SEATTLE — Joe Girardi isn’t saying Jorge Posada will be the designated hitter only against right-handers, but yesterday was the seventh straight game started by a left-handed pitcher Posada spent on the bench.
“It’s a way to give some of my players a blow and that’s what I have done,” said Girardi, who used Derek Jeter as the DH yesterday against Mariners lefty Jason Vargas in a 7-1 Yankees victory. “Alex [Rodriguez] and Jeter need DH days.”
The Yankees start a three-game series at Oakland today, and with the Athletics starting lefties tomorrow and Wednesday, figure Rodriguez to be the DH in one of those games and Eduardo Nunez, who started at shortstop yesterday, playing third.
The switch-hitting Posada, who is 0-for-26 with 10 whiffs against lefties, is batting .174 (23-for-132) overall and hasn’t homered since April 23. He also is .143 (4-for-28) with runners in scoring position.
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The Yankees (28-23) are one game back of the Red Sox (30-23) in the AL East after Boston split a doubleheader against the Tigers. The Rays (28-24) are a half game further back in third. . . . Derek Jeter, who passed Rickey Henderson as the Yankees’ all-time stolen-base leader (327) Saturday night, went 1-for-3 and is 20 hits away from the 3,000 mark.
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Alex Rodriguez’s seventh-inning single meant every Yankees starter had at least one hit in the game. Rodriguez is riding a nine-game hitting streak but there has been one homer and one double in the 14 hits. . . . Ichiro Suzuki, the Mariners’ leadoff hitter, went 1-for-14 in the series and looked slow at the plate and in the field.
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Phil Hughes threw a bullpen session for the second time in three days before yesterday’s game. He will do that again Wednesday and the hope is that he will be able to throw batting practice sometime during the weekend in Anaheim.
“Everything felt great,” said Hughes, who threw fastballs, change-ups and curveballs.
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Francisco Cervelli made his seventh start behind the plate because Russell Martin caught all 12 innings of Saturday’s 5-4 loss and also fouled a ball off his foot.
“He is still sore,” Girardi said of Martin, whose status for the opener against the A’s will be decided today.
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Girardi watched four idiots run on the field Saturday night and said he wondered why Safeco Field security walked the dopes out through the center field fence instead of using a cart to get them off the field quicker.
“I am not a fan of them walking them off the field,” Girardi said, adding “I think the penalty has to be severe.”