Yankee Talk: Hollywood-style comeback

Miracle rally in ninth stuff of champions

LOS ANGELES – Sometimes I wonder if you cannot be surprised and yet be surprised all at the same time.

I watch almost every Yankee game and I can usually get a feel whether they going to win or lose at certain points. Watch enough of these games, and you know after a while.

So as last night played out, count me in among those who was ready to write off this Sunday night nationally televised game to Joe Torre and his Dodgers and head back home on the redeye back to New York and resume play on Tuesday.

It would have been all so easy to do that.

It has long been said, and I have said it myself that the toughest three outs to get in baseball are the outs when you are trying to close out the New York Yankees in the ninth inning.

However, as they once again showed us last night, until you get that final out, that 27th out, the game is never over.

In a city renowned for its glitz, glamour, celebrity, movies and Hollywood, it was the Yankees, four runs down, staging a dramatic film of their own, scripting one of their greatest comebacks in recent memory to beat the Dodgers 8-6 in 10 innings at Dodger Stadium.

With most teams, trailing by four runs in the ninth with two outs remaining is a license to head to the exit.

You are on the road at the end of a long road trip in a game where nothing has gone right.

The offense could not do anything much for the first 25 outs. Andy Pettitte did not pitch his best, and his defensive miscues fielding bunts turned into three runs. Add to that, Joba Chamberlain could pitch a scoreless to keep the game in manageable comeback distance.

With Jonathan Broxton, the Dodgers closer who throws upwards of 100 MPH in the game, it did not look good for the Yankees.

Mark Teixeira struck out looking on the outside edge that was borderline at best, but there was no argument for the first out.

A segment of the crowd at Dodger Stadium had left in a race to beat the horrendous traffic that comes with leaving there and getting on the freeway.

With a sizeable lead in hand, what could possibly go wrong?

Alex Rodriguez smacked a solid innocuous single through the left side that did not seem like much at the time and then took second on defensive indifference. Robinson Cano would then drive him home on a double down the right field line.

Dodgers 6, Yankees 3.

At the time, you were angry because Chamberlain gave up that run in the eighth. With the differential four instead of three, the Yankees would now not be able to bring up to the plate. “The fallacy of the predetermined outcome”, as Michael Kay often calls it.

Now Jorge Posada was up, just trying to keep the line moving and give the team a chance to get the tying run to the plate any way they could. He would fall behind Broxton 0-2 and this season, opponents have hit a paltry .135 when the count has reached that point.

Posada would proceed to foul off four pitches and worked the count from 0-2 to 3-2. On the tenth pitch of the at bat, he would single to right-center to bring the tying run to the plate.

Curtis Granderson, who has had numerous big hits this season to slightly justify his poor batting average and run production this season, was now up at the plate. He too would work Broxton, as his pitch count began to rise after throwing 19 over two innings the previous evening.

The battle waged on and finally Granderson coaxed a walk on the eighth to win the battle and represent the tying run and loading the bases.

We always talk about “championship at-bats.” Posada and Granderson’s ability to battle and not give in against the hard-throwing Broxton was classic Yankees, representative of everything they have been about at the plate over the last 15 years.

Usually during these types of comebacks, I have very little reaction emotionally until I actually think there a possibility of actually pulling it off.

As the line slowly kept moving, stoically I watched. Slowly gaining belief.

Still, I was not there yet.

Because of an injury to Brett Gardner earlier in the game, Chad Huffman was the man at the plate, certainly not a man you typically would want up in this situation. Yet, here he was and it was on him to get the job done.

On a 1-1 pitch, he was able to go the opposite field for a single, driving in two runs as the vocal Yankee fan contingent, loud all weekend, made their presence felt, and now truly believed (along with myself) that a comeback was possible.

Dodgers 6, Yankees 5.

I was “all-in” now. There was no turning back. We had seen the comeback proceed this far. It would have been awful to have it end without a happy conclusion.

Another youngster, Colin Curtis was now up with a very simple job, to get the ball into the outfield or avoid hitting into a double play. Every other outcome would be acceptable.

He also fell behind in the count 0-2, then saw three straight balls to bring it to 3-2, and then, like Posada earlier, fouled off four consecutive pitches. On the tenth pitch of the battle, he would hit a chopper to first baseman James Loney as Granderson broke for the plate. Rather than throwing home to cut off the run or attempting to turn a 3-6-3 double play, he chose to step on the first base bag and threw home slightly to the right of catcher Russell Martin, who was unable to get the tag on Granderson in time to prevent him from scoring.

Tie game.

Improbably this happened. If you were in the parking lot, you missed out. If you turned off the TV and went to sleep, it was a rally for the ages.

When people say that this was “just another game”, they are lying. The intensity, atmosphere and the way the managing showed that it was not. Why else would Torre, with a four run lead in late June, bring in his closer to get the final three outs?

Much like the emotion shown by their dugout, including screaming at the home plate umpire Friday in the ninth inning, a game the Yankees won 2-1.

Torre and his crew wanted this badly.

All Joe Torre could do is look on. He watched in silent horror as his closer Broxton, throwing 48 pitches in the inning and running on fumes, showed him emphatically and completely that he is not, or ever will be in the same stratosphere as Mariano Rivera no matter how good his numbers may read.

Francisco Cervelli was unable to give the Yankees lead, but the damage was complete. With the game tied, it was the Yankees closer, Mariano Rivera, summoned to hold the score right where it was.

One, two, three the Dodgers went down to force extra innings.

The scoreboard at Dodger Stadium read that the score was even at six, but it was 6-6 in favor of the Yankees, even without having the final at-bat.

Teixeira started the tenth with a solid single to right and right then that it was only a matter of time before they struck the final blow.

Ramon Troncoso started the inning, and was lucky that Rafael Furcal made a tremendous play in the hole at short to prevent another hit and was able to get the lead run at second. Torre came to the mound to matchup lefty George Sherrill to face Cano, who was 0-for-11 lifetime.

Perhaps Torre had not read the scouting report, but that was a different version of Cano. This 2010 version of Cano has been a monster this season and Torre would soon find that out.

On a 0-1 pitch, Cano showed everyone why he is perhaps the MVP of the American League by turning on a fastball and blasting one to the opposite field, clearing the wall in left-center to give the Yankees the lead. For a left-handed hitter at night to go the other way for a homerun is a hefty feat and Cano made it look effortless.

Rivera was back on the mound in the bottom half, this time with the lead. You knew there was no way he was going to blow this one now.
Dodger Stadium turned into Yankee Stadium West.

Loney reached on an infield single, but then Rivera retired the next three batters in order to give the Yankees their best win of the season.

Unbelievable, yet believable.

They never lay down even when you think they will.

It is having that belief that the game is never over even when you think all is lost. That quality carried them to a championship last year and still exists now.

No team in any sport is as tough and resilient as this team is when it counts. They show it time and again.

Even though it did, what we saw should not have come as a surprise.

It was Hollywood.

Time now for another edition of Yankee Random Thoughts

Last Sunday night in Los Angeles, Andy Pettitte had problems fielding several bunts in the game against the Dodgers that I had me seriously consider the team taking “bunting practice” the next night assuming they lost.

Turns out, they won.

Safe to say, cancel the practice.

Colin Curtis is the newest recipient of my annual “Man Love” award.

Since he has come up, he has shown a good, disciplined eye at the plate, and gotten a few hits and even drove in a couple of runs.

However, he should not get too comfortable. Previous winners of the award include Shelley Duncan, Xavier Nady and David Robertson.

In each year, all of those players saw their performance decline the next season.

Vicente “Head Hunter” Padilla got what was coming to him on last Friday night.

For reasons known only to him in the fourth inning, he drilled Robinson Cano in the backside with a fastball.

Since this was at Dodger Stadium and we were playing back National League rules, Head Hunter was going to have to come to the plate and bat for himself.

The Dodgers right-hander stepped into the box against CC Sabathia, and it took only one pitch for him to dance as a fastball hit him flush on the right knee.

As Head Hunter was in pain, he looked toward the mound and slowly walked toward first. “What was he going to do?” I thought.

Known for consistently plunking Mark Teixeira, perhaps Head Hunter did not want to make it look too obvious and instead chose someone else.

He got what was coming. He had better not try that again.

Joe Girardi on Saturday elected not to remove The Underachiever for a pinch hitter in the fourth inning with runners on first-and-third and one out as the game had seen his pitcher mentally clock out for the evening.

Rather than bring up a pitch hitter, The Underachiever batted for himself and to the surprise of no one, safety squeezed for the second out of the inning. The Yankees would not score in the inning and when he promptly walked the first two Dodgers hitters to begin the bottom half, his night was over.

Girardi said pinch-hitting in that spot depended on “the situation”.

The Dodgers scored two more runs in the inning, extended the lead to three and that effectively was the game.

Putting that into my personal translator, I took that to mean that if he didn’t have bums such as Bad Boone Logan and Chan “No No” Park as long relief options, perhaps he would have made a move. But would the results have been any better with them out there?

Cisco has really come back to Earth over the last seven weeks. What, you didn’t think he was going to hit .785 with runners in scoring position, did you?

After starting the season 11-for-14 (a relatively small sample), Cisco is six for his last 31 (a slightly larger sample). His OPS for the season now stands at .688, which with a few more 0-fers, will reach Jose Molina territory.

Not to nitpick here, but Robinson Cano’s hitting numbers have been in decline over the last two months.

Strange but true, Cano started the season at .400, but hit “only” .336 in May before dropping a few more points in June, hitting .333.

Yea, he is a bum.

The Grandy Man has been able to get some hits off left-handers in the last week. However, what does it say when Girardi sits him for Chad Huffman in the lineup?

While in Arizona, there was much discussion of the season long power outage by Alex Rodriguez. The third baseman responded by saying that he had no concerns.

After his two-run blast in the eighth inning of the Yankees 4-2 win over Seattle, it was his fourth homerun over the last eight games.

With sluggers, homeruns come in bunches. By the All Star break, this will no longer be an issue. Besides, it is great when people say your production is down despite the fact you lead the team in runs batted in.

Patience people. Yes, it does work.

Yankee Talk: The One That Got Away

Reliving Game 7 of the 2001 World Series

PHOENIX – I try to forget about it, but it is nearly impossible to do so.

All these years later, I can still think about what took place on that inglorious night.

There is an old saying that the losses hurt more than the wins bring you joy and that is certainly true.

You may think losing four straight in 2004 to the Red Sox was the worst moment in my Yankee fan history and it probably is. However, nothing will ever top the emotions I felt during and after Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

The Yankees returned to that building in 2004 and I was there. I needed to be there. I needed some closure. I had to turn the page on what happened three years prior.

Bank One Ballpark was the name of the stadium then, the temperature was 108 and inside the ballpark as I walked around, all you could see on the TV’s was a replay of the Diamondbacks batting in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Ugh.

I still remember most of what happened that night to a tee. Some details are a bit blurry, but the bottom of the ninth still comes in crystal clear.

Today, the Chase Field is the name of the park, the weather is still hot (102 degrees) outside, and the Diamondbacks made sure to remind us all of that horrifying night anywhere you walked. If they could put monitors on the bathroom stalls, they likely would have done that too.

Mark Grace and Luis Gonzalez, two of the heroes from that 2001 team, were on hand to throw out the first pitch Monday night. Grace, whose solid single to center off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning began one of those most improbable comebacks in World Series history. Gonzalez’s bloop single over Derek Jeter’s head won them the championship and derailed hopes of a fourth straight championship.

Now that the Yankees are defending world champions, the memories from that night do not provide as much anger as it used to, but it gave us all a moment to reflect on that fateful night.

I was a student at St. John’s University at the time and all of my newly found friends were together for Game 7. Every one of us was nervous going into this night. The Yankees could have won the championship the previous night, but Andy Pettitte pitched one the worst games of his career (he would find out later he was tipping his pitches) in a 15-2 Game 6 loss. With Curt Schilling on the mound for this final game, things did not look good.

Roger Clemens started for the Yankees and even though the label of “postseason choker” finally was gone the previous year, no one knew what to expect.

After six innings, the Diamondbacks led 1-0 before a single by Tino Martinez tied the game. Clemens pitched his heart out and departed from the game with one out in the seventh, never having to answer questions about his fortitude in big game situations.

In the eighth, Alfonso Soriano was able to golf a 1-1 splitter from Schilling into the left field seats to give the Yankees lead, leaving them six outs away from another title.

Rivera struck out the side in the bottom half and miraculous, there were only three outs to go. There was no way they could lose this, right?

At the time, Rivera had not blown a postseason save in over four years, saving 23 straight. The Yankees clearly were the inferior team over the course of the series, but somehow were in a position to steal a title on pure muscle memory.

You also have to remember the mentality of a Yankees fan during that time. As three-time champions, there was a sense of inevitability to all of this. There no way they would or could lose. No matter how it happened, somehow, someway, they were going to find a way.

The contemplation of losing, seriously losing, did not exist.

Grace singled to center to begin the bottom of the ninth after Randy Johnson, the Game 6 starter, pitched a scoreless top half.

Damian Miller attempted a sacrifice bunt that Rivera fielded and the throw went into center field. On the play, Jeter was slow to get up, limping as his right leg was clearly in pain, but there was no way he was going to come of the game, not with the championship three outs away.

In the dorm room, where about 10-15 gathered for the game, we just stood there in silence. None of us who were rooting for the Yankees said a word.

Jay Bell would lay down a bunt that Rivera fielded and threw to third for the first out. However, Scott Brosius did not throw to first for the double play when replays clearly showed he would have had a play on the aging veteran.

Tony Womack would then double down the line in right to tie the score when the patented Rivera cutter got just enough of the plate for him to get a good swing on it and hooked inside first. Runners were on second and third with only one out.

We sat there in stunned disbelief, unable to come up with words to describe what was going on. None of us could believe the championship was slipping away in this fashion.

Of all the games to blow save, but to have it happen in Game 7 of the World Series in the bottom of the ninth?

Unthinkable.

A pitch then hit Craig Counsell to load the bases and at that point, we all had a sense of what was coming. None of us wanted to say it, but we knew. We wanted to hope for a double play to get the game to the tenth and give us another shot, but the offense was so anemic in that series (they did not score more than four runs in any of the games) that it would have been like dying a slow, tortuous death.

Of course, there was the famous story of the victory celebration that was being set up in the Yankee clubhouse prior to the start of the ninth inning that George Steinbrenner made FOX Sports and Major League Baseball remove from the clubhouse the moment the rally began. It was all happening so slow, and yet, so fast.

Gonzalez stepped in and former manager Joe Torre came to the mound for a meeting. It would be the last meeting he would have with his infield, as he would know them.

Torre chose to play the infield in as opposed to double play depth to nail down the runner from third at the plate. Anything over the infield would lose the World Series.

Rivera threw a cutter in on the fists of Gonzalez. He was able to lift it softly, just over the head of Jeter just beyond the infield grass for the game winning hit as the Yankees slowly walked off the field, to the dugout and into the unknown.

It was the final game in the career of Scott Brosius and Paul O’Neill. Tino Martinez would leave the team to go to the St. Louis Cardinals before returning three years later. Chuck Knoblauch was also among those in the purge. The mainstays that were part of most, if not all, of the winning were on the way out.

That team was the last great modern dynasty in sports. Sure, the Patriots in football may have won three out of four Super Bowls or the Lakers in basketball may have had a three-peat. But no team, in any sport will ever be able to match the run the Yankees had from 1996 until that Sunday night in the first week of November in Phoenix, Arizona.

It was where the dynasty came to an end.

Yankee Talk: Subway Series Edition – Welcome back…Tex?

Teixeira may finally be coming around

BRONX – Anyone can have a bad month or two.

For Mark Teixeira, this does not faze him.

Every day going to the ballpark is a new day. He claims never taking a bad day previously into the next day just as he does the good ones.

So let us count the last two days as positives in a season of mostly struggles for the Yankee first baseman as his two homeruns in the last games of the series, particularly his fourth inning grand slam of Johan Santana that provided the winning 4-0 margin to take the Yankee Stadium edition of the Subway Series.

For a man typically known for heating up at the plate when the weather warms up for reasons unknown, this season has been a struggle for him, with his batting average early on below .150, hovering just over .200 .

After today, the average stands at .226. The power numbers are slightly down, but they have come in bunches and overall, has yet to perform to his career standards or even his numbers from last year.

“It’s a daily grind,” Teixeira said. “It’s never easy. You’re always working, especially both ways.”

The last six games have seen Teixeira hit three homeruns, all against elite level starting pitchers.

Tuesday night, he hit one off Roy Halladay that barely cleared the wall in right. Saturday he connected on a two-run blast to right center off Mike Pelfrey before Sunday’s slam to break a scoreless tie.

On trying to get back the swing that has made him one baseball’s most lethal hitters, Teixeira said, “When I can hit a home run left-handed yesterday, a home run right-handed today, hopefully that’ll get some things rolling for me personally.”

He then followed, “It always helps when you hit good pitchers.”

The highs and lows of his season have been so dramatic that it is hard to tell when he has really been good. The statistical output would leave you to believe that he is have a respectful season, but it is not the case. He does not look as comfortable at the plate from either side as he has in the past. There appears to be much guessing by him and it has his mind fouled up.

Teixeira also looks to be lunging at the plate while the short field porch seduces his mind, causing bad swing mechanics and exacerbating the problem.

When asked about his season long slump, Teixeira snapped back, “I hit a grand slam today.”

The reporter, clearly stunned by the answer, tried to re-alter his question but no avail.

“I hit one Saturday. I hit one off (Roy) Halladay (Tuesday). Next question.”

With 44 RBI, he is on pace to drive in around 100, which is solid, but not “Teixeira numbers”. His lack of sustained production as the number three hitter in the lineup has been the main reason the Yankees offense, so potent when in 2009, has been inconsistent this year.

“I just think it ignites our offense when he’s hitting,” said Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

“He’s such an impactful player,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We know this year has been somewhat of a struggle for him.

Still, despite his early problems, the Yankees lead the AL East over Tampa Bay and Boston, and have the best record in baseball due in part, to their spectacular pitching as seen by the eight shutout innings thrown by CC Sabathia.

The great pitching has made the troubles for Teixeira seem less significant as the many in the (drive by) media and fans seem willing to give him an extended line of credit with the belief that he will need turn it around as some point and carry the offense for a prolonged stretch.

“We have so much confidence in him for what he’s done in the past. “ Girardi said, also echoing that belief. “We believe it’s a matter of time before he gets hot and gets on a roll.”

Maybe this is the start of that roll. Three homeruns in the last six games, a hit in 10 of his last 12 games and taking good swings overall even the result is not always a hit.

That is what he needs right now. Start with good mechanics, good at bats and working the count as he has always has. From there the hits will come. Rarely will a good hitter ever be successful without his proper fundamentals that made him that great player that we have all come to see from him.

Teixeira has a reputation for being a conscientious worker of his craft, always seeking to perfect his swing. The lack of success has not been due to lack of effort or preparation.

The Yankees believe that his time is coming soon.

“His personality is consistent every day,” Girardi said. “It’s hard to tell how he’s feeling at-bat to at-bat. That’s what you want out of players.

“Look at the back of his baseball card,” said Nick Swisher. “He’s going to be there (statistically) by the end of the year.”

We can only hope.

Yankee Talk: Subway Series Edition – CC You

Sabathia dominates. Teixeira’s slam paces Yanks

BRONX – While the Yankees have battled their way to the top of the AL East, where they also hold the best record in baseball, two of their biggest players have yet to make an impact on the season.

CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira were big cogs in the championship season last year. This season, they have been inconsistent to say the least.

Yesterday, each of them put their stamp on the game and that was too much, powering their way in front of another sold out Yankee Stadium crowd of 49,240 as the Yankees won the rubber game over the Mets 4-0.

The victory capped an end to the 2010 edition of the Subway Series, with each team winning three games apiece. The only other time the two teams could meet would be in the World Series.

“That would be great for New York,” said Alex Rodriguez. “They’re playing as well as we’ve seen them in a long time.”

With the win, the Yankees also took sole control of first place in the AL East after the Rays lost again to the Marlins in Miami. However, the team does not want to think about the standings this early in the season.

“Are we?” said Derek Jeter when asked about the Yankees first place standing. “That means we don’t have to worry about anyone else.”

“I haven’t been paying attention to it, but that’s where we like to be,” add Nick Swisher. “If we keep playing the way we have the past couple of days, it’s going to be fun the rest of the season.”

Channeling his hot streak from last season, Sabathia from the first pitch pitched one of his best games of season, throwing eight shutout innings, limiting the Mets to only four hits.

Sabathia would have pitched the ninth inning if not for a short rain delay in the bottom of the eighth inning, preventing him from a complete game.

On a steamy Sunday afternoon battle of aces Sabathia and Johan Santana, Santana blinked first.

Both pitchers threw up zeroes through the first two and a half frames, but the Yankees finally broke through in the bottom of the third. Brett Gardner led off with a single and Derek Jeter followed with an infield hit on a slow chopping ground ball.

With the infield playing back, Nick Swisher would then surprise everyone with a push bunt to the right side that got past Santana and the throw by Alex Cora dropped between the gloves of both him and first baseman Ike Davis to load the bases with no outs.

On a 1-1 pitch, Teixeira would take a fastball and sent it over the wall in left center for a grand slam to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead. For Teixeira, it was his second homerun in as many days, and third in the last six. Despite his season struggles at the plate (.226), he is in a second place tie on the team in runs batted in (44).

With the way Sabathia was pitching, having a four-run lead was the equivalent of leading by forty runs. Only three Mets hitters reached base through the first five innings. In the sixth, Ruben Tejada doubled to begin the sixth, but the next three hitters could not advance him after a ground out and two flyouts to end the inning.

Besides the homerun by Teixeira, the Yankees offense did not do much against Santana, going only 2-for-9 with men in scoring position and both of those came in the third inning. In six innings, the Mets ace gave up just those four runs to go along with eight hits, walking one and striking out three over 114 pitches.

This contrasted from Sabathia’s eight shutout innings of four hit ball, walking two, striking out six, needing only 100 pitches to get through the day, and lowering his ERA to 3.68.

“You go eight inning and give up no runs against a team like that and you have to feel pretty good,” said Sabathia, who held the Mets hitless in seven at bats with runners in scoring position.

The bottom of the lineup went a combined 6-for-14 despite not scoring as the offense still seeks another breakout game.

Mariano Rivera pitched another hitless ninth, raising his hitless batters total to 21 straight, the equivalent of a seven-inning perfect game.

Interleague play continues tomorrow night as the Yankees travel to Phoenix to take on the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Yankee Talk: Subway Series Edition – Hughes decision

While pitching great, Yanks need to manage innings for Phil

BRONX – It would be so easy to say, “Let him go”.

That would be the tempting thing to do when you consider the performance of Phil Hughes this season.

You see the presence that he has on the mound and you marvel, as if he were a ten-year veteran.

Hitters swing and miss at his fastball, hit weak groundballs when they swing at his cutter, find themselves fooled when he occasionally breaks out his changeup and stand at the plate frozen when he unleashes his 12-to-6 curveball.

There are no histrionics or overwhelming signs of emotion. Hughes is just a pitcher going out start after start doing his job with a businesslike approach.

With an American League leading 10 wins against only one defeat, Hughes has exceeded the expectations of everyone and the projections that anyone could have had for him before the year began.

Being among the best when you consider the DH and pitching in the AL East put him on a different level than several of the National League pitchers pitching to astounding low earned run averages.

He is an elite starter who just happens to be pitching in the backend of the rotation. He is halfway to 20 wins and with a little luck, he will have a great chance to win the CY Young award.

All of this presents a serious problem.

The old “innings” cap.

Yes, the innings limit. The same innings limit the Yankees had on Joba Chamberlain last year (famously known as “The Joba Rules” now shifts to Hughes and it will be up to the organization to figure out a way to best deploy this strategy.

Unlike last year when Chamberlain was inconsistent for a majority of the year, Hughes has arguably been, if not in the top-5, then one of the 10 best pitchers in baseball. With the strong starts he has consistently had, no team would want to remove him from the rotation if they did not have to.

The Yankees though have a small luxury now, because outside of the current struggles of AJ Burnett, they have a rotation of guys performing tremendously. Very few teams can say they have four quality starters all pitching well at the same time. This is what they have now since Javier Vazquez began to pitch well from the beginning of May.

While the Yankees have yet to release the exact number of innings Hughes will pitch this season, the overwhelming belief is that he will pitch no more than 180. At 82 innings after 13 starts (an average of over 6 1/3 innings per start), he is nearing the halfway point.

With minimal off days in the second half of the season, the times to work around these parameters will become more difficult.

Just by coincidence, the Yankees have an off day coming in between their road trip Thursday before they go to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday and another off day Monday when they fly back to New York. The other two times they may have is the weekend before the All Star Game and holding him back until the fifth game after the break.

It is incumbent on the Yankees to make sure they preserve him in order to pitch at least 20 innings in October to secure a 28th world title. If you had to align your postseason rotation, you would start with CC Sabathia, and the next two pitchers you can flip-flop between Hughes and Andy Pettitte.

This is nothing against AJ Burnett, who pitched well in the postseason last year or Vazquez, who has also found himself. However, would you trust either one of them in playoff game either home or away in October?

Putting both of them in the playoff rotation and sending Hughes to the bullpen would be a catastrophic mistake.

It has been a long road back for Hughes. He won the fifth starter role out of spring training and the team just looked for him to stabilize the spot and not have a blowup reminiscent of 2008 when he did not win a game, encountered immense control problems, and eventually found himself out of the rotation.

While dominating the second half of last year pitching the eighth inning in the championship season, he learned to pitch with a lead and learned how to be aggressive and trust his stuff. A mentality touted of him coming up in the minors that he had lost, but now regained it.

Now that he has it, and is showing the rest of the league, it is now up to the Yankees to reel it in somewhat for not only Hughes’ long-term future, but for their own sake. Finding pitchers to give you elite performance and minimal cost is very rare and of incredible value to a team.

The Yankees know this.

Hughes will always be ready to take the ball. He is a bulldog and that is his mentality.

However, the Yankees need to look at the future, not just for today.

Yankee Talk: Subway Series Edition – Phil-er up

Hughes gets 10th win, Yanks snap skid

BRONX – Do not ask Phil Hughes about possibly making the American League All Star team.

It is not a topic he will discuss for any great length, except to say that it would be an honor if selected by his manager, who happens to be Joe Girardi.

The site of the midsummer classic, Angel Stadium in Anaheim was ten miles from where he grew up in Santa Ana. If he continues to pitch the way he has this season, he will definitely find his way there in July.

Hughes bested Mike Pelfrey to notch his tenth win of the year to tie the American League lead with the Rays David Price against one loss to help the Yankees snap a three game losing skid in front of 49,073 at Yankee Stadium in a 5-3 victory over the Mets.

It was a game where he did not have his best stuff early, but despite a slow start, he found his groove, proceeding to shut down the Mets offense.

Jose Reyes drove Hughes’ second pitch of the game into the right field seats for a leadoff homerun that stunned the Stadium crowd while Mets fans made their presence known.

Coming into the game at 9-1 and 2.39 ERA, Mike Pelfrey looked to improve on those numbers. The Yankees lineup finally showed signs of life in the bottom of the half as Brett Gardner (starting in the leadoff spot, as Derek Jeter was a late scratch) singled to begin the bottom half and moved to third on a hit-and-run single by Nick Swisher. Gardner scored when Mark Teixeira grounded into a double play to tie the score.

On the day, Gardner went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

After a walk to Henry Blanco with one out in the third, Reyes would blast his second homerun of the day over the wall in right to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.

Jorge Posada set the pitch to go inside, but Hughes would miss the target by a foot, moving toward the middle of the plate, enabling Reyes to extend his arms.

The Yankee quickly responded when Teixeira homered to right-center to tie the game on hanging splitter that he was able to lift. In the fourth, Curtis Granderson would give them the lead when he took another hanging pitch from Pelfrey, this time a curveball and hit it into the lower deck in right to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead.

Armed with the lead, Hughes would go to work. After allowing the homerun in the third, he allowed only one hit until the sixth inning when the Mets put up their best threat of the afternoon.

Angel Pagan started the sixth with a single. After David Wright popped out to second, Ike Davis walked. With Jason Bay representing the tying run, Hughes got him on a first pitch cutter to ground into an around the horn double play to end the inning.

An eighth pitch seventh closed the game in style for the Yankee right hander, who gave up three runs on five hits, walking three and striking out four over 99 pitches.

Pelfrey battled through the homeruns to go seven innings, allowing five runs, seven hits, walking three and striking out to over 106 pitches, seeing his ERA increase to 2.69. Outside of the two homeruns, he held the Yankees offense down as noticed by the 1-for-8 they hit with runners in scoring position (now 2-for-17 in the series).

With the two run lead, Manager Joe Girardi chose not to go back with Hughes for the eighth inning and instead went to Joba Chamberlain, who pitched around a two-out double by Pagan to strikeout Wright half-swinging on a slider, stranding him as the tying run at the plate.

Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth, running his hitless streak to 18 consecutive batters as the Yankees could finally exhale. It has been their winning formula all season. It begins with a strong outing from the starters, followed by Chamberlain and Rivera in the late innings to close the game.

Hard to believe this was the same team that beat Roy Halladay and Pelfrey lost games to Jamie Moyer, Kyle Kendrick and Hisanori Takahashi.

Go figure.

Sunday is the finally of the Subway Series as aces Johan Santana and CC Sabathia match up.

Yankee Talk: Subway Series Edition: Offensively Offensive

Yanks bats have gone dead

BRONX – Baseball is a funny game sometimes.

You can go from hammering arguably the best starting pitcher in the league in Roy Halladay, as the Yankees did on Tuesday night, to resembling a group of minor leaguers the next.

How they ever allowed Jamie Moyer, who singlehandedly drove up the stock in AARP with his eight-inning, two-run masterpiece on Wednesday is beyond anyone’s explanation.

This was then followed up a seven inning, one-run performance the next night by Kyle Kendrick, who despite pitching well as of late, has been up-and-down all year and made Yankee hitters look foolish.

However, nothing was worse than the ineptitude displayed by the offense last night as for the second time. They saw Hisanori Takahashi fool them with a repertoire of pitchers that would not remind anyone of Sandy Koufax, though effective enough once again for six scoreless innings as the Mets won the first game of Subway Series Part 2 at Yankee Stadium 4-0.

After Takahashi stymied them last month at Citi Field in his major league debut that also saw them hold the Yankees scoreless for six innings, to a man they felt the reason for their ineffectiveness was that they had never seen him before.

This has been a normal line of thought when an unknown starts against them and pitches well (of course, this is never said when they clobber an unknown), so coming into Friday night, the Yankees offense felt the story would be difference the second time around.

Instead, hitters came up to the plate looking to feast on the soft-tossing lefty and some found themselves swinging too early and some too late, amounting to weak hacks and numerous groundballs and fly balls that had very little lift to them.

There were not many good swings on the night and very few over the last three games. Of course, this could simply be a small sample size for the league’s best offense statistically. Yet, one would have to be a fool to see that this team in no way resembles the group from last season that was able to consistently score despite the occasional rough patch.

Injuries to Nick Johnson, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada have forced Joe Girardi to adjust his order. Add in the lack of production of the aforementioned Rodriguez along with Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and the back-to-earth market correction by Francisco Cervelli, and it is no wonder why the team cannot always put runs up on the board.

The shuffling has given more at bats to Ramiro Pena, a less than part-time player. Marcus Thames’s injury, a recently released Randy Winn, and Granderson’s inability to consistently hit lefties has given the likes of Kevin Russo and last night’s left fielder Chad Huffman at-bats when they truly should not be out there.

Now, a pity party will not take place for the team with the best record in the sport, but it goes to show that how different the team is without its full complement of players and how dominant the starting pitching has been this year, as they have been the catalyst to this point.

You can get away with subpar offense as long as you have the pitching the Yankees have. In October, this same dominant pitching will win in the postseason as long as they can scratch out a few runs. Right now, scoring runs has been hit or miss, at least when the opponents do not include the Indians or Orioles, the dreads of baseball.

Teixeira is not hitting much and Rodriguez is not hitting for power. Not having the two best hitters in the middle of the lineup not providing the kind of impact that their hefty paycheck reflects provide a ripple effect to the entire lineup.

While Robinson Cano is having a career year, it is hard for him to produce when there are not men on base. The two-hole in the lineup has been a problem all year, starting from when Johnson’s batting average hovered below .200. Brett Gardner felt too much pressure in that spot and immediately saw his average dip. Granderson and Nick Swisher have alternated turns in that spot, but neither has consistently stuck to provide the same cohesion that Johnny Damon did.

So as the Yankees continued to make outs against Takahashi, it became frustrating. There was almost a look of disgust and disbelief around the team feeling that should get good swings off him, but instead were making very non-threatening outs.

It was not until the sixth inning when they finally had their first real threat. They loaded the bases after two singles and a walk. With two outs, Posada ground out on a barehanded play by David Wright on the infield grass to end the inning.

In the seventh, with the score still only 1-0, they got the tying run on second base after a double by Francisco Cervelli. Pedro Feliciano, a tough lefty specialist, entered the game and got a strikeout of Granderson and successive groundouts by Gardner and Derek Jeter shut down another potential rally.

The final chance came in the ninth when the lead now 4-0 and with the help of the Mets, who brought in reliever Raul Valdes to get the final three outs instead of the previously warmed up Francisco Rodriguez, gave the Yankees hope.

Two singles and a walk with one out loaded the bases and brought the tying run to the plate. However, Jeter would strikeout swinging and Swisher would pop out to end the game.

In three games, the offense produced three on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and now zero Friday.

There is nowhere else to go from here but up.

Yankee Talk: Subway Series Edition - Tak rolls on

Takahashi shuts down Yanks again, Mets win eighth straight

BRONX – The last time the Yankees faced Hisanori Takahashi last month at Citi Field, they saw the left-hander throw six shutout innings at them.

To a man they said if they saw him a second time, the story would be different.

One month later, Takahashi was back on the mound, this time at Yankee Stadium.

Showing that it was not a fluke, he threw six more shutout innings, flummoxing the Yankees suddenly impotent offense as the Mets won their season-tying eighth straight, pitching their way to a 4-0 shutout in front of 49,220 at Yankee Stadium.

It was a tough loss to take for Javier Vazquez, who pitched great in his own regard. However, he was a victim of poor run support from an offense that has scored four runs over the last three games, making three soft-tossing pitches render the bats inept.

After getting the first two outs to begin the game, the Mets scored all the runs they would need. David Wright doubled to left and a soft single by Ike Davis scored Wright, who got his right hand just underneath the tag from Francisco Cervelli to take the early lead.

Vazquez would settle in to shut the Mets down after that, surrendering only hit over the next six innings, walking three and striking out four to continue his resurgence.

Since having ten days off after his May 1 meltdown against the White Sox, he has pitched a 2.68 ERA over seven starts. In those seven starts, he has thrown at least seven innings five times.

While Vazquez was great, Takahashi was even better. No Yankee hitter reached second base until the sixth inning when the offense finally mounted a threat for the first time in the game.

Back-to-back one out singles by Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira brought Alex Rodriguez to the plate, who then grounded to first to move the runners over. Robinson Cano would then draw a walk to load the bases, but Takahashi got Jorge Posada to groundout to Wright, who made a great barehanded play to nail him at first base to end the inning.

Takahashi (6-2) throw 103 pitchers on the night, yielding only four hits, while walking two and striking out three as he continues to be a revelation for the Mets.

Cervelli doubled to left to begin the bottom of the seventh off reliever Elmer Dessens and represented the tying run. This brought up Curtis Granderson, who pinch hit for Chad Huffman. Mets Manager Jerry Manuel countered by going to his best reliever, Pedro Feliciano, who would strike him out swinging for the first out. Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter would follow with successive groundouts to first to preserve the 1-0 margin.

Chan Ho Park would come into the game to start the eighth walking Ruben Tejada, who would go to third when Jose Reyes doubled to right. Angel Pagan would then take a 1-0pitch and lift it over the head of Rodriguez inside the left field line for a two-run double to extend the Mets lead to three.

The Mets would add what seemed to be a lowly insurance run in the ninth when Reyes’ RBI single drove in Jeff Francoeur, who had doubled off Boone Logan to begin the inning to make the score 4-0.
Closing out games in Yankee Stadium is always tough no matter whom the opponent is and thus the Yankees would make it interesting in the bottom of the ninth.

With Raul Valdes in the game to protect a four-run lead instead of Francisco Rodriguez (who sat after Reyes drove in the run in the top half of the ninth), he surrendered successive one out singles to Cervelli and Granderson.

Now a save situation, Manuel called on Rodriguez to get the final two outs. Gardner worked a lengthy, 12-pitch at-bat for a walk to load the bases and bring Jeter up as the tying run. However, Jeter would strike out swinging and Swisher would pop out to

Wright in foul territory just over third base to seal the victory.
The Yankees finished a dreadful 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base in losing their third straight.

For the Mets (39-28) they moved to within a half game of first place, and can win this year’s edition of the Subway Series with a win in one of the next two games.

Phil Hughes and Mike Pelfrey meet Saturday in a rematch of their meeting last month where Pelfrey got the better of the young Yankee right-hander.

Yankee Talk: Off The Mark

Struggles for Teixeira continue

BALTIMORE - Do not tell Mark Teixeira he is in slump.

Ok, I’ll say it.

The man is in a slump!

Teixeira, a man who keeps an even keel at all times during good and bad moments at the plate sees better times ahead, but right now the numbers and performance at the plate are inescapable.

Struggling for 10, 20, even 30 games and you look that as a slump. While Teixeira has had several games where he has gotten hits and driven in runs in bunches, the totality of his season has been awful.

For a man who led the American League in homeruns and runs batted in last season in his first year as a Yankee, this is not about his inability to perform in New York.

Rather, the question becomes simply this:

“What is wrong with Mark Teixeira?”

57 games into the campaign and the Yankee first baseman finds himself hitting a pedestrian .211.

This would be understandable if he was the sole source of power on the team and they were overly dependent on him to come through.

Lucky for him, the Yankees are so talented that they have the second best record in the league (only good for second in their own division – two games behind Tampa Bay going into play Tuesday) and this issue has been nothing more than quiet fodder.

For a player known for being incredibly streaky, Teixeira does not think there should be cause for concern, as many fans patience with him has become thin.

“I’ve been through plenty of ups and downs in my career and the back of my baseball card says it all,” said Teixeira. “I’m amazed sometimes when I look at it, because it’s not an easy game.”

However, if the offense was struggling mightily and the Yankees further in the standings, this would be a serious problem.

Saturday was the low point of his season in a 3-2 loss to the Blue Jays when he went 0-for-6 with five strikeouts, mostly on changeups down and away out of the zone. The next day in a Yankee comeback win saw him at least touch the ball despite a 0-for-4 day with two flyouts and two groundouts.

The numbers showed that Teixeira had a good May and even he deluded himself to the beat writers recently by saying that he was not that bad (he does have 35 RBI). In 29 games, he did drive in 25 runs and hit six homeruns, batting .280.

Further investigation though showed a different story. At the start of the month of May after hitting only .136 in April, he was on fire, driving in 20 runs and hitting five homeruns (including three in one game) while hitting .339 in the first fifteen games.

However, since May 17, he has gone back into his early season funk, hitting only .188 with one homerun and five RBI, striking out 16 times in 20 games, appearing lost at the plate by over-swinging and excessive guessing.

There has been the notion the Yankees should move him out of the three spot in the lineup and flip-flop him with Robinson Cano, the team’s offensive MVP so far.

Why?

Such a move would cause a domino effect scenario that the team does not need to bring to themselves.

One, it would create a (drive by) media controversy with daily updates and turning this portion of the season into an episode of “Days of our Lives”.

Second, this would be to concede that there really is problem at hand rather than allowing to sink-or-swim on his own.

Third, by swapping him for Cano, you leave Alex Rodriguez with no protection in the lineup.

Why would you do that? Teams have been far more aggressive with Rodriguez at the plate knowing that Cano lurks behind him. To be struggling hitter behind him, you give Rodriguez less good pitches to hit and put even more pressure on Teixeira to come through, as teams will intentionally force him to get the job done.

Based on his performance to this point, why the hell would the Yankees even consider that?

Just all Teixeira to play this out for the foreseeable future. If he is still hitting .200 in the month of August, then we have story. He is one good week away from taking over the team lead in RBI.

Can we be a little patient here?

Time for some Yankee Random Thoughts

For as good as the Yankees have played this season, they have been a mediocre 16-15 on the road.

There is no reason as to why this is only to say that the role players hit better at Yankee Stadium than on the road. An investigation of the numbers shows an incredible discrepancy so far.

At home, the Yankees as a team are hitting .316 and OPS of .908 compared to a pedestrian .252 and OPS of .724 on the road.

Using last year’s standards, it would be the equivalent of the Yankees having nine Alex Rodriguez’s at home and nine Melky Cabrera’s on the road.

One would figure these numbers would even out as the season progresses, at least on the road.

Don’t compare this team to the old Bronx Bombers so far. The numbers show them only eighth in the league at homeruns, 35 blasts behind the Toronto Blue Jays who have 97, 18 ahead of the second best team.

Pitching is reason both Tampa Bay and the Yankees are ahead of the baseball pack right now.

The Rays and Yankees rank one and two in the AL in pitching ERA, fewest earned runs, batting average against and WHIP.

If these two meet in the ALCS, that will be the reason.

I will not concede any games to the Baltimore Orioles.

I’m sorry, but after thinking they could challenge to win 80 games this year, they officially stink.

Usually, bad teams play out the string in August and September.

Here, the Orioles are already playing out the string, and its only June!

They have numerous talented players and should not be this bad. No one really knows what the reason is.

Sure, being in a division with the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays is like death, but that’s the way it is.

Toronto projected as a last place team before the year and they have been one of the surprise teams of the league. At least they will finish a respectable fourth in the division.

Baltimore? No.

Tracking Phil Hughes’ next five starts before the All Star Break shows starts against the Orioles, Astros, Mets, Diamondbacks and Mariners. All teams with offenses that range from average to woeful.

At 7-1, unless he has a bad start, poor offensive support or the bullpen blows it, 11 wins and possibly 12 are in his future. This would put him on track to start the All Star Game in Anaheim at Angel Stadium, a place Hughes used to ride his bicycle past when he was a child.

He probably will not win 20 games because the Yankees have a plan in the second half of the year to manipulate the off days to skip his starts when needed and keep him from that all-important “innings cap”, which would appear to be around 185.

This is why the sudden emergence of Mental Patient has been vital to the roster. His great pitching of late (five starts, four wins, 2.76 ERA) allows for not only favorable matchups during the season, but also less of an onus on Hughes to produce big during his starts.

If Vazquez can perform to his yearly numbers of over 200 innings, this allows the team monitor Hughes’ innings to the degree they want.

Surely even the organization would concede that no matter how well Vazquez pitches, they want him nowhere near a mound during the postseason considering how dominating Hughes has been. Having that arm in Game 4 of a playoff series is deadly.

Right now, he is a fifth starter performing like an elite starter at minimal cost. It is the ultimate in getting bang-for-buck value.

The most unlikely rally of the Sunday came on Sunday with the Yankees trailing 2-0 to the Blue Jays on the verge of being swept.

Vazquez had a no hitter going until Vernon Wells cranked a 0-2 pitch with two outs in the sixth to give Toronto the lead.

Starter Brandon Morrow kept the Yankees off the board for the first seven innings. However, when he hit Francisco Cervelli to begin the eighth, his afternoon was over.

Scott Downs came in and hit Brett Gardner with the first pitch to put runners on first and second.

Derek Jeter would then line a double inside the first base bag down the right field line to cut the margin to 2-1.

Nick Swisher would strikeout looking for the first out and then Manager Cito Gaston would tempt his fate like the Twins and Indians before him by walking the frozen as ice Teixeira to face Rodriguez with the bases loaded in another edition of idiocy.

Jason Frasor would come into the game and his wild pitch (obviously fearful of the slugger) went far enough to allow the speedy Gardner to score to tie the game.

Rodriguez would strike out looking, but with first base open again, Toronto elected to pitch to Robinson Cano (with Jorge Posada on deck) and he lined a single into left center, scoring two runs and giving the Yankees the lead.

It started with two hit batsmen. Ending with two hits from the offense and four runs came to the plate.

Another improbably Yankee rally.

Yankee Talk: Writing is on the wall

Posada sees future in front of him


NEW YORK – Most times, the player is the last one to know.

He still thinks he is capable to doing the same job he has been doing for years and performing at the same high level throughout his career.

Unfortunately, father time reaches everyone and no one is immune no matter what you try to do to escape it.

For Jorge Posada, only know has the reality begun to reach him.

Once one of the most durable players in the league at an age where the durability of the position has a shelf life and any more is nothing more than gravy, Posada has given the Yankees far more than they ever could have.

He was an ironman for most of this career. Posada played at least 137 games every year since 2000 before playing only 51 in 2008 and 111 in 2009. This year, a hairline fracture sidelined him for three weeks, raising more questions about his decreasing durability.

While this has gone on, the Yankees have found a revelation in Francisco Cervelli, a man being called-up last season, was in Double-A and hitting .190, needed only due to the team simply needing a catcher after an injury to then backup catcher Jose Molina.

Cervelli was merely to be a stopgap and nothing more. Instead, he made the most of his chance, displaying tremendous defense and a good arm to throw out runners. He quickly became a favorite of the pitchers, and even showed an ability to handle the bat.

This year, during the times Posada was out, Cervelli has performed admirably. No longer a hole in the lineup, he was actually a threat. In early May in Boston he drove in a career high five RBI, and at one point was 11-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

Seeing Cervelli improve on his game to such a degree caused many in the base along with the (drive by) media to say that he should be the full-time catcher when Posada returned (he returned to the lineup on Wednesday). Those same people then wanted to have the veteran take the currently vacant DH role occupied by no one as Nick Johnson is out until at least August.

Posada, as prideful a person as you will meet, bristled at the thought of not being a catcher anymore. The thought of relinquishing his role as on-field captain did not sit well with him, and that in part spurred his quick return to the team after doctors told him the hairline fracture in his foot was going to keep him out for nearly a month.

It takes no genius to tell he can see the future and it does not include him. Posada’s four-year contract expires after the 2010 season. Cervelli is 24 and behind him are two more premium catchers in Jesus Montero and Austin Romine in the minor leagues poised to make an impact with the big club either in 2011 or 2012.

Catchers usually decline in their mid-30’s, but the Yankee catcher (much like Mariano Rivera has done as a closer) has beaten father time. However, the bill eventually is due.

“I understand what’s going on,” said Posada after last Wednesday’s game. “We’ll see what happens. There’s going to be a time when I’m not an everyday catcher. It’s been tough (physically) the last couple of years.

Therein lays the problem. When healthy, there is no better switch-hitting catcher in baseball. Few players at his position provide the production and lethal offense that he does. Now it is on the Yankees to find a way to get maximum value out of him while keeping him healthy and playing mostly every day.

“Catching is the best (position) in the world. You’re involved in every aspect of the game. It’s a challenge. You work with different pitchers. You’re going to see me behind the plate soon. I still have my glove, my gear. I’m not at that age yet.”

The Yankees best lineup is one that has Posada in it and behind the plate at catcher during the postseason. As well as Cervelli has played, there is no getting around the fact the team is less off if his bat is in there as opposed to Nick Johnson (assuming he returns), especially against high quality pitching.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, if they want me to DH or be behind the plate,” Posada would later say. “I’m in the lineup. That’s all that matters.

At age 38, Posada is still a threat with the bat, but consistently being able to remain in the lineup has been an issue for the long-time backstop.

Even he knows now time is running out.