The Captain's Blog

After briefly struggling in the 3^rd inning, Andy Pettitte rebounded to pitch 8 full innings, the longest stint by a Yankee starter this season. Over one stretch, Pettitte retired the next 12 batters in a row. In the 8^th inning, Pettitte seemed on the verge of losing it after walking Elvis Andrus and falling behind Michael Young 2-0. However, Dave Eiland trotted to the mound for a quick word and then Pettitte rebounded to strike out Young on the next three pitches before getting Josh Hamilton to pop up. It seemed as if Eiland told Pettitte to ignore the runner and stop using the slide step. The advice deemed to work.

Andy Pettitte battled for 8 innings against the Rangers (Photo: Getty Images).

Unfortunately for the Rangers, Rich Harden never found his rhythm. Instead, he pitched cautiously to the Yankees lineup, walking 6 while racking up 94 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, his second start this season of less than four innings. Although he was able to dial up 93mph to strike out Nick Swisher in a key bases loaded situation in the 3^rd inning, Harden’s velocity was way down in the 87-89mph range, while his breaking ball was flat for most of the game. Harden, whose inefficiency as a starter has basically rendered him a 5 inning pitcher for most of his career, was only the latest victim of the Yankees’ methodical approach. Texas’ pitching staff entered the series with the lowest ERA in baseball, but the three starters in the series only lasted a combined 12 innings, and needed 266 pitches to do it.

• Brett Gardner started off the game with an attempted bunt single that just rolled foul. On the next pitch, Rich Harden nailed Gardner in the shin. Was it retaliation for the attempted bunt? Rangers’ president Nolan Ryan was known to discourage bunting in a similar manner, so one wonders if that has become an organizational philosophy. 
• In the third inning, Mark Teixeira snapped his season long homerless drought when he went deep into the right field second deck. It was his only hit of the game, but Teixeira hit the ball hard in his final three times at bat.
• Teixeira also flashed the leather, making a leaping grab of Josh Hamilton’s line drive in the 3^rd inning and then stealing a hit from Matt Treanor with a diving stop in the 4^th inning.
• As a team, the Yankees have been solid defensively. With another errorless game, they’ve now played clean baseball for 10 straight games. Then again, considering the very poor official scorekeeping exhibited in this series (almost all on balls hit by Yankee batters and misplayed by the Texas defense), perhaps that streak isn’t too significant?
• The Yankees took the lead in the third inning when Ramiro Pena pulled a two out single with the bases loaded. In his young career, Pena is now 4 for 5 with the bases loaded. Continue Reading »

The Yankees look to keep on a roll as they bring their first home stand of the season to a close with Andy Pettitte on the mound. They will be opposed by Rangers’ starter Rich Harden, who has not begun a game against the Yankees since April 15, 2007 when he was with the Oakland A’s. In that game, made famous by Marco Scutaro’s walk off home run against Mariano Rivera, Harden also matched up against Pettitte. Despite pitching well, he had to leave early because of an injury, a trend that has become a reoccurring theme in Harden’s career. Look for the Yankees to once again use their patient approach to get into the Rangers’ bullpen early. Harden, never know for efficiency, has thrown 90 and 104 pitches in 3 2/3 and 6 innings, respectively.

• On this date in 1923, the original Yankee Stadium opened its doors for the first time. In the game against Boston, Bob Shawkey pitched a complete game and Babe Ruth homered to lead the Yankees to a 4-1 victory.
• By beating the Rangers on Saturday, the Yankees assured themselves of four straight series wins to start a season. Incredibly, that had not been accomplished since 1926, when the team won its first five series.
• Derek Jeter, suffering the effects of a head cold, is not in the lineup for the first time this season. Starting in his place is Ramiro Pena, the last Yankee position player to be in the pre-game lineup. The Captain must really be feeling under the weather to miss a game against Harden (.375/.500/.500 in 21 PAs).
• Alex Rodriguez finally passed Mark McGwire for sole possession of 8^th place on the All-time HR list. The opposite field blast was number 584 for Arod. It also snapped a career long 10-game homerless streak at the start of a season. Arod also went 10 opening games without a HR in 2001, but then went on to hit 52.
• Jorge Posada’s second inning hit in yesterday’s game was number 1,500 in his Yankee career, making him only the 19^th player and 4^th catcher in franchise history to accomplish the milestone.

AJ Burnett makes his 2010 debut at Yankee Stadium, where last season his ERA was a full run lower (3.51 vs. 4.59 on the road). He opposes Ranger’s righty Scott Feldman, who is looking to build on a 17-win season in 2009.

• Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano both have at least one hit in all 10 games this season, the first time in Yankee history that teammates have started the season with such a streak. Jeter and Cano also made history last year by becoming the first double-play combo in franchise history to each tally 200 hits in a season.
• Alex Rodriquez has remained tied with McGwire for 8^th place on the all-time HR list. Arod has been stuck on 583 for 10 games this season, tying his longest drought to start a season.
• Mark Teixeira’s April slump continues. The Yankee 1B’s average has plummeted to .083, the lowest qualified average in the American League.
• The last Yankees rain shorted game was a 6 to 1 loss against the Minnesota Twins on September 2, 2006.

The Yankees welcome the Texas Rangers to town for the start of a three game series. Game 1 will feature a matchup between initialed lefties C.C. Sabathia and C.J. Wilson. Wilson was scratched from his last start due to food poisoning, so he will be pitching with two extra days of rest. On April 8, Wilson threw seven shutout innings against the Blue Jays. The start was his first since 2005, and snapped a string of 234 consecutive relief appearances.

• Before the game, the Yankees announced that Chan Ho Park was headed to the DL with a hamstring injury. Boone Logan has been called up to take his place.