After watching his team commit 12 errors in the previous seven games and lose concentration on other plays, manager Joe Girardi gathered his players in a meeting room before last night’s 5-4 loss to the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.
Staying in character, Girardi didn’t rant and rave. Instead, he reminded them to “clean things up.”
The Yankees didn’t commit an error last night, but Russell Martin was charged with a passed ball that led to a run. It was the third passed ball in two games since Francisco Cervelli was charged with two Thursday night.
Asked about the alarming amount of errors, Girardi didn’t zero in on one area.
“Sometimes they are physical errors, sometimes it’s from fatigue and sometimes it’s players over-anxious to make something happen,” Girardi said.
The Yankees, who have committed 25 errors in 35 games, went into last night’s action 12th among the 14 AL teams with a .981 fielding percentage. Only Oakland (.979) and Texas (.975) were worse than the Yankees in fielding percentage. Detroit (26), Oakland (30) and Texas (34) were the teams that committed more errors than the Yankees.
Five of those 25 errors belong to back up infielder Eduardo Nunez.
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Alex Rodriguez had a rough batting practice.
In between swings, Rodriguez was standing near the cage toward the first base line when a ball hit by Mark Teixeira clipped the front of the cage and hit Rodriguez in the head. Fortunately, he was wearing a helmet. Rodriguez was stunned for a second but again wasn’t affected in the batting practice round.
“That hurt,” Rodriguez said. “If I didn’t have helmet on I would have been [messed up].”
Rodriguez, who homered late in Thursday’s embarrassing 11-5 loss to the Royals, started last night’s action in a 3-for-21 (.143) slide and 1-fofr-9 (.111) with runners in scoring position.
He went 1-for-3 with a walk and didn’t hit with a runner in scoring position.
Thursday’s homer was the first for Rodriguez since April 23 and ended a 65 at-bat stretch without a homer. That was the second-longest dry spell in his career. He went 72 at-bats without going deep from July 19 to Aug. 7 in 2009.
“We went from talking about one superstar [Derek Jeter] to another,” Girardi said of questions pertaining to slumping stars. “I thought he was better [Thursday]. Maybe it got him going.”
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Rafael Soriano pitched for the first time since Sunday after which he complained of a shoulder problem. An MRI exam found no structural damage.
“I feel fine,” said Soriano, who relieved Boone Logan in the ninth and walked two and allowed an inherited run to score.
Asked if he would be available tonight, Soriano said, “I think so. I feel fine so far, wait till tomorrow to see.”
The Yankees fell to two games behind the AL East-leading Rays. It’s the furthest back they have been this season.
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Jeter’s ninth-inning single was the 2,964th of his career and put him 29th place on the all-time list.
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Phil Hughes started a throwing program yesterday. The 30-toss session from 60 feet went well according to Hughes, who has been on the DL since April 15 with right shoulder inflammation.
“It feels good, no pain, no tiredness,” said Hughes, who was robbed of velocity from what was first described as a dead arm.
According to Hughes, he will repeat the process today and tomorrow.
“Geno [trainer Gene Monahan] mentioned it will be with a little more intensity,” Hughes said.
Hughes said he has been cleared to resume weight lifting and arm strengthening exercise.
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Brett Gardner went 1-for-4 and is hitting .474 (9-for-19) in the last five games.
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Yankees sent Buddy Carlyle to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes- Barre yesterday and elevated right-hander Hector Noesi. Right-hander Amaury Sanit, who hurled 4 2/3 innings Thursday night in his major league debut, was retained.
“Our thought was that we couldn’t use Buddy for a couple of days,” Girardi said of Carlyle, who worked Wednesday and Thursday. “Sanit is more stretched out. It was Nova’s day to pitch in the rotation and he can give you a ton of pitches.”
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The news that Harmon Killebrew had entered a hospice yesterday was a surprise to former Twins teammate Jim Kaat.
“I could tell that he really slowed down, but I didn’t know it had deteriorated that much,” said Kaat, who spoke to the Hall of Fame first baseman Tuesday.
Killebrew, 74, has been battling esophageal cancer.
Kaat had no trouble identifying which of Killebrew’s home runs was the most memorable.
Killebrew hit a two-run homer off Pete Mickelson in the 1965 All-Star Game.
“To me, that was still the most memorable and maybe one of the biggest home runs in Twins history,” said Kaat, who was at Yankee Stadium as part of MLB Network broadcast team. “I don’t think I ever saw Harmon lose his balance swinging. Perfect balance. His temperament was the same whether he was 3-for-4 with a couple home runs or 0-for-5.”
Kaat said he played more with Killebrew than any other player in his long career.
— Additional reporting by
Joel Sherman and Mark Hale