happen to me, but it’s going to happen.”

Martin never really had a chance to stop it.

“It’s a curveball that backed up and that’s the one thing you can’t really predict as a catcher,” Joe Girardi said. “You can anticipate down, down, block the ball, block the ball, but that one backed up and it happens.”

The home run
Cory Wade pitched out of trouble in the 11th, but the first batter he faced in the 12th was Luis Rodriguez, who already had two doubles. The 2-1 pitch was a changeup, and Rodriguez hammered it to right.

“It’s rough,” Wade said. “Everybody’s going out and contributing and did what they needed to do, and it came down to me and I made a mistake.”

The changeup has been a good pitch for Wade, and he didn’t second guess the pitch selection. He just missed his spot.

“I threw the pitch essentially right down the middle of the plate,” Wade said. “He gets paid to hit, and he did exactly what he’s supposed to… Nova shut it down for, I think, seven innings, and everybody came out of the bullpen and threw the ball really well. It’s just unfortunate that I had to be the lone wolf to go out there and struggle a little bit.”

• Cano was hobbling quite a bit in the clubhouse, but x-rays were negative and he seems fairly certain that he’ll play on Friday. The pitch in the 12th inning hit him right in the side of the right foot. “I knew it was a lot of pain, but I didn’t think it was broke,” he said. “… We can do ice treatment tomorrow and be ready to go Friday.”

• Girardi said the plan is still for Alex Rodriguez to play on Friday. Rodriguez came through fielding drills with no problems.

• The Yankees hit several balls hard tonight, but they never got much going against Jason Vargas. Obviously they made a mistake trying to score Andruw Jones in the third, but Girardi seemed more focused on deep fly balls that didn’t quite get out of the yard. “Think about the ball Grandy hit, the ball Tex hit,” Girardi said. “We hit some balls good. I thought we were patient on Vargas, I thought the guys put good at-bats. I thought he just located well. They made him work, we just didn’t get hits.”

• Nova came out of the game after 87 pitches. Although he acknowledged it was the right call to bring in Dave Robertson, he also felt strong enough to keep going. “I threw 80 something pitches,” he said. “So I was feeling really good. I think if we got two more runs, at least a run or two more, I think I can finish the game. But unfortunately, we don’t hit today, and I’ve got to be out of the game.”

• Speaking of the decision to pull Nova, Robertson did it again, getting out of the eighth with a shallow fly ball and a strikeout to strand runners at the corners. “I’ve always said he has the ability to strike people out,” Girardi said. “You can bring him in tough situations and he did it again tonight.”

• The Yankees were held to one run or less for the 16th time this season, and the third time in their past six games. They are 4-10 in extra innings this season.

• Derek Jeter extended his season-high hitting streak to 13 games and is batting .368 in his past 29 games, since August 11. He’s hitting .346 in his past 46 games, and he’s hitting .332 since returning from the disabled list on July 4.

• This is Jeter’s 16th consecutive season with 150 hits, tying Pete Rose for the second-longest 150-hit streak in baseball history. Hank Aaron has the record with 17 straight.

• Swisher has eight home runs in his past 19 games dating back to August 23. He his just five homers in his first 60 games this season.

• Girardi didn’t know Pedro Feliciano had surgery until reporters told him about it after the game. “I would be surprised if he pitched next year,” Girardi said. “But I’d have to hear the details.”

Associated Press photos

Nick Swisher’s left elbow has bothered him from time to time, but not quite like it did on his first throw from the outfield yesterday.

“I threw it and said, ‘Wow, that didn’t’ feel right,’” Swisher said. “… I know what feels right, I know what doesn’t feel right. After yesterday’s game, I was like man, I’ve got to check this thing out. I don’t like going to the training room man, it’s not my thing. But there are some times. You can’t be a hard head all the time, man, and you actually have to go in there. We’ll just see what they say and figure it out from there.”

Swisher will see the Angels team doctor at some point, probably today. He’s expecting to play tomorrow, but it’s hard to know anything for certain at this point. Joe Girardi called Swisher day-to-day.

During these past three days — when the Yankees had that long rain delay, followed by the four-hour-plus game, followed by extra innings in Baltimore — Swisher actually played all three days, but that’s only after he’d been off on Monday. Girardi said he didn’t believe playing those three games had a real impact on the elbow.

“I think it’s just one throw, really, more than anything,” Swisher said. “I don’t know what it is, so I’m going to see the doctor and find out. So, we’ll see. I’m not nervous about it but I’d feel a lot better if the doctor said ‘hey man, this is what you’ve got. It’s going to be OK.’ Because I’ve never had something like this before. (This is) more sharp pains. Hopefully, it’s just a day-to-day thing.”

• Jesus Montero is getting a designated hitter start against a right-hander today, and Girardi hinted that he might do that more often. “I think you want to see more,” he said. “You don’t want him to sit too long between games, either. You want to get him back in there. He’s swung the bat very well, showed patience and showed the ability to make adjustments.”

• Aside from Swisher, all of the Yankees regulars are in the lineup, but the bullpen is thin beyond Mariano Rivera and Dave Robertson. It’s possible, in the next couple of days, that the Yankees will have to move a starter to the bullpen. “We might need someone,” Girardi said. “I’m not saying they won’t start again, but we might need someone in the bullpen. Soriano’s went a bunch of days in a row, Ayala’s went a bunch of days, Wade’s went a bunch of days, Logan’s went a bunch of days. I have Robby and Mo available tonight, but after that, I have to see.”

• If the Yankees don’t get distance out of Bartolo Colon, Girardi said he’s not sure Hector Noesi could be used for a truly extended outing (he threw back-to-back games Tuesday and Wednesday, including multiple innings Wednesday). So, if the Yankees need a true long man, Girardi said it would likely be either George Kontos, Andrew Brackman or Dellin Betances. “Could be one of the kids,” Girardi said.

• Speaking of the kids, Betances is here mostly to get his feet wet and get a look at life in the big leagues. He’s active, but unlike Montero, Betances isn’t expected to play a significant role down the stretch. “You never know,” Girardi said. “He might pitch in a game, he might pich great and you might use him more. I don’t have any specific plans for him, in a sense, but we’ll see what happens.”

• Today is Betances’ normal day to pitch, which is why the call-up waited until now. He went to Tampa to throw a regular bullpen after the Triple-A regular season, then spent one day at home in New Jersey before flying to California yesterday afternoon.

• Girardi expected Betances to be the last September call-up. He said there was talk about calling up Manny Banuelos, but the Yankees didn’t think this was the time to do it. “They talked about him and decided not to,” Girardi said. “They looked at his year and said they weren’t going to call him up yet.”

• The Yankees rotation is not set beyond Sunday. “We’ll wait to see how we get through this weekend,” Girardi said. “Larry and I are still talking about it.”

• I’m sure he doesn’t speak for everyone, but Brett Gardner said he actually feels no different today — after those long three days of rain and extra innings — than he would at the start of any other West Coast trip. “No, not really,” he said. “I feel pretty good, especially after that long flight last night. I feel better today than I expected to. It’s obviously not ideal and something everybody has to deal with.”

ANGELS
Erick Aybar SS
Howie Kendrick 2B
Bobby Abreu DH
Torii Hunter RF
Mark Trumbo 1B
Alberto Callaspo 3B
Vernon Wells LF
Peter Bourjos CF
Jeff Mathis C

Associated Press photos

Ivan Nova spent almost a month in Triple-A this season. He missed three or four starts because the Yankees rotation was overcrowded, and since he’s been back, Nova’s won seven starts in a row. He hasn’t lost since June 3, and his 15 wins this season are the most by a Yankees rookie since 1968.

Two questions: If he’d never been sent to the minors, would Nova have a shot at 20 wins this season? Or, to look at it a different way, if he’d never been sent to the minors, would Nova be nearly this good right now?

“I think when he went to the minor leagues, when he came back his mission was to be here, be a part of the rotation, and he’s been doing an outstanding job,” Andruw Jones said. “A lot of guys on this team talk with him every time he gives a run or something like that. We try and tell him, that’s it. Don’t give no more and we will give you this game. He’s been doing that, so we’re really proud of him, the way he goes about his business.”

The Yankees love the improvement of Nova’s slider, and that’s something he focused on during his stint in Triple-A. They also love his confidence and his ability to make adjustments, something that also seems to have improved since that brief demotion.

“I’m not surprised,” Nova said. “Because I know what I can do. It doesn’t stop here. I have four more starts, so I have to stay hungry… I know I’ve got tremendous stuff, I just have to put everything right and work.”

Tonight, Nova allowed only one hit after the first inning, but that’s not to say he wasn’t hit hard. The Yankees defense was outstanding, and that made a huge difference, but Nova certainly settled in. The Yankees rotation is once again overcrowded, but these days, it’s hard to imagine Nova being the odd man out. After CC Sabathia and Freddy Garcia, the pitcher with the greatest claim to a rotation spot might be the tall rookie who just keeps winning.

“He learned a lot last year and he learned a lot in the first month this year,” Girardi said. “And I think he’s taken that and used it, and used it to learn how to relax in situations. He’s around the guys, and understands what he needs to do. He’s learned fairly quickly.”

—

The Yankees didn’t have Mark Teixeira or Alex Rodriguez tonight, and they had only four hits, but it wasn’t only the pitching that stepped up to fill the void. The Yankees defense was outstanding, quite possibly the best it’s been all season.

“You can look back and we probably had seven outstanding defensive plays tonight,” Girardi said. “And to win games like that, you’re going to have to have that.”

Eduardo Nunez went deep into the outfield grass to get the last out of the eighth. Curtis Granderson might have saved two runs with his running catch on the warning track in the sixth. Andruw Jones might have robbed Jose Bautista of home run No. 40 with his leaping catch in the fourth. Russell Martin threw out a runner trying to steal in the third.

But the defensive focus was on Brett Gardner, the same guy who hit the pivotal two-run homer. He showed good range to catch a sacrifice fly in the first inning, then showed even better range to make a tumbling catch that became an inning-ending double play in the first.

“Gardy really saved the game in the first inning, because it very well could have been four runs and a runner on second and still one out,” Girardi said. “… Gardy had a huge night tonight. Gardy drove in two, scored one and probably saved two or three himself. You look at the game, and that’s probably the difference.”

Here’s Gardner.

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• Girardi is at least hopeful that Alex Rodriguez will be able to play tomorrow. “I would love that,” Girardi said. “I really wanted him to go through today and turn it up and notch and take normal BP and see how the thumb feels tomorrow, see if it responds well or there’s a little setback. If he’s a little sore tomorrow we probably won’t play him, but if he feels good, I’ll probably put him in there.”

• Mark Teixeira didn’t seem especially optimistic that he would play tomorrow. He was still hobbling around quite a bit after the game.

• Dave Robertson was not available tonight, which is why Rafael Soriano handled the eighth. “(Robertson) was a little sore tonight, so we decided to give him a day off,” Girardi said. “We should have him tomorrow. My guess is we won’t have Soriano or Mo tomorrow.”

• Jones said he wasn’t sure whether his leaping catch at the wall robbed a home run or a double. It was hard to see on a replay whether that ball was going out or off the top of the wall. “I thought it was a homer,” Nova said. “Once I heard everybody, I knew it was an out, but I wasn’t thinking it was an out.”

• Gardner said his tumbling catch in the first inning — the one that started the double play — was at least partially because of positioning. “Right before the pitch, I moved over a little bit and got a good jump on it,” he said. “I was able to get over there and get it, get it in for the double play and end the inning.”

• Gardner set a career-high with his sixth home run of the season. He hit five last year.

• Nick Swisher made his second start at first base in the past two years. He made 10 starts at first in 2009.

• Mariano Rivera got his 37th save, which is four more than he had all of last year. He’s four away from No. 600 for his career. He has saved each of the Yankees past four wins and nine of the past 15.

• The Yankees moved back into first place tonight. “It’s probably going to be back and forth the next three or four weeks,” Gardner said. “The Red Sox have a good team, so it’s far from over. We haven’t made the playoffs or won the division. There’s a lot of baseball left to play, so we’ll just stay focused on tomorrow and worry about that at the end of the month.”

Associated Press photos

When Freddy Garcia agreed to a minor league deal this winter, the expectation was that he would eventually fall apart. Sure, he’d won some games with Chicago last year, but he was clearly beyond his prime, and clearly a signing based more on heavy desperation than high expectation.

But here we are, about to flip the calendar to September, and Garcia just keeps getting it done. It’s not flashy — he really is a different pitcher than he used to be — but it’s effective. He hadn’t pitched in a big league game since August 7, but there were no signs of rust. He gave up two hits through six innings and picked up his 11th win.

“That’s as good as it gets,” Joe Girardi said. “He hung one slider to Mark Reynolds and gave us six great innings. I would have signed up for that if someone had asked me what we’d get from him tonight. He was excellent tonight. He knows how to pitch.”

The tendency is to be … what’s the word? Shocked? Surprised? Impressed?

Garcia seems … indifferent. He shrugs off the extra rest without any rust. He shrugs off being 11-7 with a 3.09 ERA. He laughs at the notion that he should have any sort of reaction to keeping his spot in the rotation.

“Of course, I have to be happy,” he said. “I wasn’t pitching for almost three weeks, something like that, but I’m glad to do my job and get a win. We need it… I just try to do my job. Go there and do the best I can. When I pitch bad, I pitch bad. I know most guys, excuse. Go out there and perform. If I pitch good, I pitch good. If I pitch bad, I pitch bad. Nothing I can do. Always, if I’ve got a bad start, I have to put away the bad and think about my next one. I’ve got to be really positive about it.”

The Yankees are planning to cut their rotation from six to five at the end of this week. Joe Girardi has committed to no one being locked into a spot, but he did it tonight.

Will Garcia start again in five days?

“Oh yeah,” Girardi said.

Here’s Garcia.

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• Nick Swisher has become a beast. His two-run home run tonight was his sixth homer in seven games. He’s up to 21 for the season. “Once you get that groove, you want to continue to keep it,” he said. “That’s all I’m really trying to do right now.”

• Mark Teixeira’s RBI double in the first inning gave him 100 RBI for the season. He now has 30 homers and 100 RBI in eight straight seasons. He’s the only Major Leaguer to have done that in the past eight years. “He’s just a model of consistency,” Girardi said. “You know when the season starts that you’re going to get 30 and 100 from Tex. That’s great as a manager and as an organization to be able to pencil that in.”

• Curtis Granderson keeps scoring runs. Tonight he scored from first on Teixeira’s double, giving him 122 runs for the season. That matches a career-high for Granderson. He still leads baseball in the category, by a lot.

• Derek Jeter said his sore right knee feels considerably better than it did at this time last night. He expects to play tomorrow. “I hope so,” he said. “That’s the plan, but I haven’t done anything. We’ll see when we get there tomorrow.”

• Jeter said he believes he’ll be able to play shortstop. If he’s healthy enough to play, he’s healthy enough to play the field. He had his knee heavily wrapped yesterday, only moderately today.

• It wasn’t a perfect three innings for the Soriano-Robertson-Rivera trio, but it was good enough. Dave Robertson gave up his first home run of the season — snapping a streak of 68.2 innings without a homer — but those three still kept the slim lead intact. Rafael Soriano had an especially dominant inning. “Velocity was great, location was great,” Girardi said. “He’s a big part of this for us.”

• Speaking of homerless streaks ending: The home run Garcia allowed was his first after 69 innings without one.

• The J.J. Hardy home run off Robertson was also the first run Robertson had allowed on the road this year.

• The Orioles had not allowed a stolen base in seven games, but Brett Gardner stole one in the fifth inning. Gardner is up to 38 steals for the season.

Associated Press photos

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

Alex Rodriguez admitted last night that he still feels hesitant on that surgically repaired knee. Taking that into account, the Yankees still plan to bring their third baseman to Minnesota, but they might wait a few more days before activating him.

“Our plans right now are still to bring him to Minnesota tomorrow if everything goes OK,” Joe Girardi said. “We may not activate him. We may have him just go through some things for a couple of days and wait a couple of days to activate him. But our plans are for him to come tomorrow, and we could activate him. We’ll see.”

Girardi said Rodriguez will stick with the plan of playing third base tonight, but it’s entirely possible that he’ll initially DH when he’s activated for the big league roster.

“He said he felt good, but he was just tentative,” Girardi said. “And I don’t really think that’s so abnormal because as I said, he ran probably two or three weeks tentative, and you get used to running a certain way. He’s been this way for probably the last eight weeks now, and he has to get that out of his mind.”

Girardi said he’ll wait until Rodriguez goes through some drills with Kevin Long and visits the Yankees training staff before deciding whether to activate Rodriguez tomorrow.

“A couple of days, if you rush, could cost you a couple of weeks,” Girardi said. “You could end up hurting something else. That’s why we want to take a look at him with our own eyes tomorrow and see how far he is away, and see if he’s ready for tomorrow.”

• Freddy Garcia did not throw his splitfinger today, but the Yankees believe there’s a chance he’ll throw it tomorrow. Girardi didn’t rule out using Garcia for Saturday’s start, but it sounds more likely that A.J. Burnett will start that game and Garcia will be bumped back to Sunday.

• The DL isn’t completely ruled out for Garcia: “At this point, if he can’t make his start Sunday, you could definitely do that because it’s two weeks.”

• When Rodriguez is activated, the Yankees plan to drop a pitcher, but they’ll stick with a six-man rotation through the doubleheader in Baltimore. When Rodriguez is activated, the Yankees will carry a six-man bullpen for a few days. “Going to have to,” Girardi said.

• Speaking of a six-man bullpen: Girardi said he could get two to three innings out of Cory Wade and Luis Ayala, and he believes Hector Noesi would be good for about 50 pitches (probably closer to four innings). Distance might be necessary if the bullpen is short-handed for a few days.

• Girardi said he’ll have to check with his late-inning relievers to determine whether they’re available today. Boone Logan, Rafael Soriano, Dave Robertson and Mariano Rivera have all pitched back-to-back games.

ROYALS
Alex Gordon LF
Melky Cabrera CF
Billy Butler DH
Eric Hosmer 1B
Jeff Francoeur RF
Johnny Giavotella 2B
Salvador Perez C
Mike Moustakas 3B
Alcides Escobar SS

Associated Press photos