River Avenue Blues

Teixeira works out for first time since re-aggravating calf strain

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Mark Teixeira worked out today for the first time since re-aggravating his left calf strain two weeks ago, taking ground balls and hitting in the cage. He also did some light jogging. “Everything felt fine,” he said afterwards. “I obviously wasn’t pushing it really out there. But it was a good workout.”

The hope is that Teixeira will be able to rejoin the team when they head to Toronto next week, but that’s hardly a lock. He hinted today that returning in time for a potential postseason series is not a guarantee since he still feels soreness and tightness in the calf, and that would be very bad. I hope that’s not the case. Tex is heading to Instructional League on Monday to continue to work out and play in some game situations.

Game 151: Hoping for a blowout

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(Mike Stobe/Getty)

The Yankees play nothing but close games these days, it’s been nail-biter after nail-biter for roughly two months now. They need a big blowout win in the worst way, just to rest the core relievers and maybe get some of the older everyday guys off their feet for a few innings. Plus, you know, I would like to not sit on the edge of my seat for nine (or more) innings for once. I could use a laugher win. Here’s the lineup…

SS Derek Jeter
CF Ichiro Suzuki
DH Alex Rodriguez
2B Robinson Cano
RF Nick Swisher
1B Casey McGehee
3B Jayson Nix
LF Andruw Jones
C  Chris Stewart

RHP Ivan Nova

This afternoon’s game is scheduled to start at 1:05pm ET and can be seen on YES. Enjoy.

Girardi on Gardner coming off DL: “It’s going to happen”

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Via Mark Hale, manager Joe Girardi said that the Yankees are planning to activate Brett Gardner off the DL before the end of the season, they’re just not sure when exactly. “It’s going to happen,” said the skipper. “I just can’t tell you exactly what day … We’re just not quite ready to make the move yet.

Gardner, 29, started a light hitting program earlier this week and has been running the bases/taking fly balls for a bit longer. The Yankees won’t be able to use him as anything more than a pinch-runner/defensive replacement down the stretch, which I suppose is better than nothing. The club will have to make a 40-man roster move to activate Gardner off the 60-day DL though, and frankly I have absolutely no idea who will get the boot. Could be Derek Lowe, Casey McGehee, Steve Pearce, Cory Wade, Justin Thomas … lots of candidates.

CC brilliant as Martin walks off with win over A’s

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Source: FanGraphs

Friday night’s game started out really well, then it really sucked, then it was really awesome again. That’s the anatomy of a walk-off win against a fellow contender, the Yankees’ sixth consecutive win and 11th in their last 15 games. The six wins is their second longest winning streak of the season behind the ten-gamer back in June. Let’s recap…

  • Don’t Call It A Comeback: All eyes were on CC Sabathia on Friday, as the Yankees needed their ace to start pitching like, well, an ace. He shook off his recent stretch of poor starts and delivered that much-needed ace-like performance, striking out 11 in eight shutout innings. Sabathia took a no-hitter into the sixth, allowed just three singles, and didn’t put a runner in scoring position until there were two outs in the eighth. His fastball averaged 92.8 mph according to PitchFX, and hitters swung and missed seven times times at his 33 sliders (15 whiffs overall). He looked like the CC of old, which is exactly what the Yankees needed. Just a marvelous performance.
  • One Run: Jarrod Parker nearly matched Sabathia zero for zero, but the Yankees were able to manufacture a run in the fourth. Nick Swisher singled to open the frame and then moved to third with one out on Alex Rodriguez’s single, eventually coming in to score on Curtis Granderson’s sacrifice fly. It was a really great at-bat by Granderson, who saw eight pitches before lofting a two-strike changeup to left. That was the only run the Bombers scored in regulation, and it looked like it would hold up until…
  • Blown Save: I can’t really get on Rafael Soriano for blowing a one-run lead, as much as it sucked. He’s been fantastic since taking over for the injured Mariano Rivera, but he hung a slider — actually several, but he got away the others — to pinch-hitter Brandon Moss who clobbered it to right for a no-doubt solo homer to knot things up at one. It was only his fourth blown save overall and first since allowing the three-run dinger to Colby Rasmus a few weeks ago. Just shake it off, they’ll need him again soon enough.
  • Walk-Off: The Yankees have three walk-off wins this season, one on a passed ball and two on Russell Martin leadoff homers. The first came against the Mets during interleague play, the second against the Athletics on Friday. There really wasn’t anything noteworthy about this blast other than the timing — it was a generic 92 mph fastball that caught too much of the plate in an 0-1 count. It wasn’t a Yankee Stadium cheapie either, it landed several rows back in left. Gone as soon as it left the bat, just the way I like it.
  • Leftovers: Evidently the plan against Parker was to jump on his fastball early to avoid his out-pitch changeup as four of the first six and five of the first eight batters he faced swung at the first pitch … Ichiro (2-for-3 with a steal) is so hot these days that he singled directly into Parker’s jersey. Here’s a gif if you haven’t seen it … A-Rod (two singles) was the only other Yankee with multiple hits, though Derek Jeter did extend hit hitting streak to 15 games … for the second time in four games, the Yankees didn’t draw a single walk. In both of the other two games, they drew eight walks … David Robertson vultured the win with a perfect tenth inning.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, ESPN the updated standings. The Orioles beat the lowly Red Sox and the Rays pounded the Blue Jays, so they remain one and seven games back in the division race, respectively. The magic number to clinch the division is 12 while the magic number to clinch a playoff berth is just seven. Ivan Nova will make his second start back from the DL on Saturday afternoon against the left-hander Travis Blackley. Check out RAB Tickets for some last-minute tickets to the matinee.

Game 150: Payback

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(Al Bello/Getty)

The Yankees and Athletics have played two series this season, a pair of sweeps that bookend New York’s great midsummer stretch. The Yanks won three straight in Oakland in late-May, won 31 of their next 44 games, then lost four straight in Oakland in late-July. Now the season series comes to the Bronx for the first time, and everyone is looking for some revenge after that four-game sweep.

That said, these games are probably a little more meaningful that you realize. Obviously the Yankees need to win as many games as possible to maintain their AL East lead, but should they fall back and have to settle for a wildcard spot, they could easily end up playing the Athletics in the play-in game. Since the A’s currently lead the season series 4-3, that play-in game would be played in their ballpark. If the Yankees win this series and the two clubs finish with the same overall record, the game would be played in the Bronx because they (currently) hold the tiebreaker. The Athletics are a much different team at home than on the road, so yeah, keep winning. Here’s the starting nine…

DH Derek Jeter
RF Nick Swisher
2B Robinson Cano
3B Alex Rodriguez
CF Curtis Granderson
C  Russell Martin
1B Eric Chavez
LF Ichiro Suzuki
SS Eduardo Nunez

LHP CC Sabathia

Tonight’s game is scheduled to start a little after 7pm ET and can be seen on My9 locally and MLB Network nationally. Enjoy.

Derek Jeter talks changing teams, ownership

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(Jim McIsaac/Getty)

This has been a great season for Derek Jeter, as the Yankees captain has rebounded from two down years to hit .323/.367/.443 with 15 homers through the team’s first 149 games. At some point next week he’ll pass Pete Rose for the most hits by a 38-year-old player in baseball history, and after the season he’ll surely get more than a handful of MVP votes. Coming into the season, I don’t think we could have reasonably expected more out of him.

Jeter recently sat down with Rick Reilly for a short interview, some gimmicky thing where the Cap’n was allowed to pass on questions he didn’t want to answer. Most of the interview is typical worthless Reilly nonsense — Jeff Kent is on “Survivor” right now. How would you do on “Survivor”? — but two (questions and) answers stuck out to me. Here’s the first…

Me: Peyton Manning changed teams this season after 14 seasons with one team. Could you see yourself doing that?
Jeter: Well, if I wanted to keep playing, yes. It’s a business. People forget that.

Jeter has made it no secret that he loves being a Yankee and that he grew up dreaming about playing shortstop for the Yankees, but I think it’s pretty clear he’s still miffed about how the negotiations for his current contract went down two years ago. The club took a much harder line than he probably expected, and Jeter seemed a little annoyed by it both then and now.

Now does that mean he’ll actually look to play elsewhere once his current deal is up in two years? I find that to be very unlikely, but you never know. The Cap’n can famously hold a grudge, and if he still thinks he has gas in tank down the road while the Yankees disagree, he could take on the challenge of trying to succeed elsewhere. We’re a long ways off from worrying about his next contract, but this is probably something worth keeping in mind if and when the time comes. Here’s the second thing that caught my eye…

Me: Secret dream job?
Jeter: Own a team.

Me: Which team?
Jeter: A good team.

Again, it’s not much of a secret that Jeter would like to own a team after his playing days are over, but I believe this is the first time he’s actually confirmed it. Previous reports were always citing “friends” and “people close to,” stuff like that. Never actually Derek though. I can totally see him buying into the Yankees once his playing career is over, taking on a role as more of a public face than a key decision maker. Like Magic Johnson and the Dodgers, he’s someone for the fanbase to identify with. I’ve always kinda felt that Jeter becoming part-owner of the Yankees wasn’t just a possibility, it’s inevitable.