River Avenue Blues

Astros claim Brandon Laird off waivers

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Via LoHud, the Astros have claimed Brandon Laird off waivers from the Yankees. New York designated the infielder for assignment when they re-acquired Steve Pearce from (who else?) the Astros earlier this week, so think of it as a straight one-for-one trade.

Laird, 24, hit .254/.307/.414 with 15 homers while repeating Triple-A this season. He’s a .256/.295/.409 career hitter at the level in nearly 1,200 plate appearances, and last season he had four singles and three walks in 25 big league plate appearances in New York. This is a real good opportunity for Laird, who should get a chance to claim an everyday job with a team that epitomizes rebuilding at the moment.

Update: Curtis Granderson day-to-day with “mild tendinitis” in hamstring

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4:22pm: Granderson has been “mild diagnosis” with tendinitis and there is no further damage. No strain, no tear, nothing like that. Joe Girardi said Granderson could play as soon as tomorrow, but I’m guessing he’ll get a day or two off. Especially with three games on the turf coming up, he might just DH instead. Glad it’s nothing more serious.

2:23pm: The Yankees announced that Granderson left the game with a tight right hamstring. He’ll head for an MRI later today. Either way, they can’t afford to lose another bat to injury.

1:50pm: Curtis Granderson left this afternoon’s game for an unknown reason after two innings. Replays showed him grimacing just a bit during his at-bat before talking with Joe Girardi and trainer Steve Donohue between innings. No idea what’s up, so stay tuned.

Game 132: It Ain’t Easy

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(Jeff Zelevansky/Getty)

The Yankees were thoroughly manhandled in their own stadium by the Orioles last night, who managed to climb to within two games of the top spot in the AL East. Baltimore simply did everything better and frankly the game didn’t feel as close as the 6-1 final score indicates. The Bombers juggled their rotation to avoid having Freddy Garcia start this afternoon, so now the stop-the-bleeding onus falls on David Phelps. He can’t do it alone though, the offense has to do a better job than it’s been doing since the start of the road trip in Chicago. Here’s the starting nine…

SS Derek Jeter
1B Nick Swisher
2B Robinson Cano
RF Andruw Jones
CF Curtis Granderson
C  Russell Martin
3B Jayson Nix
DH Eduardo Nunez
LF Ichiro Suzuki

RHP David Phelps

This afternoon’s game is scheduled to start a little after 1pm ET and can be seen on YES. Enjoy.

Yankees designate Ramiro Pena for assignment, call up six

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Via Peter Botte, the Yankees have designated Ramiro Pena for assignment to clear room on the 40-man roster for Chris Dickerson. Unlike the first time he was designated, he will now need to be traded, released, or passed through waivers within ten days. Click here for an explanation of that weirdness.

Along with Dickerson, the Yankees have also officially recalled Frankie Cervelli, Eduardo Nunez, Cory Wade, Adam Warren, and Justin Thomas as rosters expand today.

Nova (shoulder) throws off flat ground

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Via George King, right-hander Ivan Nova threw long-toss yesterday for what I believe is the first time since being placed on the DL with rotator cuff inflammation a little more than a week ago. Don’t quote me on that first time stuff though. He’d been getting treatment and medication, but had to stay away from throwing for a little while.

The Yankees indicate that Nova won’t miss much more than the minimum 15 days, so this isn’t anything too serious. Then again, it is scary any time a pitcher reports some kind of shoulder pair or discomfort. Nova was getting hammered prior to being placed on the DL — 46 runs in 59 innings in his previous ten starts — and I sorta hope the injury explains why. Would be nice if he came back pitching like he did last year.

Yanks go down like wimps against Gonzalez, O’s

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Source: FanGraphs

The Orioles completely outclassed the Yankees on Friday night. Baltimore looked like the first place team as they outhit, outpitched, and outdefended the Bombers, who continued what is now a seven-week long stretch of lackluster play. Let’s recap the latest loss…

  • Coulda Done Better: Last time out, Hiroki Kuroda allowed a three-run homer in the first before settling down to run off zeroes in a complete-game loss. This time he allowed three runs in the second before settled down and allowing just one run the rest of the way. Kuroda surrendered two homers on Friday and has now allowed five in his last five starts after giving up zero dingers in his previous five outings. He didn’t pitch all that well but it wasn’t a total disaster.
  • LMAOffense: It didn’t matcher what the pitcher did because the offensive attack was abysmal. Miguel Gonzalez kept the Yankees off-balance with his changeup, a pitch they couldn’t hit if you told them it was coming. He struck out nine, walked one, and allowed zero runs on four singles. I think Felix Hernandez snuck into the stadium and wore Gonzalez’s jersey. The Yankees did have men on first and second with no outs in the sixth, but the next three hitters — Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher, and Robinson Cano — didn’t bother to hit the ball out of the infield and made outs. Curtis Granderson’s garbage time homer with one out in the ninth is the only reason the Yankees weren’t shutout.
  • Leftovers: I don’t quite know why Kuroda was taken out with one out in the ninth and 99 pitches, but Derek Lowe came in to put the game out of reach (two runs on four hits). He’s allowed 14 hits in 5.1 innings since the four-out save … Swisher took a big fat 0-for-4 with four strikeouts … Russell Martin went 1-for-3 but he would have had two hits if not for Mark Reynolds’ diving grab in the third. That was a great play … the Yankees didn’t see their first three-ball count until the sixth inning … I don’t get the pitching changes in the ninth then not pinch-hitting for Eric Chavez and Raul Ibanez against the left-handed Brian Matusz in the ninth.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, ESPN the updated standings. The loss brings the Orioles to within two games of the Yankees, the smallest the division lead has been since June 22nd, a whopping 62 games ago. At least the Rays lost, so they remain four back. Rosters expand on Saturday and David Phelps figures to have a handful of new teammates when he tries to get the Yankees back into the win column against Wei-Yin Chen.

Minor League Update
I don’t have it in me to do a full write-up tonight, but I will link you to the box scores: Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A, Short Season. LF Ronnier Mustelier (four hits), CF Melky Mesa (two homers), and C Gary Sanchez (homer) highlighted the night. Here’s an update on the rehabbing big leaguers.

Rehab Updates: A-Rod, Aardsma, Feliciano

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Got some updates to pass along on a trio of rehabbing big leaguers…

  • Alex Rodriguez (hand) went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a walk with High-A Tampa, his first minor league rehab game. He batted leadoff and served as the DH, grounding out to short the only time he put the ball in play. Depending on how his hand feels after this, A-Rod could play the field in tomorrow’s game.
  • David Aardsma (elbow, hip) threw a scoreless inning in the same game. He walked one batter, uncorked a wild pitch, and got three fly ball outs. No word on his pitch count or anything. This was his first game action since suffering a setback in late-June. Based on his previous rehab attempt, he’ll take two or three days off before doing it again. The minor league regular season ends early next week, however.
  • Pedro Feliciano (shoulder) allowed one run in an inning of work for Short Season Staten Island. He allowed a solo homer to a right-handed batter and otherwise recorded three outs in three different ways — strikeout, fly out, ground out. Feliciano threw just 13 pitches. No word on when he’ll be activated, but I have to think it’ll be sooner rather than later.