BALTIMORE — Two Maryland state troopers couldn’t have picked a worse time to ask for autographs Sunday night.
In the top of the ninth inning of the Yankees’ 7-2 win in Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Orioles at Camden Yards, the troopers asked Nick Swisher and Derek Jeter for autographs in the dugout.
“Swish was livid,’’ said a person who witnessed the stupid request.
Asked if that ever happened before, Jeter said, “What do you think?”
Law enforcement officials are no strangers to big league dugouts, but after last night’s behavior it’s likely the Yankees will attempt to have those two troopers removed from their dugout for tonight’s Game 2.
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First, Ivan Nova was skipped in favor of rookie David Phelps in the final stages of a skin-tight AL East pennant race.
Then, to the surprise of nobody, he was left off the Yankees’ 25-man ALDS roster that was turned into Major League Baseball Sunday morning.
Yet, according to manager Joe Girardi, Nova remains a big part of the Yankees’ plans even though many believe he would serve best as trade bait.
“Long-term, we have plans for this guy,’’ Girardi said of the 25-year-old right-hander who went 12-8 with a 5.02 ERA in 28 starts. “He has won 28 games in the last two years for us so he has to keep working and be prepared if we need him here.’’
In 170 ¹/₃ innings, Nova gave up 194 hits and 56 walks. Twenty-eight of those hits were homers.
Though the Yankees can adjust their roster for the AL Championship Series if they get by the Orioles, it’s not likely Nova will be active.
With CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda and Phil Hughes, they have the necessary four starters and of Nova’s 66 big league games, 62 have been starts, so he has very little relief experience.
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Derek Lowe no longer possesses the turbo sinker that was his signature pitch forever. But the veteran righty still induces ground balls and doesn’t give up many homers. And there was something else that Girardi liked about Lowe, who was part of the 11-man Yankees pitching staff going into last night’s Game 1.
“He has been there, he has been there in tough situations,’’ Girardi said of Lowe, who started Games 4 and 7 for the 2004 Red Sox in the AL Championship Series against the Yankees. “He has been there when it’s eliminations and done a really nice job.’’
Signed off the street in mid-August after going 8-10 with a 5.52 ERA for the Indians, Lowe made 17 relief appearances for the Yankees and pitched well in tight situations in the latter part of the season.
“You’re always going to have the same nerves, but I think [having postseason experience] makes it a little bit easier,’’ Lowe said. “You can reflect on certain situations that you’ve been in before. I think the easiest thing is to slow the game down. I remember the first time I did it, you want to get the at-bat over with fast. You want to get the ball and throw it. So I think those experiences definitely help.’’
Lowe said the news from Girardi was gratifying.
“This is one of the proudest things I’ve been able to do in my career because all of the other years I made it, I had a role. I was either a starter or the closer. You never had to worry about making the team,’’ Lowe said. “But there was only one way I was going to make it, and that was to pitch as well as you possibly could. I wasn’t going to be allowed one bad game.
“[There was] the toughness of the moment, trying to help the team win and yet also knowing I can’t slip up even this much,” he added, putting his fingers close together. “To be able to pull that off…three weeks ago, there was no chance I could make it. For me personally, it was pretty fulfilling.’’
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Girardi said it was difficult to tell Cody Eppley, Andruw Jones and Freddy Garcia they weren’t going to be on the ALDS roster
.“Friday was a tough day,’’ Girardi said before the Yankees’ 7-2 Game 1 victory Sunday night.
Jones and Garcia were with the club all year and Eppley appeared in 59 games, posting a 3.33 ERA.
Brett Gardner had three regular-season at-bats after April 18 and they came across the final three games of the regular season, but Girardi saw enough from the outfielder to include him on the roster.
“He can hit now,’’ Girardi said. “That was a concern of mine. I am not concerned about it now because I saw him get at-bats in games and I saw him get at-bats in simulated games.’’
Girardi will use Gardner as a pinch-runner and a defensive replacement.
Without the right-handed hitting Jones, Girardi could use Eduardo Nunez as the designated hitter Monday night against Orioles lefty Wei-Yin Chen.
Chen (12-11, 4.02 ERA) posted a 5.25 ERA in four starts against the Yankees this season.
“I’m from Taiwan, I pitched in Japan and I’m a rookie here,” Chen said. “And I never thought of pitching [in] a postseason game, and this is really a big dream for me.”
A buzz swept the Camden Yards press box Sunday afternoon when the Yankees’ lineup was posted on a television screen and Ichiro Suzuki wasn’t in. Batting ninth was Gardner despite Ichiro being 7-for-12 against Orioles starter Jason Hammel.
It turned out not to be true. Ichiro was in the starting lineup.
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Orioles lefty Joe Saunders, who excelled in starting Friday’s 5-1 wild-card win over the Rangers, is working out of the bullpen, according to Baltimore manager Buck Showalter.
Saunders could be valuable as a lefty specialist, since he held lefty batters this year to a .199/.222/.229 line in 172 plate appearances. The Yankees boast a slew of formidable lefty batters in Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson and Raul Ibanez.
“I think Joe himself is another option with the left-handed-laden roster that they’ll have,” Showalter said.