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They say, in baseball, momentum is only as good the next day’s starting pitcher. The Yankees sure hope that’s true, as they have their ace, Chien-Ming Wang, on the hill tonight against lefty Oliver Perez, who has done his best to mimic Andy Pettitte’s season by posting a 2.49 ERA in his first four starts and a 6.98 ERA in his last four.

The Yankees seemed to have the momentum early in yesterday’s game. Andy Pettitte got his first six outs on five Ks and a pickoff, stranding a David Wright infield single in the process, then had a 1-2-3 third inning. Johnny Damon led of the bottom of the first against Johan Santana with a walk and came around to score on a towering home run down the left field line by Derek Jeter. With the Yanks up 2-0, Damon led off the bottom of the third with a single which was followed by a Bobby Abreu double into the gap in right field.

Yankee third-base coach Bobby Meacham waved Damon home on Abreu’s hit. With no outs and the heart of the order due up, starting with Jeter who had already homered, it was a questionable send at best and one that betrayed the Yankees’ desperate need for runs. Still, it took a perfect play to nail Damon at the plate. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. Ryan Church cut the ball off before it reached the warning track, spun, and fired to Luis Castillo, who relayed home to Brian Schneider. As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Schneider, in one motion, caught Castillo’s throw on a hop in front of the plate, turned, stuck out his left leg, and kicked Johnny Damon’s foot away just as Damon was sliding into the plate. An overhead replay showed that Schneider’s foot guided Damon’s around the tip of the plate. Damon never touched home, and Schneider applied the tag to the back of Damon’s leg as he slid by.

With that one play, the entire game changed. Abreu was stranded at second, and the Mets took the lead in the top of the fourth by scoring three runs against Pettitte on a series of dinks, dunks, and walks. It was only 3-2 Mets at that point, but the momentum had swung, and it never swung back. Pettitte gutted out six innings, throwing 116 pitches and coming away with a quality start and seven strikeouts, but Kyle Farnsworth came on in seventh to face the top of the Met order and gave up a home run to Jose Reyes, walked Church, and then gave up two-run jack to David Wright to make it 6-2 Mets. Farnsworth’s home run rate now stands at an eye-popping 2.7 HR/9.

Jason Giambi answered that outburst by leading off the bottom of the inning with a solo homer off Santana and Abreu added another solo shot off the Mets’ ace (whose 1.65 HR/9 this inning is ugly in and of itself) in the eighth, but Joba Chamberlain gave one of those runs back in the ninth following a Carlos Beltran triple, and the game ended with the Mets leading 7-4.

So, yeah, let’s hope momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher. Let’s also hope that the 8:00 start time for tonight’s ESPN game will allow the predicted showers to blow through before game time.

I’ll get to the Mets in a moment, but first, since I’ve been out of commission this week due to a business trip, here are some thoughts on what ails the Yankees . . .

First thing’s first, it’s not the bullpen, which has held opponents to a .233/.308/.343 line and posted a 3.30 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 7.67 K/9, and 2.28 K/BB, all despite being called on for the second-highest total of relief innings in the majors.

Second, the problems in the starting rotation are both obvious and in the process of being solved. Chien-Ming Wang has eight quality starts in nine tries, a 2.90 ERA, has spiked his K/9 to 5.80 (up from his career mark of 3.83 entering the season), and is averaging nearly 6 2/3 innings per start. Mike Mussina is 5-0 with a 2.76 ERA and just three walks in his last five starts. Darrell Rasner has two wins and two quality starts since being promoted from Scranton. Andy Pettitte was 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA over his first four starts, but is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA over his last four. Chances are Pettitte and Mussina will meet in the middle somewhere, leaving Ian Kennedy, who aced his reboot start in triple-A and threw strikes in his return last night only to have those strikes hit hard, as the big question mark in the quintet.

As for the offense. Riddle me this, Batman: as of yesterday morning, the Yankees were fourth in the AL in adjusted OPS, and third in the AL in slugging, but a dismal tenth in runs scored per game. What gives?

Here’s my answer: too many outs. It’s the oldest trick in the sabermetric book; the most precious commodity in the game is each team’s allotment of 27 outs. Avoid making outs and you will score runs by default. In each of the last two seasons, the Yankees were first in the majors in on-base percentage (which is really just the inverse of a team’s rate of making outs) and first in runs scored per game. This year, the Yankees are ninth in the AL in OBP and tenth in the league in runs scored per game.

Yes, it’s that simple.

On-base percentages are dependent upon walks. While it’s true that walks rarely drive in runs, they put runners on base and keep innings alive, preventing those runners from being stranded. The Yankees were third in the AL in walks in each of the last two seasons. This year, they’re tenth in the league in free passes.

Tenth in walks. Ninth in OBP. Tenth in runs per game.

So don’t blame Jason Giambi and his .188 average. Giambi leads the team with 23 walks, which get him up to a solid .351 OBP. Don’t blame Hideki Matsui (not that you would seeing as he’s by far been the team’s best hitter this season). He leads the Yankees with a .399 OBP. Don’t blame Johnny Damon, who is second to Giambi with 19 walks and has a .348 OBP which is right around his career average.

Do blame the injuries to Jorge Posada (career .380 OBP) and Alex Rodriguez (career .388 OBP). Jose Molina has just two walks in 25 games and has been an automatic out since coming back from his hamstring injury (45 outs in 47 plate appearances, counting double plays). Morgan Ensberg, has made 45 outs in his last 58 PAs dating back to Rodriguez’s first game at DH.

Robinson Cano was another guilty party, but has gone .394/.412/.636 over his last nine games. Unfortunately, his buddy Melky Cabrera, who entered May with a .370 OBP, has taken Cano’s place by making 30 outs in 36 PA over those nine games. Together they add up to one valuable hitter and third automatic out in the lineup.

Oh, and there’s one other guy you can blame: Derek Jeter. Of the seven Yankees with 100 or more at-bats, Jeter is dead last in walks with just two-thirds of Cano’s second-worst total. Jeter’s .297 average is the second best mark on the team, but his .331 OBP is fifth among Yankee starters and 57 points below his career mark, which he matched or surpassed in each of the last three seasons. The good news there is that four of those six walks have come in the last 12 games. Still, even over that span Jeter’s PA/BB rate has been below his career mark.

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Don’t look now, but the Tampa Bay Rays have third-best record in American League. Given that, the Yankees look pretty good rolling into town with a 4-2 record against the Rays and a 2-0 record at the Trop this season, but then it’s been nearly a month since these two teams last met. The Rays were 6-8 when the Yankees last left town, but are 15-7 since then, 13-5 over their last six series, and are coming off a sweep of the Angels.

Just as they planned it, the Rays have been winning on the strength of their pitching and defense, particularly since getting Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza, neither of whom has faced the Yankees yet this year but both of whom will start in this series with the latter taking the hill tonight, back from the disabled list. Last by a lot in preventing runs last year, the Rays are now are the fifth stingiest team in the league and are second only to the surprising A’s in least runs allowed per game at home, yielding just with 3.47 R/G at the Trop.

Garza has a 3.06 ERA in three starts since coming off the DL, but with a reverse K/BB of 0.75. He’ll face Andy Pettitte, who is working on an extra day of rest due to yesterday’s rainout.

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The Yankees’ series finale in Detroit was one of three games rained out on Mother’s Day yesterday. The game will be made up either July 24 or September 1. The former date would result in the Yankees playing 27 consecutive games coming out of the All-Star break.

The rainout gives the Yankees the option of bringing Ian Kennedy back to reclaim the fifth starters spot from Kei Igawa when it next comes due. Igawa was set to start on Wednesday, with Darrell Rasner pitching Thursday, but the rainout allows the Yankees to start Rasner on either Thursday or Friday with Igawa or a replacement starting the other day. Kennedy, who is eligible to be recalled on Thursday, was scheduled to start for Scranton Wilkes-Barre yesterday, but his game was also rained out. He’ll start today, but if the Yankees pull him from the game early, could start on short rest against the Mets on Friday. It seems more likely to me that the Yankees will either start Igawa or a replacement on Thursday and let Rasner face the Mets on Friday.

The most likely Igawa alternate would be Steven White, who is on the 40-man roster and pitching well for Scranton (2.68 ERA, 1.21 WHIP), but White’s extreme fly-ball rate and 4.02 BB/9 suggest he might just be a right-handed Igawa. It would be fun to see converted reliever Dan Giese get the call, but the Yankees would have to create room on the 40-man for him (possibly by calling up Francisco Cervelli and putting him on the 60-day DL, or better yet, by designating Chris Stewart for assignment). Me, I’d DFA Stewart and give the veteran Giese (1.05 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 3.5 K/BB in six starts) a shot on Thursday with Rasner starting Friday.

What would you do?

Kei Igawa was predictably awful last night, though in an unpredictable way. After I called him a Three True Outcome pitcher in my preview, Igawa didn’t walk anyone, give up any home runs, or strike anyone out. He also didn’t make it out of the fourth inning. Taking a closer look, the Tigers were too busy getting hits to draw any walks (Igawa faced 20 men, 11 of them got hits), spacious Comerica Field helped reduce some would-be homers to doubles or long outs, and only two of Igawa’s 64 pitches were swung at and missed.

With his team down 6-1, two men on, and none out in the fourth, Joe Girardi brought in Jonathan Albaladejo in relief of Igawa. Albaladejo squirmed out of the inning, thanks in part to Ivan Rodriguez oversliding third base after tagging up on a fly out to right, and pitched around a single in the fifth, but after striking out Marcus Thames to start the sixth, he gave up a single and a walk. Albaladejo’s next two pitches were balls, and after the second, he was removed from the game due to elbow pain. The Yankees later described the pain as “discomfort in the medial right elbow.” Albaladejo told Pete Abe it felt like there was a needle going through his elbow followed by a burning sensation. I’m no doctor, but that doesn’t sound good.

So, Albaladejo has hit the DL and will get an MRI in New York tomorrow. To fill his spot, Chris Britton, who had just been sent down to make room for Igawa, has been recalled less than 24 hours after being optioned for the second time this season.

Back to the game, the Yankees’ only run off Kenny Rogers came on a Jason Giambi solo shot in the third. With Rogers out of the game, Robinson Cano led off the seventh with a double and was plated by a wild pitch and a Chad Moeller single. LaTroy Hawkins got five outs on 12 pitches in relief of Albaladejo, and Edwar Ramirez pitched a perfect eighth, sending the game to the ninth inning with the Tigers up 6-2.

Facing Detroit closer Todd Jones, Wilson Betemit, who had a rough day in the field at third base and also became Kenny Rogers record-setting 92nd career pick off after a single in the second, led off with a double, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Robinson Cano groundout to make it 6-3. Johnny Damon then pinch-hit for Moeller, reached on an infield single, moved to second on another wild pitch, to third on a Melky Cabrera groundout, and was plated by a Derek Jeter single to make it 6-4. Jeter took second on defensive indifference and was immediately driven home by a Bobby Abreu double that made it 6-5. Jim Leyland then elected to walk Hideki Matsui, thus ending Godzilla’s hitting streak, to have the right-handed Jones face the right-handed Shelley Duncan. Duncan took ball one, then got good wood on a ball low and away and lifted it to deep left center. Unfortunately, he got a little too much air under the ball and hit it a bit too much toward center where defensive replacement Curtis Granderson easily reeled it in for the final out, leaving the Yankees 180 feet short of extending the game. Final score: 6-5 Tigers.

When the Tigers completed their sweep of the Yankees in the Bronx last week, it completed a 12-5 stretch that made Detroit’s 2-10 start seem like nothing but an injury-plagued fluke. Since then, the Tigers have gone 1-6 against the Twins and Red Sox, throwing things into doubt once again. Since leaving New York, the Tigers have scored just 3.14 runs per game, with 10 of the 22 runs they’ve scored over that stretch coming in their lone win on Wednesday. In the other six games, they’ve averaged just two runs per game.

Much like the Indians, who reacted to an offense not living up to expectations by punting a veteran platoon outfielder in favor of a rookie and dropping their aging DH to sixth in the order, the Tigers have responded to their own offense’s underperformance by releasing Jacque Jones, calling up 23-year-old lefty-hitting rookie outfielder Matthew Joyce (.299/.367/.536 with five homers at triple-A Toledo before his promotion), and dropping Gary Sheffield (.202/.366/.315 thus far) to sixth in the order (though, curiously, they’ve also made Sheffield their left fielder).

It won’t do them any good. Even if the Tigers got their offense up to last year’s level, it wouldn’t be enough to out-slug the performance of their pitching staff, which is allowing 5.53 runs per game, the second highest mark in the majors. Taking the season as a whole, the Tigers have actually had the third-best offense in the AL, but they’ve still been outscored by 27 runs.

Of course, in three games last week, the Tigers outscored the Yankees 20-10. The Yanks will face the same three Tiger starters this weekend in Detroit that they faced last year in the Bronx. What’s different is who the Tigers will face, starting with Kei Igawa tonight and Darrell Rasner tomorrow.

Assuming Ian Kennedy’s second triple-A start goes even half as well as his first, Kennedy will likely return to reclaim one of those two rotation spots when his subsequent turn comes due. That means Igawa and Rasner are competing to be the man who occupies Phil Hughes’ spot in the rotation until Hughes is able to return from his fractured rib. Rasner already has the lead in that race as he was sharp in his season debut against the Mariners last Sunday.

In parts of four seasons now, Rasner has never posted a major league ERA worse than league average and has a solid 4.01 mark (110 ERA+) in 58 1/3 career innings along with a respectable 1.23 WHIP and 2:1 K/BB ratio.

Igawa’s another story entirely. In 67 2/3 innings last year, Igawa posted a 6.25 ERA (72 ERA+), 1.67 WHIP, and a limp 1.43 K/BB while allowing a Farnsworthy two homers per nine innings. Worse yet, there were no encouraging streaks during his season. Igawa posted a 7.63 ERA in six outings (five starts plus his six innings of relief following Jeff Karstens’ broken leg) before being demoted in early May. After working with organizational pitching guru Nardi Contreras, Igawa returned to the major league rotation in late June and put up a 5.97 ERA over six more starts. After being banished to the minors a second time he reappeared at the end of September to pitch 5 1/3 scoreless innings, but walked five against just two strikeouts along the way.

Here are Igawa’s triple-A rates from amid those ugly major league stints along with his triple-A line thus far this year:

2007: 3.69 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 9.35 K/9, 1.98 BB/9, 4.73 K/BB, 1.32 HR/9
2008: 3.86 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 9.08 K/9, 2.72 BB/9, 3.33 K/BB, 0.68 HR/9

Igawa’s triple-A homers are down, but his walks are up. Otherwise, there’s very little meaningful change between those two lines, and thus, it would seem, very little reason to expect Igawa’s major league performance to differ from what he did last year. To lower expectations even further, Igawa gave up eight runs and walked six in his last 12 innings for Scranton. Igawa is a Three True Outcome pitcher in that he clutters his pitching line with walks, homers, and strikeouts. The heavily right-handed Tigers, whom the left-handed Igawa did not face last year, tend to do those things a lot as well.

Come back Ian Kennedy, all is forgiven!

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The Yankees hit four home runs this afternoon to overcome a rocky fifth inning from Mike Mussina and avoid being swept by the Indians in the finale of what proved to be a disappointing 4-5 homestand. Mussina allowed just one baserunner through the first four innings, but handed a 3-0 lead in the fifth thanks to home runs by Johnny Damon (a 330-foot pop fly to right field) and Jason Giambi (a two-run shot that sailed over the right field foul pole) in the bottom of the fourth, Moose gave it all back.

That inning started ominously when Mussina hit Ben Francisco in the back with a 2-2 pitch. Franklin Gutierrez followed with a single that dropped in front of Bobby Abreu and pushed Francisco to third. After a Ryan Garko pop out, Casey Blake hit a shot to deep right that Bobby Abreu was unable to catch up to at the wall (prompting Pete Abraham to ask, “Does Bobby Abreu wear one of those invisible collars that shocks him when he gets too close the wall?”). The ball hit the warning track, then the wall, and popped up in the air as Abreu spun around looking for it and Francisco trotted home. Finding the ball to his right, Abreu fired in to relay man Robinson Cano, who threw home to try to get Gutierrez attempting to score from first, but Cano’s throw, which was in plenty of time, was low and skipped past Jose Molina allowing Gutierrez to score and Blake, who now has 22 RBIs on just 21 hits, to move to third. A subsequent single by Kelly Shoppach scored Blake, knotting the game at 3-3.

Cano instantly made up for his bad throw by leading off the bottom of the inning with a double. Wilson Betemit followed with a hard drive into the gap in left. Francisco tracked it down for the first out, but with his momentum heading back and toward center, Cano was able to tag and move to third with ease. With the go-ahead run on third and one out, Jose Molina hit a grounder to short that allowed Jhonny Peralta to freeze Cano in his tracks, but Johnny Damon picked Molina up with an RBI double that gave the Yankees a lead they would not relinquish.

In the seventh, Cano drove Indians’ starter Paul Byrd from the game with a solo homer and Wilson Betemit greeted reliever Masa Kobayashi with a bomb over the 408 sign in dead center. Meanwhile, Ross Ohlendorf pitched two shutout innings allowing only a single. It was just the third time all year, Ohlendorf, who has been primarly used as a long reliever, pitched in a game the Yankees eventually won, and just the first time all year he pitched in a game the Yankees won by less than six runs. That was important, because the Yankees hope to eventually move Ohlendorf into a setup role.

Ohlendorf was followed by Joba Chamberlain, who faced two of the three batters he faced in his blown save on Tuesday night, Grady Sizemore, who walked to start Tuesday’s rally, and David Dellucci, who homered to finish it. Rather than throwing lots of curve balls and getting beat on a fastball, as he did on Tuesday, Chamberlain threw lots of fastballs and struck out Dellucci on a slider to end a 1-2-3 frame. Mariano Rivera pitched around a double to pick up his ninth save and nail down the 6-3 Yankee win.

The Yankees now travel to Detroit to start a seven-game road trip against the Tigers and Rays before coming back home to face the Mets. Kei Igawa will make his 2008 Yankee debut tomorrow, but try not to think about that until you have to.

More encouragingly, Alex Rodriguez was taking grounders at third and cuts in the cage before today’s game, and hitting some genuine blasts in batting practice. The Yankees say Rodriguez will get another MRI before being cleared for some rehab games, and all that (the MRI and the rehab games) will have to happen before he comes off the DL. Still, barring any setbacks, Rodriguez should be activated next week.

In just the fourth matchup in American League history of undefeated pitchers with at least five wins each, 6-0 Chien-Ming Wang scattered three runs over seven innings and yielded to scoreless relief work by Kyle Farnsworth and Jonathan Albaladejo.

It didn’t matter. Cliff Lee, who entered the game with a 5-0 record, a 0.96 ERA, an absurd 0.56 WHIP, and an irridiculous 16:1 K/BB ratio, improved all of those marks, save the WHIP, in seven absolutely dominant shutout innings. Throwing mostly fastballs, Lee pounded the corners, throwing 74 percent strikes but hardly any of them off the black. Though his fastball clocked in around 90 to 91 miles per hour, it exploded through the zone, giving it the illusion of being in the mid-90s. Adding to that illusion was the speed with which Lee worked. Riding an obvious high of adrenaline and confidence, Lee seemed to be back in his windup before the hitter even had time to contemplate how Lee and his catcher, Kelly Shoppach, were working him. After the third out of each inning, Lee sprinted back to the dugout, almost as if he wanted the bottom half of each inning to get over with so that he could get back out there and pitch. When the top half of the next inning arrived, Lee would sprint back out to the mound.

The only baserunner Lee allowed through the first four innings came on a bloop single to shallow left by Hideki Matsui. Matsui took a defensive swing on a rare curveball from Lee and was so surprised that he didn’t foul it off that he almost didn’t run to first base. Down 3-0, the Yankees threatened in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, but came up empty each time. In the fifth, Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano singled with one out, but Lee struck out Morgan Ensberg and got Jose Molina to fly out to strand them. With two outs in the sixth, Bobby Abreu reached on an infield single to first baseman Casey Blake that should have been ruled an error as Blake’s flip to Lee covering the bag arched too high and allowed Abreu to reach. Shelley Duncan followed with a double to push Abreu to third, but Lee got ahead of Matsui 1-2 and struck him out with a nasty curve ball that looked like it actually curved behind Matsui before dropping into the zone. The Yankees got another two-out infield single in the seventh when Morgan Ensberg drilled a pitch into the ground in front of home and beat it out, but Lee struck out Molina on four pitches to end his night. Rafael Perez pitched around a two-out Abreu double in the eighth, and Rafael Betancourt worked a 1-2-3 ninth to nail down Lee’s sixth win of the year.

Lee is now 6-0 with a 0.81 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, and 19.5 K/BB. He’s averaging more than 7 1/3 innings per start and has not allowed a run in any of his four road starts this year. After his first four starts, Baseball Prospectus’s Rany Jazayerli wrote that Lee had turned in quite possibly the most dominant series of starts ever. The Yankees got a close up look at Lee’s dominance last night, and it’s for real. The only question is how long he can keep it up.

Since the Yankees and Indians split a four-game series in Cleveland a week ago, the Yankees split a pair of three-game sweeps and the Tribe went 2-3. All five wins, by both teams, came against the hapless Mariners, who are now nursing a five-game losing streak. The rain erased a sixth Cleveland contest, conveniently pushing C.C. Sabathia out of this week’s three-game set in the Bronx by pushing his last start up a day.

Still, things won’t be easy for the Yankees this week. Lefty Cliff Lee, who starts tomorrow, is off to a literally unbelievable start, going 5-0 with a 0.96 ERA and a 0.56 WHIP. Tonight, the Yanks will have to face Fausto Carmona. Carmona’s an interesting case. He’s 3-1 with a 2.60 ERA, but an alarming 1.73 WHIP and a backwards 1:2 K/BB ratio. Carmona’s allowed less than a hit per inning, has given up just one home run in six starts, and he’s still getting his groundballs, so it seems his only real problem is those darn walks. Since he’s been able to win while wild, odds are he’ll settle down and return to his overall dominance before too long. The Yankees certainly hope that doesn’t start tonight. The Yankees found Carmona unhittable in the ALDS last year, but won both of his starts against them in the regular season.

On the other side of the ball, the Indians have responded to their inconsistent and generally underperforming offense by rejiggering their lineup in the last week, dropping Travis Hafner and his Perdue pop-up timer to sixth and moving right fielder Franklin Gutierrez up to second on the heels of a hot start to last week. That puts David Dellucci, still the team’s hottest hitter, in the third spot and pushes the slumping Ryan Garko down to seventh. Finally, today they designated Dellucci’s platoon partner Jason Michaels for assignment in favor of 26-year-old rookie right-handed outfielder Ben Francisco despite the fact that Francisco is hitting a mere .228/.308/.315 with triple-A Buffalo. I guess folks are desperate all over.

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Who knows if I’ll ever do another of these, but for now, here’s a stab at a new Banter feature: the monthly Farm Report. All stats are as of the morning of May 5. We’ll take it team by team:

Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre

Major league fans have already seen most of Scranton’s top April hurlers, including Darrell Rasner (0.87 ERA in five starts), Edwar Ramirez (13 Ks and zero runs in 9 IP), Jose Veras (1.38 ERA, 18 K in 13 IP, 9 SV), Jonathan Albaladejo (1.29 ERA), and Chris Britton (2.45 ERA).

Sean Henn was dominating in his rehab assignment (1.35 ERA, 0.90 WHIP), but was designated for assignment to clear room on the 40-man roster for Chad Moeller’s return. Since being demoted, Billy Traber, the man who beat Henn out for the Opening Day LOOGY job, has struck out 7 against one walk in 4 1/3 innings with a similarly stellar 0.92 WHIP despite an artificially high ERA. Third lefty Heath Phillips has been solid thus far with a 2.87 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP and 15 Ks in 15 2/3 innings.

Scott Patterson, the one Opening Day roster finalist who hasn’t seen the majors yet this year, has been underwhelming despite a still-strong strikeout rate, thus far proving the Yankees right for insisting he prove himself in triple-A before getting his first taste of the majors.

In the rotation, the triple-A debuts of Jeffrey Marquez and Alan Horne have not gone well. Marquez has a 7.47 ERA after six starts, and Horne left his second start after two innings due to a strained biceps and has been on the DL ever since. Horne is throwing in Tampa and could make an intrasquad start Saturday.

In better rotation news, the Yankees have converted career-long reliever Dan Giese to starting with excellent results (1.32 ERA, 0.91 WHIP in five starts). Kei Igawa should be in the big leagues over the weekend, so we’ll talk about him then.

Speaking of big league returns, Wilson Betemit, rehabbing from pinkeye, has gone 6 for 17 with four doubles and four walks against three strikeouts in five games spent mostly at third base. Expect him back with the big club soon.

At the other corner, Juan Miranda, who many had hoped would arrive as a second-half reinforcement for first base, slugged just .367 before hitting the DL with an unspecified shoulder injury on Friday. However, Eric Duncan has shown some signs of life, hitting .270/.382/.459.

Brett Gardner, who claims to have tweaked his swing in the Arizona Fall League last year, is hitting .302/.377/.462. The power represented by that last figure is the key to his becoming a viable major league starter. Curiously, he’s only been successful in five of his nine steal attempts despite an 84 percent career success rate entering the season.

Finally, the Yankees have added catcher J.D. Closser to the Scranton roster to deepen their catching corps while Jorge Posada is on the DL. Closser is a failed Rockies prospect from earlier in the decade, who never did hit in any of his major league shots (71 OPS+ in 160 games), but has a .277/.378/.455 career minor league line, which is significantly better than that of either Chad Moeller or Jose Molina.

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Mike Mussina held the Mariners to one run on seven hits over six innings, walking no one and striking out a season-high five men, including the M’s three, five, and six hitters, all flailing at changeups to cap his outing in the sixth inning. The performance earned him his third straight win as the Yankees put 15 men on base against Felix Hernandez and plated six of them. Johnny Damon had the big day, going 3-for-5 with two doubles and a two-run homer. Derek Jeter also went 3 for 5 with a double. Jose Molina drew his first walk of the year and snapped his 0-for-23 slump with a single in his next at-bat. The 6-1 score allowed Joe Girardi to stay away from his high-leverage relievers, passing the ball instead to LaTroy Hawkins, Edwar Ramirez, and Jose Veras, each of whom pitched a scoreless inning. Veras, in his first work since being called up, retired the side in order in the ninth on ten pitches, eight of them strikes, picking up a K to end the game.

Mussina’s line in his last three starts:

18 IP, 18 H, 5 R, 2 HR, 2 BB, 10 K, 3-0, 2.50 ERA, 1.11 WHIP

If the Yankees can give Carlos Silva his usual beating tomorrow (Silva has a career 7.59 ERA against the Yankees), they could enter Monday’s off-day having swept Seattle, which would push them back up over .500 and make their poor showing against Detroit seem a distant, hazy memory.

Someone stuck a microphone in front of Hank Steinbrenner again yesterday.

A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I attended an outdoor event in what was supposed to be rainy weather only to wind up with sunburns when the sun came out and stayed out. A couple of days later, Becky came home from work and grumbled, “If one more person says to me ‘did you know you’ve got a sunburn’ I’m going to scream.” Strikes me that Hank’s comments amount to the equivalent. Hey, Yankees, did you know your season isn’t going that well? I wonder if Joe Girardi knows that. Hey, Joe! . . .

At least Hank was being timely. Amid his grousing was this bit of sabermetric brilliance:

“We just can’t win one out of five games, every time Wang pitches. It’s not going to work. It’s not a good win percentage.”

Indeed, the Yankees went out and snapped a three-game losing streak behind Chien-Ming Wang last night. But wait . . . why wasn’t it a four-game losing streak?

Because the Yankees have won Mike Mussina’s last two starts, as well. They’ll try to make that three straight behind Moose this afternoon, and will clinch their fourth series win of the season (out of 11 series) if they do.

Mussina only lasted five innings his last time out, but has allowed just four runs over his last 12 innings and has been sharp both times out, pitching like the kind of wily veteran junkballer we’d all hoped he’d become in his later years. Today will mark his first start against the M’s since 2005. Last year his only appearance against Seattle was his lone relief appearance amid his early-September exile from the rotation. He did not face the M’s at all in 2006.

Opposing Mussina will be King Felix Hernandez who, at age 22 and in his fourth major league season, is living up to his nickname in the early going with a 2.22 ERA while averaging 7 1/3 innings per start. In his last start, Hernandez struck out ten A’s in seven shutout innings, but came back out for the eighth and failed to retire any of the first four men he faced, all of whom would come around to score (three of them against the bullpen). Hernandez has thrown 110 or more pitches in each of his last four starts, and 115 or more in three of those four. Given his collapse at the end of his last start, one wonders if that’s too much for a 22-year-old arm this early in the season.

Hernandez faced the Yankees just once last year, coincidentally in the same game at Safeco park that included Mussina’s relief appearance. Hernandez held the Yanks to one run on five hits over seven innings in that outing, though the Bombers did draw four walks against him.

Today’s Yankee lineup is what is likely to be the default lineup while Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada are both on the shelf, though it’s the first time in the five games Rodriguez has missed that Joe Girardi has actually used it, in part because this is just the Yankees’ second game against a righty starter in that span.

L – Johnny Damon (LF)
R – Derek Jeter (SS)
L – Bobby Abreu (RF)
L – Hideki Matsui (DH)
L – Jason Giambi (1B)
S – Melky Cabrera (CF)
L – Robinson Cano (2B)
R – Morgan Ensberg (3B)
R – Jose Molina (C)

We got the pitching duel we expected last night. Chien-Ming Wang held the Mariners to one run on three hits and a pair of walks over six innings while striking out five. Wang left after 90 pitches due to a cramp at the base of the thumb of his pitching hand, but Kyle Farnsworth, Joba Chamberlain, and Mariano Rivera finished the job by allowing just one more Mariner to reach base (via an Ichiro Suzuki single off Chamberlain) over three scoreless innings. For Seattle, Erik Bedard retired the last 14 men he faced.

However, Before Bedard locked things down, his defense committed four errors, three of which contributed directly to two of the three runs the Yankees scored against Bedard. In the first, Derek Jeter reached on a grounder that scooted under shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt’s glove for an error. He was plated by singles by Bobby Abreu and Hideki Matsui. In the second, Morgan Ensberg led off with a hard shot that ate up Adrian Beltre at third base, also ruled an error. Ensberg was subsequently nailed at second base when Jose Monlia struck out on a hit-and-run, but second baseman Jose Lopez had the ball squirt out of his glove as he made the tag for the Mariners’ third error. Alberto Gonzalez then singled Ensberg to third and Melky Cabrera drove both runners in with a double.

The fourth Seattle error came in the third when catcher Jamie Burke dropped a Jason Giambi popup in the swirling winds. Giambi subsequently stuck his shoulder in front of one of Bedard’s 10-to-4 curveballs, but was stranded when Ensberg and Molina flew out to end the inning.

And that was it until the sixth, when Ichiro reached out and served a sinker low and away into center field, stole second and third, and scored on a groundout for the only Seattle run of the night.

Among the three Yankee relievers, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera were particularly impressive. Farnsworth, for the first time in recent memory, was simply blowing the opposing hitters away with heat, striking out two and throwing 10 of 14 pitches for strikes.

With Bedard out of the game, the Yanks padded their lead by scoring a pair of runs against relievers Ryan Rowland-Smith and Sean Green in the eighth to set the final at 5-1.

The cherry on top of the evening was Bobby Murcer’s return to the YES booth. Unlike last year, when the only obvious sign of his illness was his lack of hair, Murcer does appear a bit diminished by all he’s been through, but he was in good spirits and good form in the booth and was greeted warmly by everyone, of course.

Seattle Mariners

2007 Record: 88-74 (.543)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 79-83 (.488)

Manager: John McLaren
General Manager: Bill Bavasi

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Safeco Park (96/96)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

Wladimir Balentien replaces Jose Guillen
Miguel Cairo replaces Ben Broussard
Jeff Clement replaces . . . TBA
Erik Bedard replaces Jeff Weaver
Carlos Silva replaces Horacio Ramirez and Ryan Feierabend (minors)
Mark Lowe replaces Eric O’Flaherty (minors)
Arthur Rhodes replaces George Sherrill

25-man Roster:

1B – Richie Sexson (R)
2B – Jose Lopez (R)
SS – Yuniesky Betancourt (R)
3B – Adrian Beltre (R)
C – Kenji Johjima (R)
RF – Wladimir Balentien (R)
CF – Ichiro Suzuki (L)
LF – Raul Ibañez (L)
DH – Jose Vidro (S)

Bench:

R – Willie Bloomquist (UT)
R – Miguel Cairo (IF)
L – Jeff Clement (C)
R – Jamie Burke (C)

Rotation:

L – Erik Bedard
R – Felix Hernandez
R – Carlos Silva
L – Jarrod Washburn
R – Miguel Batista

Bullpen:

R – J.J. Putz
L – Ryan Rowland-Smith
R – Mark Lowe
R – Sean Green
R – Cha Seung Baek
L – Arthur Rhodes
R – Brandon Morrow

15-day DL: R – Mike Morse (UT), R – Anderson Garcia

Typical Lineup:

L – Ichiro Suzuki (CF)
R – Jose Lopez (2B)
L – Raul Ibañez (LF)
R – Adrian Beltre (3B)
S – Jose Vidro (DH)
R – Richie Sexson (1B)
R – Kenji Johjima (C)
R – Wladimir Balentien (RF)
R – Yuniesky Betancourt (SS)

(more…)

The first three Yankees to come to the plate last night reached base, but with the bases loaded and no outs, the Bombers only managed to plate two of those men. After sending seven men to the plate in that inning and making Jeremy Bonderman throw 27 pitches, they only got three more men on base all night against Bonderman and lefty reliever Clay Rapada, and none of those three reached second base.

Andy Pettitte held a slim 2-1 lead heading into the fifth, but just as he did in Cleveland, blew it on a home run in the fifth, this one a two-run shot by Marcus Thames. Placido Polanco, who is 6 for 10 on the series, led off the sixth with a solo shot off Pettitte, who yielded another run later that inning. Polanco hit another off Kyle Farnsworth in the eighth to set the final at 6-2.

That thoroughly dispiriting and spiritless performance by the Yankees was made all the more dreary by the news mid-game that Phil Hughes is being put on the disabled list due to a sore right oblique muscle. The story Hughes and the Yankees seem to have cobbled together is that Hughes tweaked the muscle in his rain-shortened start in Chicago, but didn’t think it was severe enough to mention. After coming out of Tuesday’s came, he told the trainers that he was having some discomfort there. The pain became worse overnight, and team doctor Stuart Hershon told Hughes and the team that Hughes would likely have to miss his next start, thus prompting the Yankees, who were already discussing what to do with their struggling youngster, to place Hughes on the DL.

Of course, Joe Girardi has made such a habit of lying to the press about team injuries and team decisions and so many injuries–from Morgan Ensberg’s ankle to Wilson Betemit’s conjuctivitis, to Joba Chamberlain’s hamstrings, to this one–have either come out of nowhere or been unsubstantiated rumors, that it’s become impossible to take the team at it’s word, particularly when the DL gives them an easy short-term solution for Hughes struggles. Hughes said after the game that he hasn’t had an MRI. So we’re left wondering if we should be concerned about an injury-prone young pitcher with a troublesome oblique injury, something that conjures comparisons to the A’s extremely talented and extremely fragile Rich Harden, or pleased that Hughes is going to get a minimum of two weeks to clear his mind and work on his mechanics and tertiary pitches in the hope of rebooting his season in mid-May while the rotation gets a temporary upgrade in the person of Darrell Rasner (who has gone 4-0 with a 0.87 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, and 4.5 K/BB ratio for Scranton thus far).

This all puts a very bad taste in my mouth, yes because of the team’s poor play (3.17 runs scored per game and a 2-4 record over their last six games), yes because of the talent stacking up on the disabled list (Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez and Phil Hughes all hitting the DL within the span of four days), but above all because the new administration seems determined to leave the team’s fans and the media who inform those fans in the dark.

Chris Stewart’s Yankee debut didn’t go s’good last night. He went 0-for-3 at the plate with a strikeout and was repeatedly crossed up by Phil Hughes, resulting in two passed balls. Fortunately, Chad Moeller cleared waivers and has been reinstated on the 25-man roster, forcing Stewart back to Scranton (and off the 40-man via a DFA, though the move hasn’t been announced yet). Meanwhile, Chris Britton, who was optioned yesterday, was recalled today following Ross Ohlendorf’s 3 1/3-inning outing last night (Alex Rodriguez hitting the DL allows the Yankees to skip the ten-day rule). Of course, Britton could be back on the Scranton shuttle after Ian Kennedy’s start tomorrow, as Wilson Betemit is now eligible to come off the DL just in time to fill the hole at his natural position of third base. Chad Jennings reports that Betemit is scheduled to join the Scranton team for a rehab assignment tomorrow.

Andy Pettitte will look to ease the strain on the pen tonight. In his last start he lasted just five innings against the Indians, turning in his worst outing of the year. The Tigers righty-heavy lineup would seem to be a bad match for Pettitte. Indeed, Andy’s been hell on lefties in the early going, but righties have been doing well against him. The thing is, that’s unusual. On his career, Pettitte has almost no platoon split at all and when he does have one it tends to be a reverse split. Andy pitched a gem in his only outing against Detroit last year (8 IP, 5 H, 1 R). I’d expect some bounce back tonight.

Opposing Andy will be Jeremy Bonderman. Bonderman feels like he’s been around forever at this point–as the first-round high school draft pick that steeled Billy Beane’s resolve to draft college arms in the “Moneyball” draft, as a key player in the three-team Jeff Weaver/Ted Lilly/Carlos Peña trade, as a 19-game loser on the 113-loss 2003 Tigers team, and as a perennial breakout candidate who still hasn’t made that leap–but he’s still just 25. Bonderman improved steadily from 2003 to 2006, but last year he fell apart in conjunction with the Tigers’ second-half slide that I mentioned in my series preview (first 18 starts: 10-1, 3.53; last ten starts: 1-8 8.23). A sore elbow was the culprit, but he was shut down in early September and expected to make a full recovery over the winter. In the early going, however, he’s been maddeningly inconsistent, failing to turn in a single quality start in five outings and pitching inefficiently, with just 58 percent of his pitches going for strikes on the season. Bonderman struck out just ten men in his first four starts (22 2/3 innings) before striking out seven Rangers in 4 2/3 in his last start, but after walking 8 in his first 17 2/3 innings he’s now walked 13 in his last 9 2/3. It doesn’t bode well for Bonderman that the Yankees drew eight walks of his teammates last night. Also worth noting: while Bonderman has kept his ERA at a respectable 4.28, he has five unearned runs on his ledger already, giving him a 5.93 RA (run average).

Alberto Gonzalez starts in place of Morgan Ensberg at third base tonight. Melky “Got Homers” Cabrera moves up to the sixth spot, ahead of the struggling Robinson Cano, catcher Jose Molina, and Gonzalez.

Update: Stewart was optioned, but not designated for assignment. Rather, to make room for Moeller on the 40-man, Sean Henn, who had been pitching well on rehab assignment with Scranton, was DFAed. Chad Jennings has some reaction to the move.

Detroit Tigers

2007 Record: 88-74 (.543)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 90-72 (.553)

Manager: Jim Leyland
General Manager: Dave Dombrowski

Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Comerica Park (101/101)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

Miguel Cabrera replaces Sean Casey
Jacque Jones replaces Craig Monroe
Edgar Renteria replaces Brandon Inge in the lineup
Brandon Inge replaces Mike Rabelo on the bench
Ramon Santiago takes over Omar Infante’s playing time
Armando Galarraga is filling in for Dontrelle Willis (DL)
Dontrelle Willis (DL) replaces Andrew Miller and Chad Durbin
Kenny Rogers takes back starts from Jair Jurrjens and Mike Maroth
Aquilino Lopez is filling in for Fernando Rodney (DL)
Denny Bautista is filling in for Joel Zumaya (DL) and replacing Wil Ledezma Clay Rapada is taking over for Tim Byrdak and Macay McBride

25-man Roster:

1B – Miguel Cabrera (R)
2B – Placido Polanco (R)
SS – Edgar Renteria (R)
3B – Carlos Guillen (S)
C – Ivan Rodriguez (R)
RF – Magglio Ordoñez (R)
CF – Curtis Granderson (L)
LF – Jacque Jones (L)
DH – Gary Sheffield (R)

Bench:

UT – Brandon Inge (R)
OF – Marcus Thames (R)
OF – Ryan Raburn (R)
IF – Ramon Santiago (R)

Rotation:

R – Justin Verlander
L – Kenny Rogers
R – Jeremy Bonderman
L – Nate Robertson
R – Armando Galarraga

Bullpen

R – Todd Jones
R – Jason Grilli
L – Bobby Seay
R – Aquilino Lopez
R – Denny Bautista
R – Zach Miner
L – Clay Rapada

15-day DL: L – Dontrelle Willis, R – Joel Zumaya, R – Fernando Rodney, R – Vance Wilson (C)

Restricted List: R – Francisco Cruceta

Typical Lineup:

L – Curtis Granderson (CF)
R – Placido Polanco (2B)
R – Gary Sheffield (DH)
R – Magglio Ordoñez (RF)
R – Miguel Cabrera (1B)
S – Carlos Guillen (3B)
R – Edgar Renteria (SS)
R – Ivan Rodriguez (C)
L – Jacque Jones (LF)

(more…)

After five innings last night, the Yankees were trailing 2-0 and being no-hit by Aaron Laffey. They then exploded with the following rally:

Melky Cabrera broke up the no-no with an infield single on a Baltimore chop that hopped over third baseman Casey Blake’s head to shortstop Jhonny Peralta. Derek Jeter followed with a squibber down the third base line that took a sharp left turn on Blake allowing Jeter to reach with another infield single. Bobby Abreu then singled to shallow left field to load the bases with no outs. Down 1-2 in the count, Alex Rodriguez was hit in the left thigh to plate the first Yankee run. Next, Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui both hit slow bouncing balls to first base, exchanging two outs for two runs. That inexplicably drove Laffey from the game at 78 pitches. Facing reliever Jensen Lewis, Morgan Ensberg hit a weak chop that nearly rolled to a stop even with the mound. Lewis got to the ball first, but was forced to eat it as Ensberg reached with another infield single, this one plating the fourth Yankee run.

Joked Ensberg after the game, “We’ve tried hitting the ball hard. Robby Cano knows it, too. Jason [Giambi has] hit the ball real hard, but that doesn’t work. We need to start using the entire bat. We need to start dribbling balls and rolling balls over, which is exactly what we did.”

The Yankees added a fifth run in the eighth off Lewis when Johnny Damon pinch-hit for the aching Rodriguez (more on that below), walked, and was plated by a well-struck double by Hideki Matsui. Not that they needed it. Jonathan Albaladejo, Kyle Farnsworth, Joba Chamberlain, and Mariano Rivera each tossed a scoreless inning to wrap up the win for starter Mike Mussina. Kyle, Joba, and Mo combined for three perfect frames, striking out one man each. Farnsworth, who threw eight of his 12 pitches for strikes, effectively worked a new cutter into his usual fastball/slider mix. Albaladejo had runners on the corners with two outs via a walk and a single, but struck out David Dellucci to escape his inning. Mussina was sharp again, though less efficient. He didn’t allow an extra base hit in his five innings, but the two runs he allowed both came in the bottom of the fifth, which started with four straight singles. Moose did well to escape that inning with just two runs allowed, but Girardi was right to lift him once the Yankees got the lead in the top of the next frame.

As for Rodriguez, his right quad is the one that’s been bothering him and the pitch from Laffey hit him in the left thigh, but coming out of the box on a groundball to second in the first inning, he aggravated the right thigh. Rodriguez slowed up after just four strides on that groundout and appeared to be limping when he scored in the sixth, prompting Giardi to pinch-hit for him in his next at-bat. After the game, Rodriguez said he was probably only running at 50 percent when he scored and that he probably came back too quickly from the initial injury. Rodriguez plans to shut himself down for a few days. Said Rodriguez after the game, “There’s no way I could play tomorrow. . . . I had a quad injury like this in my senior year in high school and it lingered on for a couple months, so it’s important to get it right. . . . I think Jeter took the right approach where he took a litte bit more time, and that’s probably what I need, too. . . . Joe [Girardi] said [I’ll sit] one day, and we’ll take it from there, but if I had to guess, I would probably guess probably more than one day. . . . When I get back out there I want to be closer to 100 percent than I am now.”

As for Jorge Posada, who was absent from the Yankee dugout for the first time since September 1, 1996, there was no word last night on his diagnosis/prognosis, though I’m hopeful that we’ll hear something prior to tonight’s opener against the Tigers.

It’s cold and rainy in Cleveland with a chance of snow (!), but the Yanks aren’t scheduled to return there this season, so they’ll likely make every attempt to get the game in, much like they did on their final day in Chicago, when rain twice interrupted the game and ended Phil Hughes night after just two innings.

Mike Mussina will be the man contending with the elements tonight. Moose is coming off the gem he twirled against the Chisox when he had unusually good movement on his non-curve pitches. He and the Yankee hitters will be facing 23-year-old lefty groundballer Aaron Laffey. Laffey was reliably average in his nine starts for the Tribe as a rookie last year. He lasted five or more innings in all but one start (and four innings in the exception) and allowed no more than four runs in any of those five-plus-inning starts (he allowed five runs in the four-inning outing). Tonight will be his first time facing the Yankees.

Laffey is the third of five lefty starters the Yankees are facing in a six-day span. In the first two of those games, Joe Girardi has radically rearranged his lineup, leaving some of his best hitters on the bench, and received four runs of total offense as a result. Resting Bobby Abreu I understand, as Abreu’s the one left-handed Yankee hitter who really struggles against his own kind. Using the opposing lefty as an excuse to rest the struggling Robinson Cano I also understand. Sitting Hideki Matsui for two straight days just because there’s a lefty on the mound I do not understand.

Prior to sitting out the last two games, Matsui was riding a seven-game hitting streak during which he had hit .318/.516/.500. On his career, Matsui has hit a respectable .293/.359/.448 against lefties. He is 0 for 9 with a walk in his career against C.C. Sabathia, so I understand Giardi’s reasoning for sitting Matsui yesterday, but if that was the plan, he should have started Hideki on Saturday. Tonight, Matsui’s back in the lineup, but Johnny Damon is sitting out. Damon is hitting .433/.485/.800 over his last seven games with two homers and five doubles. On his career, Damon has hit .286/.349/.404 against lefties. Against lefties the last two days he’s gone 5 for 9 with two of those doubles. I just don’t understand resting the team’s hottest hitter when the offense has sputtered for three straight days.

Shelley Duncan and Morgan Ensberg combined to reach base once in 12 plate appearances over the last two games. Duncan, who was the guy who got on base, sits tonight. Ensberg plays third as Girardi uses the DH to protect Alex Rodriguez’s tender quad.

(more…)

FOX missed the marquee pitching matchup of the Cleveland/New York series by one day. Chien-Ming Wang and C.C. Sabathia rematch Game One of last year’s ALDS tomorrow, but today 25-year-old Jeremy Sowers makes his season debut against 23-year-old Ian Kennedy and his 9.64 ERA. This is Kennedy’s first start since pissing off Joe Girardi by nibbling against the Orioles and walking five men in 2 2/3 innings. Kennedy had pitched well in his two outings prior to that, throwing a quality start at the Rays before getting hit in the hip by a comebacker and pitching well in relief on a rain-soaked night night in Kansas City, retiring nine of his last ten batters after allowing two of the first four to score. He says he’s gotten the message, so look for Kennedy to attack the zone today.

Like Kennedy, Sowers was college hurler who was drafted in the first-round and moved quickly through the minors. Kennedy was drafted 21st overall out of USC in 2006 and made his major league debut in September 2007. Sowers was taken sixth overall out of Vanderbilt in 2004 and made his major league debut in June 2006. Sowers was strong in his rookie season with the Indians, but stumbled as a sophomore last year, pitching his way off the team by mid-June. The issue seemed to be a decline in his ability to induce groundballs, which combined with the steep reduction in his strikeout rate upon reaching the majors essentially eliminated his ability to get hitters out with any consistency. That said, in his one major league start since then, Sowers shut out the Mariners for five innings. Sowers last faced the Yankees last April and got lit up for six runs in 2 2/3 innings, though he also pitched a gem against them in his second major league game in early June 2006.

Sowers is the first of three consecutive lefty starters the Yankees will face to conclude this series. They’ve faced just two previous lefty starters this season, beating John Bale in Kansas City and losing to Brian Burres in Baltimore. In both games, Joe Girardi sat both Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi. In their places, he played Hideki Matsui in right field and worked Morgan Ensberg into the lineup. He also used the non-catching version of Jorge Posada in those games, at DH against Bale and first base against Burres. With Posada back behind the plate, Girardi will need another righty bat if he wants to continue to rest Abreu and Giambi against lefties.

Enter Shelley Duncan, who has been recalled and will start in right field today (no word yet on who’s being optioned to make room for him). Giambi, coming off his two-homer game last night, stays in the lineup, but lefties Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano do not. Alberto Gonzalez starts at second base for the second time in his major league career. Morgan Ensberg plays third while Alex Rodriguez takes Matsui’s usual spot as the DH. Given Giaradi’s tendencies thus far, I’d expect to see a different combination against lefty C.C. Sabathia tomorrow. Oh, and unrelated to the pitcher on the mound, Jose Molina will catch in today’s late-day game after last night’s night game.