If Joe Girardi was going to yank the ice-cold Nick Swisher from last night’s Game 6 of the ALCS against the Angels at Yankee Stadium, it was going to be for Jerry Hairston Jr.
That was among the many reasons Girardi stayed with the switch-hitter against lefty Joe Saunders before the game was rained out. Unless the Angels make a late switch tonight, Girardi will have Swisher in the lineup again.
“If we were going to play somebody out there it would be Jerry, and Jerry has had two at-bats in three weeks,” Girardi said when questioned why he stayed with Swisher, who was 2-for-17 (.117) in five ALCS games and 3-for-29 (.103) in the postseason.
Girardi said Hairston, a utility man, would have been the choice instead of using the left-handed hitting Brett Gardner in center against Saunders and shifting Melky Cabrera to right field.
There were other reasons, too.
“There were a lot of things I thought about,” Girardi said. “Johnny [Damon] was scuffling and Johnny came out of it. Tex [Mark Teixeira] was scuffling and he got a huge hit for us [in Game 5]. I didn’t have a hit in the [1996] World Series until my triple in Game 6 and Joe [Torre] didn’t bench me.
“Swish plays a good right field, and it’s not always the easiest right field to play, and he has had good at-bats against Joe Saunders. He was 1-for-2 with a walk [in Game 2].”
Swisher is a .238 (5-for-21) hitter against Saunders in the regular season. So why was Swisher, who ended Game 5 with a pop up and the bases loaded, 3-for-29?
“He is chasing balls out of the zone and when you do that it’s hard to get hits,” Girardi said of the normally patient Swisher. “They are throwing him a lot of off-speed behind in the count and he has to find a way to lay off.”
Swisher spent time with hitting coach Kevin Long in the cage prior to last night’s postponement and is confident his personal October nightmare is about to end.
“I have never lost confidence, obviously I am frustrated,” Swisher said. “I know it’s not going the way I wanted but I saw a quote from Babe Ruth that said, ‘It’s hard to beat up a guy who never quits.’ ”
Swisher admitted to being a bit overanxious.
“It’s a big stage, postseason in New York, and you want to do so well, maybe I want to do too much,” Swisher said.
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Japanese high school pitching phenom Yusei Kikuchi has decided not to play in the U.S. major leagues for now, opting instead for Japan’s professional leagues.
The 18-year-old left-hander, who met with both the Yankees and Mets last week, said today he wasn’t yet ready for the majors.
“I don’t think I have what it takes to complete at the world level yet,” Kikuchi said at a press conference.
Eight major league teams held talks with Kikuchi in Japan last week.
Japan’s amateur draft will be held on Oct. 29 and Kikuchi is expected to be the top pick.
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Girardi staying with Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain over using David Robertson in the seventh and eighth inning has nothing to do with Girardi’s admission this week that Robertson’s velocity had dropped — one of the reasons he replaced Robertson with two runners on and two outs in the 11th inning of Game 3 and brought in Alfredo Aceves.
“He is OK, physically he is fine,” Girardi said of Robertson, who didn’t work in Games 4 and 5. “We saw his velocity go a few different places this year.”