Today’s news is powered by the Captain, talking to Cal Ripken:

• Post-season ticket information for those of you with full-season plans (all 2 of you):

Regular season ticket prices for full-season ticket licensees (non-Suites) will be replicated for the 2009 American League Division Series (i.e., a Main Level ticket that costs a full-season ticket licensee $60 in the 2009 regular season will cost the same licensee $60 for the ALDS), however, full-season ticket licensees (non-Suites) of $325 Field Level seats may purchase their seats for the ALDS at the lower price of $275 each.

For full-season ticket licensees (non-Suite), prices will range from $5-$275 per ticket for the ALDS, $10-$350 per ticket for the ALCS, and $50-$425 per ticket for the World Series.

Full-season Suite licensees in the Legends Suite, Delta Sky360° Suite and Jim Beam Suite, have all already paid their Suite license fees. Accordingly, they will only be required to purchase their Suite tickets, which will range from $65-$275 per Suite ticket for the ALDS, $115-$350 per Suite ticket for the ALCS, and $150-$425 per Suite ticket for the World Series. As with the regular season, Legends Suite licensees will also be required to pay a per-game food and beverage fee, but not a Suite license fee.

• Who you gonna call (up)?:

Though the Yankees have not announced their plans, (Francisco) Cervelli and (Ramiro) Pena are likely to highlight the team’s September callups.

Though the Yankees will not announce the rest of their callups until Tuesday, there are plenty of candidates who will receive consideration. Chief among them is Shelley Duncan, who endeared himself to the Yankees during a 2007 power binge and is leading the International League with 27 home runs.

Also likely to return to active duty is Brett Gardner, who has been on the disabled list since July 26 with a fractured left thumb. The Yankees will not immediately activate Gardner, but should do so sometime in mid-September after he has completed a rehab assignment.

(more…)

The best game Andy Pettitte ever pitched in his life was Game 5 of the 1996 World Series. In that game, which began with the Yankees and Braves tied at two games a piece in the Series, Pettitte out-dueled John Smoltz for 8 1/3 shutout innings. Pettitte wasn’t perfect in that game. He only struck out four, walked three, two of whom then stole second on him, and gave up five hits, but while Smoltz allowed just one unearned run, Pettitte didn’t allow a runner to third base until the ninth inning and yielded to John Wetteland with one out in the ninth having thrown just 96 pitches. Wetteland got the last two outs to seal the 1-0 win and send the Yankees home for what would prove to be a triumphant Game 6.

Game 5 of the 1996 World Series stands as the pinnacle of my baseball fandom, and it remains the pinnacle of Andy Pettitte’s career, but for six-plus innings last night, Pettitte looked like he was about to reach a new peak.

Andy Pettitte had everything working last night. He was throwing in, out, up, down, using all of his pitches, locating perfectly, and dropping some devastating curveballs into the strike zone. While the Yankees eked out a pair of runs against Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie on a Nick Swisher homer in the third and doubles by Robinson Cano and Swisher in the fifth, Pettitte was busy retiring the first 20 men he faced.

With one out in the sixth, Matt Wieters hit a slow chopper in on the grass toward third base. Jerry Hairston Jr., giving Alex Rodriguez a day off at third base, charged, barehanded, and fired to first in what was really the only difficult play that needed to be made behind Pettitte all night. Ty Wigginton hit a grounder directly to Derek Jeter on the next pitch for the third out. After six innings, Pettitte had thrown 66 pitches, struck out six, and not once gone to three balls on a batter.

Every so often a pitcher will take a no-hitter or perfect game into the middle innings despite not looking any sharper than usual. A.J. Burnett had a game like that earlier this year. Sergio Mitre had one just a few days ago. Monday night, Andy Pettitte looked like a pitcher throwing a perfect game. He looked like David Cone pitching to the Expos, but instead of Cone’s characteristic improvisation, Pettitte was methodical, precise, and seemingly effortless.

The first two batters of the seventh inning flew out to Swisher in right field on 2-2 counts. Swisher took a wrong step on one of the two flies, but recovered and struggled to contain his relieved grin as he threw the ball back into the infield. Adam Jones, who had just missed a home run foul down the left field line earlier in the game, took ball one from Pettitte, then hit a routine grounder directly at Hairston, the previous inning’s defensive hero.

Hairston booted it.

After the game Hairston’s teammates told him and the media that the ball took a funny hop, but Hairston was honest. It was a routine grounder and he just plain missed it. The ball hit off the heal of his glove and trickled through his legs for an error that erased Pettitte’s perfect game. It was the second time this season that I’ve seen a perfect game come to an end on an error. The first was Jose Uribe’s eighth-inning error in Jonathan Sanchez’s no-hitter against the Padres on July 10. Sanchez finished the game without a hit or a walk, the only blemish being Uribe’s error.

As difficult as it might be to swallow losing a perfect game to a fielding error, the most impressive thing Sanchez did in that game, particularly given his reputation for being over-excitable and folding after bad breaks, was to gather himself and complete the no-hitter. Monday night, Pettitte tried to do the same, but Nick Markakis put a good swing on a fastball up and away and lined it inside the left-field line for a single. That didn’t make Hairston feel better, but it made him less infamous.

With the Yankees still up just 2-0, Pettitte had lost a perfect game and a no-hitter in the course of four pitches and now had the tying runs on base. He then went to his first (and only) three-ball count of the night, going full on Nolan Reimold, but got another grounder right at Jeter to strand both runners.

With Guthrie out of the game in favor of veteran lefty Mark Hendrickson, and Pettitte’s balancing act off their minds, the Yankees put up three insurance runs in the top of the eighth. Pettitte gave up a lead-off homer to Melvin Mora in the bottom of the eighth, scuttling the shutout as well, but struck out the next two men and got one more groundout for good measure on his 104th pitch, leaving the ninth for the bullpen after eight innings, no walks, just two hits, and eight strikeouts.

Brian Bruney’s first three pitches were balls as he walked Brian Roberts to start the ninth. A one-out single followed, prompting Joe Girardi to bring Mariano Rivera in to finish the job, extending the major league record held by Rivera and Pettitte for most games saved by a single pitcher for a single teammate. Pettitte also moved past Lefty Gomez into sole possession of third place on the Yankees’ all-time wins list.

After the game, Pettitte found Hairston in the locker room with his head down and went over to cheer his teammate up. “You took the pressure off me,” he told Hairston. “Besides, if I hadn’t thrown one already, I wasn’t going to. I didn’t want to pitch nine innings anyway.”

This just in: the Yankees are cruising to their first AL East title since 2006. There, I said it. The Yankees have a six-game lead with 32 left to play and nearly half of those remaining games, 15 of 32, will come against the Royals, Blue Jays, and Orioles, three teams with a combined .416 winning percentage.

The Yankees are 9-3 against the Orioles this season and 9-1 since dropping the first two games of the season in Baltimore due to poor starts by CC Sabathia (who has since turned back into CC Sabathia) and Chien-Ming Wang (who has since landed on the 60-day DL).

Since the Yankees last saw them, the Orioles have traded away first baseman Aubrey Huff, closer George Sherrill, and veteran backup catcher Gregg Zaun. Lone All-Star Adam Jones has been fighting back pain and hasn’t had a hit in over a week, and supposed rookie phenom Matt Weiters has been slower to adjust to major league pitching than was expected (.258/.307/.366 in August with 24 Ks against 6 walks in 25 games). The debuts of top pitching prospects Chris Tillman (yet another product of the Erik Bedard trade) and Brian Matusz have kept the O’s interesting, but the Yankees will miss both this week.

So, really, there’s nothing to see here. The Orioles are 10-19 (.345) on the month and have won just one series in August. The Yankees have lost just two series since the All-Star break, have scored 7.5 runs per game in their 11 contests since being shutout by the A’s and Brett Tomko, are coming off a sweep of the White Sox, and have their top three starters lined up for this series in Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett. The O’s will be lucky to avoid a sweep.

Jeremy Guthrie takes the hill for Baltimore tonight coming off a pair of strong starts against the White Sox and Twins. In both outings, Guthrie allowed just one run on six hits in seven innings. In the latter he struck out five against no walks or homers. Of course, his season ERA is 5.26, and he’s 1-2 against the Yankees in three starts this season. Guthrie’s first two starts against the Yanks were similar quality starts (6 IP, 7 H, 3 R). He won the first thanks to Sabathia’s bad outing and lost the second when CC got his revenge with a four-hit shutout. He last faced the Yankees on May 20 and gave up five runs in seven innings to lose to Phil Hughes.

Despite a hiccup in Boston hidden by the offense’s 20-run outburst, Andy Pettitte’s second-half numbers are still fantastic: 2.79 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 9.4 K/9, 3.6 K/BB, just 2 HR allowed in 8 starts averaging more than 6 1/3 innings per start. Andy started that run with 7 1/3 dominant innings against the O’s (1 R, 8 K). Surprisingly, that was his only start against Baltimore this season prior to tonight.

Alex Rodriguez gets the night off tonight. Jerry Hairston Jr., hitting a fluky .316/.413/.553 as a Yankee, plays third and bats eighth. Everyone else moves up a spot.

(more…)

Today’s news is powered by . . . musical vegetables (no, not Michael Bolton!):

• The draconian Yankee Stadium bag policy may be easing a bit:

Fans are now allowed to bring in one bag that cannot be larger than 16” x 16” x 8”, subject to inspection.

• John Perrotto has the lowdown on what the Yanks might do in the off-season:

The Yankees would prefer to re-sign Johnny Damon to a one-year contract for 2010 and allow outfield prospect Austin Jackson a second year to develop at Triple-A, meanwhile pursuing such big-name free-agent outfielders as Matt Holliday and Jason Bay in the offseason.

• Yankee prospect Dellin Betances had TJ surgery.
• An update on Ian Kennedy:

Kennedy has been throwing 35-pitch bullpen sessions that include all four pitches. When he first got back on the mound, Kennedy focused on throwing the ball over the plate, right down the middle. For the past two weeks, he’s been working side-to-side, hitting the corners. He’s scheduled to throw another bullpen on Monday, then he’ll face live hitters in batting practice sessions on Wednesday and Saturday. Beyond that, there is surely a plan, but Kennedy doesn’t know it.

. . . Kennedy is not pitching in Puerto Rico this season. The Arizona Fall League replaced winter ball. He’ll pitch during the instructional season beginning at the end of September — is it a season, it’s more like spring training — then he’ll go to the Arizona Fall League to pitch through October and most of November. He was planning to pitch in Puerto Rico, but the timing of the Fall League works better. His doctors told the Yankees that pitching in the fall would probably be better for his arm than pitching in the winter.

• Boss George gets sued:

A former president of Madison Square Garden says that it was his idea to create what became the Yankees-run YES Network, and on Friday he sued George Steinbrenner, the team’s principal owner, in Manhattan federal court for fraud and breach of contract. He is seeking at least $23 million in damages.

Bob Gutkowski, who as president of the MSG Network negotiated a 12-year, $493.5 million deal in 1988 with the Yankees and is the plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that he had several meetings with Steinbrenner, starting in 1996, to discuss the idea of a Yankees network. He said he also made a presentation in 1998 to Steinbrenner and other Yankees executives that laid out how to build a regional sports network controlled by the team.

At one meeting in 1997, according to the lawsuit, Steinbrenner said he wanted to use the threat of starting a network to get $1 billion for a 10-year extension from MSG.

“At no point did Steinbrenner, regarded for his business acumen, conceive of creating a Yankees television network,” Gutkowski said in his papers. “The idea and plan was solely Mr. Gutkowski’s.” He added that Steinbrenner “knowingly and continuously misrepresented” an oral agreement that Gutkowski would run or be part of the network.

[My take: He’s suing NOW?  12 years later?]

(more…)

Mark Buehlre and CC Sabathia entered last night’s game having had very different Augusts. Buehrle had posted a 6.21 ERA in six starts since his perfect game, while Sabathia had a 1.78 ERA over his previous four starts. In ten previous head-to-head meetings, Buehrle had never beaten Sabathia, who was 6-0 in those matchups. Early on it seemed those trends would continue. After CC worked a 1-2-3 first, Derek Jeter connected for a leadoff home run off Buehlre, who then gave up a pair of singles before getting Nick Swisher to ground out to strand both runners. CC then stranded a leadoff double in the second by striking out the side.

Johnny Damon doubled the Yankee lead by leading off the third with a solo shot, but for the second straight night, the Yankees couldn’t get the job done with runners on base, stranding two in the first, one in the second, two in scoring position in the third, erasing a lead-off single with a double play in a three-batter fourth. Robinson Cano ground out with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth, then Buehrle worked his first legitimate 1-2-3 inning in the sixth.

CC Sabathia had struck out ten and still thrown just 88 pitches heading into the seventh, but was greeted by a Jermaine Dye double. He then issued his first walk of the game, a five-pitch pass to Carlos Quentin that drew Dave Eiland to the mound. Two pitches later, Alex Rios doubled home Dye to cut the Yankee lead in half and push the tying run to third. Alexei Ramirez got a hold of an 0-1 pitch, but put just enough of a hump in it to allow Cano to hop backwards and make the catch for the first out. Ramon Castro then hit a chopper toward third that Alex Rodriguez gloved and fired to Jose Molina, who tagged Quentin out at home. Jason Nix followed by hitting a hard hopper that stayed just fair over the bag and seemed headed for the left-field corner, but Rodriguez made a full-out stretch and gloved it, holding Nix to an infield single and lead-runner Rios at third. That loaded the bases for rookie Gordon Beckham. CC fell behind 3-1 before getting strike two with Beckham taking all the way. On the full count, Beckham laced a game-tying single to right, but with Castro running from second, Nick Swisher fired a strike to home in time for Molina to tag out his opposite number, ending the inning and keeping the score tied. (Tyler Kepner tweeted after the game that Swisher said he had been getting throwing tips from Dave Eiland and Phil Coke.)

That inning pushed CC to 113 pitches and ended his night. Buehrle was at 99, but Ozzie Guillen quit while he was ahead and went to the majors best set-up man in Matt Thornton in the seventh. Thornton set the top six men in the Yankee lineup down in order in the seventh and eighth, while Phil Hughes struck out Dye, Paul Konerko, and Jim Thome in between. Mariano Rivera then pitched in a perfect ninth, and Scott Linebrink worked around a one-out Jose Molina single in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings.

Though I would have preferred to have seen Hughes work an extra frame and Mo pitch the tenth, Joe Girardi kept the line moving, getting a 1-2-3 inning from Brian Bruney in the top of the tenth, after which, with Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez due up, Guillen turned to . . . minor league journeyman lefty Randy Williams?

To Williams’ credit, he struck out Tex, but Alex Rodriguez crushed the first pitch he saw to left center for . . . the first out.

It rained throughout the game, and the swirling winds stopped several would-be home runs short of the left field wall. Rodriguez absolutely crushed Williams’ pitch, but he hit it into the wind in death valley and it fell a step shy of the warning track to Alex’s obvious disbelief. Given a reprieve, Williams walked the next two hitters on eight pitches, bringing lefty Robinson Cano to the plate with two out and two on in the bottom of the tenth with the game tied 2-2. Fittingly, Cano ran the count to 2-2, then launched a no-doubter into the Yankee bullpen to win the game. Cano styled on the homer like fellow number-24 Manny Ramirez, watching it from home while Alfredo Aceves ran out into the rain to gather the ball like a kid in the empty wings of the old Stadium in the ’80s.

Helmet toss. Pie. Yankees win 5-2.

Prior to the Rangers’ just-complete series win in the Bronx, the only series the Yankees had lost in the second half came against the White Sox in Chicago. The Sox took three-of-four in that weekend series as July turned to August. The first win came via an unearned run off Andy Pettitte in a 3-2 game. The next two came by a combined score of 24-9 as the Sox tore into Sergio Mitre, Alfredo Aceves, A.J. Burnett, and Phil Coke, who combined to allow 22 of those 24 runs.

Since then, the White Sox have acquired two high-profile players, but have yet to see any benefit from either addition. The first actually occurred on the eve of that last series, when the Sox traded for injured Padres ace Jake Peavy. I analyzed that deal for SI.com:

The White Sox’s trade for Jake Peavy appears on its surface to be a trump card designed to keep them in the division race. It is not that. . . . Peavy is hurt. He tore a tendon in his right ankle in early June, hasn’t pitched since, and isn’t expected back for several of weeks — if at all this season. Certainly the White Sox could benefit from activating Peavy down the stretch if they’re still within striking distance (they’re 2½ games out entering the weekend), and would benefit from his presence in the postseason should they get there. But more likely, the Tigers, with Washburn, are going to win the division.

Indeed, the Sox have since fallen to four games behind the Tigers as Peavy remains on the DL while the Sox have scrambled to fill Clayton Richard’s spot in the rotation. Richards’ spot has come up four times since he was dealt to San Diego in the Peavy deal. The Sox won the first two with spot starters, but have lost the last two behind Freddy Garcia, who will start again on Sunday after Peavy took a liner off his elbow in what was supposed to be his last rehab start.

The other big acquisition was their waiver claim of the Blue Jays’ Alex Rios. The White Sox seemed like one team that could actually benefit from taking on Rios and his contract given their proximity to first place and the .224/.280/.311 line their center fielders had put up prior to Rios’s arrival. However, Rios has started just eight of 13 games in center since joining the Sox, including just three of the last eight and is hitting a mere .200/.213/.333 in that limited time. Rios isn’t helping the White Sox at all, but he’s still going to cost them $59.7 million over the next five years. There’s still a month to go in the season, but Kenny Williams’ claim of the 28-year-old Rios is already looking like a worse move than the contract J.P. Ricciardi signed the 27-year-old Rios too last April.

It will be a great story if Peavy and Rios suddenly emerge to carry the White Sox to the Central title in September, but it ain’t gonna happen. In the meantime, the team the Yankees face this weekend is much the same one they faced at the beginning of the month, minus speedy second baseman Chris Getz, who is out with an oblique strain, and with better work from their bullpen (led by the major’s top set-up man), but weaker work from their rotation.

Tonight’s game pits lefty aces Mark Buehrle and CC Sabathia against each other. The two have had wildly disparate Augusts:

Sabathia: 5-0, 2.65 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 9.40 K/9, 7.8 K/BB, 1.2 HR/9
Buehrle: 0-3, 6.03 ERA, 1.76 WHIP, 2.59 K/9, 1.5 K/BB, 1.7 HR/9

On top of that, Sabathia and Buehrle have met up ten previous times without Buehrle ever picking up a win. CC is 6-0 in those match-ups.

Jose Molina starts again today as Jorge Posada continues to rest his bruised ring finger. Same lineup as yesterday.

In other news, the Yankees have decided to put Joba Chamberlain back in regular rotation, but to honor his innings limit by taking him out early. Sounds like a move to long relief minus the baggage of the word “bullpen.” This is a viable option because of the team’s lead in the division and rosters expanding on Tuesday, thus deepening the bullpen in support of Joba’s short starts. Given how poorly Joba’s pitched on irregular rest and how well he’s pitched in short stints in the past, this does seem like a better plan, even if it will drive some fans nuts to see Joba repeatedly pulled after five or fewer dominant innings.

(more…)

I didn’t want the Mets walking wounded to feel lonely, so this past Monday, I apparently broke a bone in the little toe of my left foot (confirmed by x-ray Thursday).  So, powered by Advil, ice packs and one of my favorite all-time cartoons, here’s the news:

• Those sneaky Yankees muck up the BoSox plans:

When the New York Mets and Red Sox worked out a trade for left-handed reliever Billy Wagner earlier this week, Chris Carter, an outfielder-first baseman currently playing for Triple-A Pawtucket, became part of the deal as a player to be named headed to Boston, sources said. In preparation for the deal, the Red Sox placed Carter on waivers, with the intention of moving him on to the Mets.

But the Yankees, sources said, placed a claim on Carter — perhaps to create some 40-man roster discomfort for the Red Sox. In order to complete the Wagner trade, the Red Sox are now pulling Carter back from waivers, and for the rest of the year they must carry him on their 40-man roster.

• Yankees in(terested) for a Penny, in for a pound(ing)?:

The Yankees have an interest in veteran right-hander Brad Penny, who was released by the Red Sox late Wednesday night.

According to a person with knowledge of the Yankees’ plans, the club doesn’t know of an agreement between Penny and the Red Sox that he wouldn’t sign with an AL team if they released him.

Penny, who is expected to clear waivers Monday because he has about $1.5 million left in salary and attainable bonuses, might be considered an upgrade over Sergio Mitre in the fifth starter’s spot. After he clears waivers, Penny would cost the club signing him $100,000.

. . . “He’s got good stuff,” Johnny Damon said of Penny, whose fastball touched 97 mph and averaged 91 to 93. “His secondary stuff might need a little tweak but his fastball was electric, it cut and he hit his spots with it. Bring him here, why not? I love the way the guy competes.”

(more…)

My good friend Steven Goldman called Tuesday night’s loss to the Rangers the most annoying game of the year due to Joba Chamberlain’s struggles with two outs and the botched Nick Swisher bunt that appeared to kill the ninth-inning rally. Having held off on assigning that title, I’ll slap it on Wednesday afternoon’s contest.

What do you imagine the final score would be of a game in which A.J. Burnett struck out a season-high 12 Rangers and allowed just two hits, and the Yankees put 14 men on base? Would you believe 7-2 Rangers?

The Yankees staked Burnett to an early 1-0 lead when Johnny Damon walked, stole second, and scored on a Mark Teixeira single in the bottom of the first. Burnett responded by retiring the first 11 men he faced. Then, suddenly, with two outs in the fourth, he walked Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz and gave up a three-run home run to Ian Kinsler on a first-pitch fastball.

That was the game. After Damon scored, Rangers starter Dustin Nippert walked six more men, but the Yankees stranded three in the first, one in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth, two in the seventh, and two in the ninth, scoring just one more run along the way.

All together, the Yankees went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, both hits coming off the bat of Mark Teixeira, who singled Jeter home in the fourth. The Yankees drew eight walks, but didn’t manage a single extra-base hit, and two of their six singles didn’t leave the infield. They also struck out ten times, three each against Nippert (in 3 2/3 innings), Jason Grilli (in 2 1/3), and lefty C.J. Wilson (in 2), and once against closer Frank Francisco in the ninth.

Burnett left after six innings and 105 pitches, yeilding a 3-2 deficit to Phil Coke. Coke’s first three batters doubled, bunted for a hit, and homered, boosting the Texas lead to 6-2. The home run, by lefty Chris Davis, was the sixth Coke has surrendered to a lefty this year. Coke has otherwise dominated southpaw batters (.196 average, .224 OBP), but the nine home runs he’s allowed this year to batters of all types have given him a Farnsworthy rate of 1.57 HR/9, moving him ahead of the broken Chien-Ming Wang as the most homer-prone pitcher to throw more than 40 innings for the Yankees this year.

The Rangers scored all seven of their runs on homers in this game, with Kinsler rubbing it in with a two-out, 1-2 solo homer off David Robertson in the eighth to set the final score. Meanwhile, over the final five innings, the Yankees managed just a walk and two singles, only one of which left the infield.

With that, the Yankees dropped a series at home for the first time since the Nationals were in town in mid-June. It was just the second series loss for the Yankees since the All-Star break. The other was to the White Sox, who come into town on Thursday having salvaged the final game of a four-game set against Boston on Wednesday to protect the Yankees six-game lead.

The Yankees have scored 47 runs over their last five games. That works out to 9.4 runs per game. They’ve scored a minimum of eight runs in four of those five contests, all of which have come against the top two teams in the Wild Card race. That’s what 28-year-old righty Dustin Nippert has to contend with this afternoon.

Nippert has made just seven previous starts this year. Just one of them was a quality start. This is just his fifth start in regular rotation. In the previous four the Rangers have gone 1-3 despite Nippert’s average 4.50 ERA and strong strikeout rate.

Nippert goes up against A.J. Burnett, who is coming off his miserable outing in Boston. In August, Burnett has sandwiched three quality starts between two total stinkers in which he’s given up 16 runs in 9 2/3 innings.

Jose Molina catches Burnett this afternoon, but not because of the head-butting A.J. and Jorge Posada were doing in Boston. Molina was scheduled to catch today’s day-game-after-night-game regardless of the pitcher, and the foul ball Posada took off his left ring finger last night cinched it. The rest of the lineup is the usual suspects, with Johnny Damon returning to left field.

Today’s news is powered by . . . a baseball-themed Tex Avery cartoon:

• No Peavy this weekend:

The chances of Jake Peavy making his first start for the White Sox on Saturday are remote, team sources said on Wednesday.

Pitching coach Don Cooper said that Peavy was unable to throw his side session on Wednesday due to lingering effects of being hit by a line drive in his last rehab start on Monday. The right-handers is still getting treatment on on his pitching arm, which had some swelling and soreness.

(more…)

The last two times the Yankees lost the first game of a series, they bounced back to win the next two and the series, doing so in Oakland and at home against the Blue Jays. The Rangers pose more of a challenge, but the Yanks hope to repeat the feat starting tonight as veteran lefty Andy Pettitte takes on 22-year-old lefty prospect Derek Holland.

Andy got smacked around a bit in his last start, but the Yankees scored 20 runs, so not many people noticed or cared. Prior to that he’d been awesome in the second half with five quality starts in six tries, a 2.04 ERA, and a 4.3 K/BB. Against the Rangers on June 3, he gave up four runs on seven hits and six walks in just five innings.

Holland started against the Yankees on May 27 and gave up six runs (five earned) on ten hits and two walks. He then gave up two more runs to them in relief the following week. Along the way, the rookie gave up homers to Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, and Kevin Cash (!). He’s come a long way since then, however, and has posted a 2.95 ERA in seven starts since returning to the rotation in mid-July. He’s been particularly sharp in his last four starts: 1.85 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 3.5 K/9. The best of those outings was a three-hit, eight-strikeout shutout of the Angels, with his 8 2/3 innings of one-run, two-hit, ten-K ball against the Mariners finishing second.

Johnny Damon sits today. Nick Swisher bats second. Jerry Hairston Jr. bats ninth and plays left. Everyone else is in their usual places.

Today’s news is powered by some vintage Neil Young:

• The veteran Yankees are producing in the field:

. . . Jorge Posada, 37, Johnny Damon, 35, Hideki Matsui, 35, and Derek Jeter, 35, all have better OPS marks this year than last. (Alex Rodriguez, 35, has only a slight decline). Andy Pettitte, 37, and Mariano Rivera, 39, are almost as good as ever. . . .

Perhaps least surprisingly, Jeter, whose body and game have changed almost not at all over the years, is having a prime Jeter season, including a .332 batting average.

“He’s always been good at getting those [bloop] hits here and there,” hitting coach Kevin Long said, “but this is a hard .330. It seems everything he has hit has been hit hard. All year long. And that’s because he’s swinging at a lot of strikes. Everything he’s swinging at is a good pitch. To me, it’s been about his strike zone recognition.

“He’s been much better at deciding which pitches to swing at. He’s more disciplined than I’ve ever seen him at waiting for pitches to be in the zone. And when you wait for good pitches to hit, you’re going to hit better.”

Jeter is striking out at a career-low rate. He said his improved plate discipline is due more to consistent good health than to a change in his approach.

• Gardner making progress:

Injured Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner tested his left thumb for the first time in nearly a month on Tuesday afternoon, and if all goes well, he could be activated in the next week.

Gardner took swings and threw at what he estimated to be 50-60 percent prior to the Yankees game against the Rangers.

“Everything felt pretty good,” said Gardner, who is confident he can at least serve as a pinch-runner in the coming weeks.

The key in determining whether Gardner will be used for more than his legs is how his thumb holds up at the plate.

“He needs to get some at-bats,” manager Joe Girardi said. “How many at-bats he needs, I can’t tell you. But I think a lot of [his timetable] depends on how these first few days go.”

(more…)

When the Yankees first played the Rangers in late May, I took a look at Texas and saw Toronto, at hot team with a strong defense that had yet to be tested by its schedule and thus seemed headed for a fall. The Blue Jays fulfilled that prophecy by going 10-24 (.294) against the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays and playing at a .429 overall clip after going 15-9 in April. The Rangers, however, have proven me wrong.

Against the Red Sox, Angels, Rays, and White Sox this season, the Rangers have gone 24-9 (.727), and they nearly matched their 20-9 May with a 17-8 July. As a result, Texas enters this week’s three-game series in the Bronx just 1.5 games behind Boston in the Wild Card race, and 11.5 games ahead of the seventh-place Blue Jays.

How have they done it? That great defense, led by rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus and break-out right-field slugger Nelson Cruz, has played a large part, as it has helped the Texas pitching staff (brace yourself) allow the fewest runs per game in the American League. Yes, the Texas Rangers‘ pitching staff.

The Rangers have needed pitching since they arrived from Washington. Even two of their three playoff entries allowed more than the league average of runs per game. This year, however, that’s all changed. Leading the charge has been veteran Kevin Millwood, who starts tonight. Millwood has benefited tremendously from the improved defense behind him. In his first three seasons as a Ranger, Millwood’s BABIPs were .310, .340, and .358. This year, opposing batters are hitting just .274 on balls in play, and Millwood’s ERA has dropped a full run and a half as a result.

Behind Millwood, 26-year-old sophomore starter Scott Feldman has paired a similarly low BABIP with improved peripherals to shave a run and a half off of his own ERA. Toss aside his three ugly relief outings in April and he has gone 13-4 with a 3.46 ERA in his 23 starts. More recently, 22-year-old rookie Tommy Hunter has gone 6-2 with a 2.66 ERA in ten starts since joining the rotation at the end of June, thanks in part to a still-lower BABIP.

One Ranger starter who is not just a product of his team’s defense is 22-year-old rookie Derek Holland. Holland, who starts tomorrow night, has thrived since his mid-July return to the rotation, going 4-2 with a 2.95 ERA over seven starts and 4-1 with a 1.85 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and 3.5 K/BB over his last five. He’s a legitimate prospect who could pair with recently promoted 21-year-old Neftali Feliz (part of the Mark Teixeira booty) to give the Rangers a legitimate rotation in the years to come. Feliz is working out of the major league pen for now and has struck out 19 men in 14 2/3 innings against just one walk and four hits. Be afraid.

The Rangers’ bullpen has been a large part of their success this year. First-year closer Frank Francisco has been on and off the DL, but has struck out 41 in 35 innings against just 8 walks (10.5 K/9, 5.13 K/BB). Deposed closer and current lefty set-up man C.J. Wilson has done admirably both setting up and closing for Francisco, striking out 61 in 56 innings and allowing just three home runs. Righty Darren O’Day, a mid-season waiver claim from the Mets, has posted a 1.87 ERA with similarly sharp peripherals in 50 games since arriving in Texas and leads the team in the win-expectancy-based WXRL.

The Rangers have pitched so well, in fact, that it’s easy to overlook the fact that they’re not hitting as much as they used to. Josh Hamilton has been hurt and only recently found his stroke (.373/.425/.513 since August 3, .657 OPS before that). Chris Davis struck out 114 times in 77 games and was demoted in early July. Hank Blalock has taken Davis’s place by getting on base at a .274 clip and doing little other than hitting homers. Andrus is hitting (and running) just enough to make his glove valuable, but no more. Prior to his current arm injury, fellow Teixeira-trade product Jarrod Saltalamacchia wasn’t doing that. Ian Kinsler is not repeating his production from last year and was hurt for a while himself. All of that has counteracted Cruz’s breakout, Andruw Jones ultimately half-hearted comeback, and Michael Young’s MVP-quality performance (if not for his stone glove and that Joe Mauer guy, of course). As a result the Rangers are actually a tick below league average in runs scored per game at 4.85. As usual, that gets worse on the road, where they’ve scored just 4.2 runs per game on the season.

Could this Yankees-Rangers series in the hitting-friendly Yankee Stadium yield a series of pitchers’ duels? Don’t be surprised if it does.

Joba Chamberlain goes against Millwood tonight on eight-day’s rest. He had nine days off around the All-Star break and came back looking like and ace, allowing two runs on eight hits over his next three starts. He then had seven days off before facing the Red Sox at the beginning of the month and came back looking like the nibbler we saw in the first half of the season, walking seven in five innings. Which Joba takes the mound tonight is anyone’s guess. It was the nibbler who faced Texas in Arlington back in late May (4 IP, 4 BB).

(more…)

The word “value” has numerous definitions and interpretations. The noun form, per dictionary.com, has 15 listed meanings. The first several apply to some kind of monetary distinction.

But if we’re looking at value in terms of a baseball player and a certain annual regular season award that’s handed out in November, we need to looking at the adjective, or maybe even the verb. The best definition of the three verb lines that apply here: “to consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance.”

Because of the way the MVP vote is constructed, the discussion surrounding the debate comes down to a subjective analysis of who should be considered the most worthy, excellent, useful, and/or important player in the league. The miracle of modern technology has made taken the level of debate to new heights. Please to enjoy, for example, Tyler Kepner’s tweet on August 14, moments after Mark Teixeira’s tiebreaking home run at Safeco Field:

“By the way, this is probably obvious by now, but Teixeira’s the AL MVP. ‘No question,’ as Joe Torre would say.”

The statements themselves seemed innocuous. They were an impulse reaction to a great moment among many that Tex, ye of the 8-year, $180 million contract, has provided in Year 1 of the megadeal. That was until you followed the thread to catch the jibes about Tex’s negative Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) and the running joke it’s become, and scoured the Net to read criticisms from Rob Neyer, Joe Posnanski, and my esteemed former colleague Steven Goldman – although Goldman’s retort wasn’t immediately directed at Kepner.

The criticisms of Kepner, save for broader strokes from Goldman and JoePos in SI, read like they traded in the horses that were driving the Joe Mauer Bandwagon for rocket fuel.

Put bluntly, it was an all-out Internet war with Neyer wielding a sabermetric sword (yes, pun intended), Pos casting spells with his wizarding words, and Kepner responding with a gun that instead of bullets, fired the stick with the flag that reads, “BANG!”

From Neyer:

What inspired this particular post? An essentially meaningless home run, hit well after midnight (back in New York). I mean, I’m sorry, but the Yankees aren’t exactly in the middle of a pennant race anymore. They’ve got a huge lead over the second-place Red Sox. And if the Red Sox should somehow mount a late charge, the Yankees have a huger lead over the Rangers for that other postseason berth. … Joe Mauer currently leads the American League in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. I don’t suppose anyone’s forgotten this yet, but he’s a catcher. Teixeira’s a first baseman. Are we really supposed to go for a power-hitting first baseman again, even when there’s a better-hitting catcher playing for a competitive team?” Neyer went on to say that he’s worried the writers are conspiring to rob Mauer of what should be a third MVP award for him.

He continued his fact-based rant 48 hours later, saying, “You know what? Let’s just be honest. The argument for Teixeira is an argument for doing it the way it’s always been done. Teixeira is just another big RBI guy on a team with a great record. If he were a Twin and Mauer were a Yankee, Teixeira would hardly be an afterthought. Some of you are OK with that. I’m not.”

Six days later, Neyer felt compelled to write about convincing Pete Abe on Super Joe. The goal, apparently, is to not only campaign for Mauer for MVP, but to have him win unanimously.

OK … now to Mr. Pos:

Look, could you make a case for Mark Teixeira over Joe Mauer? Well, you could make a case for anything. You could say that Mauer missed the first month of the season — so Teixeira has about 120 more plate appearances. You could say that the Yankees are going to the playoffs and the Twins are not unless they make a late season rush that looks more and more unlikely. But it sure seems to me that we need to start jabbing holes in this Teixeira MVP thing before it becomes a fait accompli.

Joe Mauer is having a much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much better season than Mark Teixeira. I’m not sure I put enough muches in there. Mauer is on pace to win his THIRD batting title as a catcher — and no other American League catcher has ever won even one. He leads the league in on-base percentage AND slugging percentage, the two most important stats going, and the only catcher to ever do that in baseball history was … oh, wait, nobody. He throws out base runners and hits .395 with runners in scoring position (hits .457 with runners in scoring position and two outs) and even runs the bases well.

And three days later, JoePos had this to offer: “Not to slam this MVP thing again, but we do realize that even forgetting all those kooky ‘advanced stats’ that seem to annoy people, even with Mauer missing a month of the season with injury — Mauer has now scored as many runs at Teixeira and he’s only 13 RBIs behind, and his batting average is 95 points higher. We do realize that the last seven days, while the Twins have been in desperate need of victories (and not getting many), Mauer is hitting .552 with three home runs and a .931 slugging percentage. And he’s probably the Gold Glove catcher.”

And finally, Goldman:

Unless Teixeira leads the league in home runs by a significant margin, or Mauer cools dramatically, it’s hard to see him emerging from the pack when his season is unremarkable by the standards of his position. Of the last 60 awards (both leagues), first basemen won only 11 times. No first baseman won without hitting .300 (I am treating the 1979 Keith Hernandez/Willie Stargell split like an honorary Academy Award for Pops). All but one, Mo Vaughn in 1995, were well over the .300 mark. An average of those 11 seasons comes to roughly .333/.428/.624, and many of them, like Don Mattingly and Keith Hernandez, both included in the 11, were fine defenders as well. Teixeira’s not having that kind of season.

Some harsh words in there. Kepner, following Posnanski’s initial commentary, issued a rebuttal at Bats, noting that “obvious” was a poor choice of words in his Tweet. In a way, he invited the storm and I thought he handled himself admirably among some respected, admired and talented industry heavyweights. I thought the degree to which he was made to be the piñata for “traditional baseball opinions” was a bit extreme. He’s entitled to his opinion, and opinions are subjective, just like the MVP vote.

(more…)

Today’s news is powered by…The Doobie Brothers:

• Joba will definitely be ready for his start Tuesday:

The lasting effect of eight days off should charge through Joba Chamberlain when he takes the mound on Tuesday against the Rangers. At least, the hard-throwing right-hander expects it will.

“Strong like bull,” Chamberlain said, grinning.

. . . “It still feels like it’s about a month in between each start, but that’s just because you’re used to going out every five days and doing it. This one felt a lot better than the last one did.”

• Girardi opines on the Posada/Burnett troubles:

“This (Jorge Posada) is a guy who’s played in [five] World Series — he’s doing something right,” said Girardi, a former big league backstop himself. “The true onus falls on the pitcher, what they’re going to throw.

“I would never want a pitcher to throw what I want if he didn’t believe in it, ever. Conviction, for me, is extremely important for pitchers. We’re suggestion boxes.”

(A.J.) Burnett gave new life to one of the Yankees’ most recent hot-button issues on Saturday, when he threw a fastball to David Ortiz that he admitted he did not completely want to throw.

• Where will Hideki Matsui be in 2010?

The Yankees admire Matsui’s professionalism and are thrilled that he has overcome two knee surgeries in the last two seasons to remain productive. But as reliable as Matsui has been while hitting 23 homers and driving in 68 runs as a designated hitter, the Yankees may not offer him a contract for 2010.

The Yankees have high-priced veterans like Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Mark Teixeira who need rest from playing defense, so they would rather use the D.H. as a flexible spot. General Manager Brian Cashman, who considers Matsui, 35, a full-time D.H., said there were too many unknown variables to speculate about Matsui’s future.

“Obviously, he’s a pro,” Cashman said. “He can swing the bat, there’s no doubt about that. Where it goes from here, who knows?”

. . . Matsui was noncommittal about his future, saying that he was “not looking at anything beyond the season right now.”

When pressed on whether he would rather stay with the Yankees, Matsui eventually said: “I like New York, I like being with the Yankees, I like the New York fans. So it’s a place that I feel very comfortable.”

(more…)

Today’s news is powered by . . . rockin’ ukes!:

• Buster Olney defends the Captain against Jim Rice:

According to The Associated Press, Jim Rice told Little Leaguers, “You see a Manny Ramirez, you see an A-Rod, you see Jeter. Guys that I played against and with, these guys you’re talking about cannot compare.

“We didn’t have the baggy uniforms. We didn’t have the dreadlocks. It was a clean game, and now they’re setting a bad example for the young guys.”

I cast a vote for Jim Rice to enter the Hall of Fame because he was one of the best players of his time. I don’t know, however, whether he’s the wisest judge of the players of this era or even his own. It’s not entirely clear whether Rice was talking about the differences between the generations in their respective standards of play, or in collective character, or in style, or maybe all of the above.

. . .  Rice owes Jeter a public apology for the way he spoke about him, because after 15 years of playing in the majors, there are three indisputable truths about Jeter.

1. He plays hard.
2. He plays well.
3. He represents the sport well.

(more…)

I said in my series preview yesterday that I thought taking two of three in Boston this weekend would ice the AL East title for the Yankees. All they need to do to reach that goal is beat 23-year-old Japanese rookie Junichi Tazawa in this afternoon’s FOX game.

Tazawa made his major league debut in the 14th inning of that 15-inning scoreless marathon between the Yanks and Sox at the new Yankee Stadium two weeks ago. The Yanks hit him hard in that inning, with both Eric Hinske and Melky Cabrera just missing game-winning hits down the right-field line with runners on first and second, but ultimately came up empty, only to finally tally off Tazawa in the bottom of the 15th via a Derek Jeter single and an Alex Rodriguez walk-off homer.

Tazawa pitched well at Fenway against the Tigers in his first major league start four days later, striking out six in five innings and allowing just one earned run on four hits and two walks, but his last outing, in Texas, was shakier as he failed to strike out a batter and gave up four runs on ten hits, two of them homers, in another five frames.

Today, he takes on A.J. Burnett, who was the Yankee starter in that 15-inning marathon. Burnett was awful in his first two starts against Boston this year, but came up huge in that game, pitching 7 2/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit baseball despite six walks. He’s turned in two more quality starts since then, giving him 11 in his last 12 outings dating back to his last start at Fenway, in which he failed to survive the third inning.

Jason Varitek, who homered of Sergio Mitre in then ninth inning last night, returns to the Red Sox lineup to face Burnett while Mike Lowell sits. Johnny Damon, who fouled a ball of his knee in the top of the first on Friday night, sits today in favor of Eric Hinske. Hinske plays left and bats eighth. Nick Swisher takes Damon’s spot in the two-hole. The Red Sox have reloaded their bullpen, demoting Michael Bowden, who threw 63 pitches in two innings while allowing seven runs Friday night, in favor of Enrique Gonzalez. Given Tazawa’s brief track record, the Yankees will likely bring the underside of the Boston pullpen into play today as well, which bodes well for the Bombers, as do most things these days.

Andy Pettitte had his worst start of the second half on Friday night. Not that it mattered. By the time he got the hook with two on and none out in the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees had scored 15 runs and were well on their way to a 20-11 win. The Yankees scored six runs in four innings off Boston starter Brad Penny without the benefit of a home run, added six more in the fifth off Penny and just-recalled rookie Michael Bowden, and boasted a 12-1 lead before the Red Sox picked up their second hit of the game in the bottom of the fifth.

Pettitte struggled from there on out, giving up three in the fifth (all of which the Yanks got back off Bowden in the top of the sixth), and one more in the sixth before getting pulled with men on first and second and none out. Brian Bruney came on and walked in a run and let another in on a double-play before finally getting out of the inning. The Yankees got one of those runs back off Manny Delcarmen in the top of the seventh. Bruney worked into another jam in seventh, loading the bases on two walks and a hit batter, but Damaso Marte, fresh of the disabled list, emerged from the bullpen and got David Ortiz to fly out and struck out Mike Lowell, hitting 94 on the radar gun in the process. Marte started a string of eight straight outs that was snapped when the two teams combined for eight more runs in the ninth, with Ramon Ramirez and Sergio Mitre, who had pitched a perfect eighth, taking the beating.

The specifics of how the runs scored were unimportant. Nearly every Yankee starter got a hit and both scored and drove in at least one run. The exception was Johnny Damon, who struck out in his first at-bat after fouling a pitch off the inside of his right knee and never took the field in the bottom of the first due to the resulting bruise (it was nothing more). Erik Hinske took Damon’s place and in his first at-bat he hit an RBI ground rule double down the right field line, then came around to score. Hideki Matsui hit the only Yankee home runs, both of them three-run shots, contributing to his seven-RBI night, though one came with the Yanks leading 16-7 in the ninth inning.

So the Yankees finally won a game at Fenway this year, but hidden behind all the scoring was a poorly played game, even by the victors. Pettitte needed 105 pitches to get through five-plus innings and gave up seven runs on seven hits. Just five of those runs were earned because the sixth inning began with a throwing error by Robinson Cano that pulled Mark Teixeira off first base on a ground ball by Casey Kotchman. That wasn’t the worst play of the night however. In the third, Eric Hinske misplayed a ball off the Monster into a would-be triple, only to have Derek Jeter range out to shallow left and gun out Dustin Pedroia at third; Hinske never touched the ball. The “hit” that drove Pettitte from the game was a pop up to the triangle in shallow left center by David Ortiz that Melky Cabrera should have had, but let drop expecting Hinske to move in. That drove in a run. Bruney’s inning and a third was flat-out dreadful. He faced eight batters, walked three of them, hit a fourth, and gave up a single to a fifth. He threw 37 pitches to get four outs (two on a double play), and just 14 of those tosses were strikes. After a 1-2-3 eighth, Sergio Mitre got torched in the ninth, retiring just three of eight batters, hitting one and giving up a pair of homers and four runs, putting him even further behind Chad Guadin in the competition for the fifth spot in the rotation.

Still, it was a good time for Joe Girardi and Dave Eiland to get a look at the inconsistent Bruney, the newly activated Marte, and the relief version of Sergio Mitre. It also kept the Yankee boot on the Red Sox’s neck. The Yankees have now won the last five head-to-head meetings, hold a 7.5-game lead in the AL East, and have A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia starting the final two games of the series.

In the good old Curse of the Bambino days, it seemed the Red Sox always led the AL East on Memorial Day, and the Yankees always caught and passed them by Labor Day. The Sox broke the Curse in 2004, but the Yankees still won the division that year and the next two, with the Red Sox failing to reach the postseason at all in 2006. It seemed 2004 was a fluke. Then the Sox stormed to both the division title and another world championship in 2007 and it was the Yankees who found themselves watching the postseason on television in 2008.

The Yankees, flush with the new stadium revenue, spent wildly this past winter, but I still thought they’d have to settle for the Wild Card given the strength and depth of the Red Sox’s roster. Indeed, the Red Sox held a slim one-game lead over the Bombers on Memorial Day having already won the first five head-to-head games between the two teams to that point. Two weeks later, the Sox would take three more from the Yankees in Fenway Park, suggesting that, no matter how well the Yankees played against everyone else, the Red Sox were still the better team.

Then came the four-game set in the Bronx two weeks ago, when the Yankees not only got of the schnide against their division rivals, but beat them in every way possible (13-6 laugher; 15-inning scoreless duel; clean, well-pitched 5-0 win; and dramatic late-inning comeback). When the dust cleared, the Yankees held a convincing 6.5 game lead, a lead they’ve maintained heading into this weekend’s three-game set in Boston.

Both teams have gone 7-3 in the interim. The Yankees won series against the second-division Blue Jays and A’s as well as the should-be second-division Mariners. The Red Sox took a four-game set from the AL Central-leading Tigers, but dropped two of three to the Wild Card rival Rangers, only to rebound by sweeping the Jays, outscoring them 14-2 in their last two games.

The Yankees now arrive at Fenway to do the one thing they haven’t managed to do all season: beat the Red Sox in Boston. The Sox are a .679 team at home, where they score 5.66 runs per game and allow just 4.05. The Yankees, however, are no chumps on the road. Coming off a 5-2 west coast swing, they’re playing .565 ball away from home, scoring 5.44 runs and allowing 4.58 away from their homer-happy home park. Only the Angels and Phillies have had more road success than the Yankees in all of baseball.

Once again, the mission for the Yankees is to prove it when it counts. Their four-game sweep of the Red Sox in the Bronx didn’t ice the division, but if they can take two of three from Boston this weekend, doing it to them in their own park and leaving town with a 7.5-game lead with just three head-to-head games in the Bronx remaining, that very well could do the trick.

The pitching matchups favor the Yankees as they’ll have their top three (Andy Pettitte, A.J. Burnett, and CC Sabathia) going while avoiding Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, the latter of whom has turned in three straight quality starts dating back to his six innings of two-run ball against the Yankees on August 8. If the two teams split the first two games, Sunday night’s ESPN matchup of Josh Beckett and the red-hot CC Sabathia will be must-see TV for baseball fans of all stripes.

Brad Penny goes tonight. Relative to the performance of John Smoltz and the health of Rocco Baldelli, Penny has been a successful gamble. In a rotation that has been surprisingly thin due to Daisuke Matsuzaka’s disaster season, Tim Wakefield’s back injury, Smoltz’s failure, and the departure of Justin Masterson in the Victor Martinez deal, Penny hasn’t missed a turn, delivering 23 starts, 11 of them quality. Sure, his 5.22 ERA is ugly, but he was never supposed to be more than a fifth starter, and he’s been very much that. He’s been a bit too hitable (opponents hitting .291/.345/.482), but he gets out there and battles. He also shut out the Yankees at Fenway for six innings back on June 11.

Penny’s mound opponent tonight is Andy Pettitte, who has been flat awesome since the All-Star break with five quality starts in six tries, posting a 2.04 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 4.3 K/BB, 9.73 K/9, and allowing just one home run in 39 2/3 innings. That run includes seven shutout innings against the Red Sox in the Bronx on August 9.

Adding to that disadvantage, the Red Sox are without Jason Varitek tonight for the fifth straight game due to a sore neck and have now resorted to reacquiring Alex Gonzalez to play shortstop. Gonzalez is hitting .214/.258/.298 on the season and has never had another defensive season like he had for the Red Sox in 2006. He’s also just one year removed from knee surgery. The Sox might actually be better off without their captain in the lineup, but Gonzalez represents a hole in the Boston order that just doesn’t exist for the Bombers.

Damaso Marte has been activated and joins the Yankee bullpen tonight, bumping Ramiro Peña back to Triple-A. Marte has been on the disabled list for most of the season with shoulder problems, last appearing for the Yankees on April 25. He pitched 13 innings on his rehab assigment, 11 of them coming in Triple-A. In those 11, he struck out nine against four walks and gave up three runs on ten hits, two of them homers. That all works out to a 2.45 ERA and 1.27 WHIP with solid strikeout and walk rates, but the PawSox (whom he faced twice) and the Red Sox are two different monsters.

(more…)

Today’s news is powered by the (Yankees’) quest for the Holy Grail:

• More of Jeter’s own perception of his future:

Jeter joked to Joe Girardi the other day that he could see himself being a designated hitter for five more years after he stops playing short, saying that DH duties are “easier” because “you only have to worry about one thing.” A handful of reporters were talking with Jeter on Wednesday when one asked him if he could see himself being a DH at age 41 – six years from now.

“You’ll see me at short still,” Jeter said without a hint of humor in his voice.

After riding Jeter’s defensive ability for years, the stat-heads have decided this season that he’s actually a pretty good shortstop. I asked Jeter if he felt like he was playing any better in the field this year than he ever has, and his answer was typical Jeter: “I don’t know. It’s not over yet.”

Then, he added, “I just try to be consistent. I don’t sit around and rate my seasons. That’s your job, right? I feel good. That’s pretty much all I can say.”

• Six bullets left in the Chamberlain:

Because (Joba) Chamberlain threw only 100 innings last season, the Yankees intend to limit his innings to guard against injury. Chamberlain has thrown 126 innings so far. Six more starts would likely put him around 165.

“We sat down and figured out a plan that works for both of us as far as keeping it as regular as possible,” Chamberlain said. “It gives my arm the rest that this whole thing is for, so it all worked out great. Mentally, for me to know that this is the plan for the rest of the year, it’s definitely calming.”

. . . Come the postseason, Chamberlain will be used as a starter with no limitations.

(more…)