Yankees Monday night postgame notes

Turns out, Mark Teixeira actually hurt himself last night. He was trying to play through it tonight, and landing awkwardly on his glove wasn’t part of the plan.
“Yesterday, third at-bat against Doubront, swung through a pitch and it just didn’t feel right,” Teixeira explained. “Played through it yesterday. Got a lot of treatment last night. I had treatment today. It just didn’t feel good again today. And then when I dove, I landed right on my glove and I just tweaked it even more. I went back in the dugout, in the clubhouse, tried to swing the bat and just couldn’t do it.”

Here are the Monday night postgame notes after the Yankees dropped their third straight.  They are in a tough stretch right now but that is why building up that big lead is important.  They aren't in any imminent danger like some will think.  The notes are courtesy of the Lohud Yankees blog and my thoughts mixed in. 

Teixeira will go for an MRI tomorrow. He said he’ll almost certainly miss tomorrow night’s game, but his concern is “low” that this is a significant injury.  If there is nothing major there, it won't hurt to rest him a few days and then have him back and ready to go the rest of the season. 

“Not crazy concerned because like I said, I tried to play through it,” he said. “It’s one of those things if you really hurt yourself bad, you’re out and you can’t do much. I was kind of nursing it today when I was swinging so hopefully it’s just a couple of days and I can get back out there. … More achy and sore than major pain. That’s why I feel okay about it. Hopefully it’s not too bad.”

Of course, if it is serious, the Yankees won’t have much time to make a significant move to find a replacement at first base. Baseball’s trade deadline is Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET, and Brian Cashman said before tonight game that he had nothing in the works. He indicated that there was no sense of urgency because the Yankees expected to get several key pieces — Joba Chamberlain, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte — off the disabled list before the end of the season. Adding Teixeira to that listed of wounded, though, would be yet another significant blow.  I would agree with Cashman on this, the Yankees are tied up with a few guys with big contracts.  They have a good team, good enough to be the best team in the AL at this point, why make any major changes when you know you will get some guys back healthy and be better with them. 
“It’s a big concern,” Joe Girardi said. “He’s a huge part of our lineup and hopefully it’s only a couple of days, but we’ll find out more tomorrow.”

The Yankees have now lost three in a row and eight of their past 11. Six of those eight losses have been by one run. “I think you’d be more concerned if you were getting pounded,” Girardi said. “We’ve had a chance to win a lot of those eight of 11 games. If you get yourself in enough of those opportunities, you’re going to start to win them. I think we’re playing pretty decent baseball. We’re pitching well. It’s just been a lot of those types of games.”  It is just one of those streaks, in baseball this happens to everyone.  It is a long season and there are your ups and downs, you just hope there are more ups. 

By the way, Russell Branyan is on the Triple-A disabled list, so he’s not a first-base option right now. If the Yankees had to fill a first-base hole from within, it might be more likely that they would call up an outfielder — Chris Dickerson, Jack Cust, maybe even Ronnier Mustelier — and use Nick Swisher at first base. But that’s just a guess.  Swisher is a capable first baseman and they can keep Ichiro in right field for now.  He will eventually go to left field when Swisher gets back in right field. 
Teixeira said his swing hurts from both sides. “It’s probably worse right-handed, because that’s how I hurt it with a right-handed swing,” he said. “But I feel it from both sides.”

The Yankees have homered in 18 straight home games, the second-longest such streak at the current Yankee Stadium. They homered in 20 straight in 2009.

Ichiro Suzuki’s home run was his first as a Yankee and the 100th of his career. He seemed to care more about hitting his first with the Yankees than hitting his 100th overall. “I’ve been playing for 11 and a half years,” he said. “So 100 home runs, not that I’m embarrassed, but it’s not something to make a big deal out of.”  I would agree it isn't part of his game really, its not like it is 300. 

 Ichiro on hitting his first homer for the Yankees: “That was very special. To go out there and have the fans react the way they did toward me, that was very special.”

The Yankees had a leadoff hit in both the eighth and ninth innings and couldn’t get a run across. Raul Ibanez was especially mad at himself for striking out immediately after Swisher doubled in the ninth. “I was trying to get the ball on the ground,” Ibanez said. “I was trying to get the guy over to third base. I just didn’t get it done, and I’ve got to be better about it.”  I would agree with that, more times then not he does get the job done, that is probably why he is so hard on himself.  The Yankees as a whole are not good at this though.

 Pretty typical Freddy Garcia start. He wasn’t great, but he didn’t walk anyone and he limited the damage enough to give the Yankees a chance. The only RBI hit he allowed was a home run in the third inning. “The home run, he don’t really hit that ball (well), but when you play here, that happens,” Garcia said.

On what made Miguel Gonzalez so effective: “I don’t think it’s a matter of trying too hard,” Girardi said. “I think the kid did a nice job of mixing in his offspeed when he was behind in the count, expanding when he was ahead in the count, using his fastball on both sides of the plate.”

Last word goes to Girardi, speaking about the Yankees injuries this season: “It is concerning, but no one is going to feel sorry for us. We got guys that are still capable of getting the job done, and that’s what you have to do. We’ve been able to overcome a lot of things up to this point, you just continue to do it.”