Last night Javier Vazquez picked up his first win for the Yankees since July 26. Ever since Vazquez lost his spot in the rotation, he’s turned in two dominant long relief appearances (9 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K combined). Mike Mazzeo of the Star-Ledger reports pitching coach Dave Eiland made a minor change to Vazquez’s windup.

Vazquez’s fastball was regularly registering on the radar gun at 90 to 91-mph (last night), instead of its usual 87 to 88.

All it took was Vazquez moving his leg kick backward and in, which, in turn, allows him to have more momentum going forward. And, as a result, according to the right-hander, his ball doesn’t tail inside as much, because he’s throwing more over the top instead of dropping his arm slot.

I expected Joe Girardi to comment on the idea of reinserting Vazquez into the rotation. Last night he didn’t have much to say.

“As of now, we’re going to stay in rotation,” Girardi said. “But that could change.”

I think it should happen. The Yankees will probably keep Phil Hughes in the rotation the rest of the year to build his innings, so that leaves A.J. Burnett, Dustin Moseley or Ivan Nova as candidates to lose their spot.

The way Nova is pitching, I don’t think he’s going anywhere, especially as Moseley and Burnett are the ones pitching under par.

I say if Burnett delivers another poor start Wednesday, he should be moved to the bullpen. He certainly has bullpen-type stuff, as he’s a two-pitch pitcher and throws mid-nineties heat.

When (if) Andy Pettitte returns Girardi can change the rotation again to prepare for the postseason.

The Yankees made a fool of Cy Young candidate Trevor Cahill tonight. He allowed eight earned runs, his highest total all year, and the Athletics fell hard to the Yankees, 11-5.

Best of All: Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher collected three hits apiece: a homer and a double for Teixeira, a homer for Cano and two doubles for Swisher.

Marcus Thames added a three-run bomb in the fifth to put the game out of reach.

Javier Vazquez delivered another strong outing out of the bullpen and earned his first win since July 26. He just may have earned his way back into the pen. More details here as they become available.

Worst of All: Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson missed out on the hit parade. Of the team’s 13 hits, none came off Jeter’s or Granderson’s bat.

Coming Up: Game 2 of this four-game series is Tuesday night. It’ll be Vin Mazzaro vs. Phil Hughes.

The Athletics are in town this week, and so is Dallas Braden. Alex Rodriguez isn’t eligible to return in time for Thursday’s affair, possibly avoiding a major conflict.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click here.

As for the rest of the series, the A’s are no slouch. They’re second in the AL West (well behind Texas) and hold the best team ERA in the league.

The Athletics pitching really has been phenomenal this year. However, I credit a lot of that success to their pitcher-friendly ballpark. Here are the splits:

Home: 2.86 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 458 Ks
Away: 4.17 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 397 Ks

The Yankees are just 14-13 in August, easily their worst month of the year, but still hold a share of the division lead and a 6.5-game lead over the Red Sox.

Head to Head:
The Yankees have won four of their six games against the Athletics this season, and swept them in Oakland last month. The Yankees need to take two games to secure a season series victory.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Athletics starters	Yankees starters
Mon., 7:05 p.m.	Trevor Cahill (14-5, 2.43)	Dustin Moseley (4-2, 4.53)
Tues., 7:05 p.m.	Vin Mazzaro (6-6, 3.61)	Phil Hughes (15-6, 4.12)
Wed., 7:07 p.m.	B. Anderson (3-5, 3.32)	A.J. Burnett (9-12, 5.17)
Thurs., 1:05 p.m.	Dallas Braden (9-9, 3.28)	CC Sabathia (18-5, 3.14)

Lineup Notes: Mark Teixeira is in the lineup tonight. He was in last night’s originally, but he was a late scratch. We’ll see if he’s healthy enough to play tonight.

Prediction:
The Yankees have a tough matchup tonight against a top candidate for the Cy Young Award, but I like the pitching matchups for the Yankees in the rest of the series. I bet Burnett brings his A-game Wednesday too. I say the Yanks take three out of four.

The most recent poll results were inconclusive,  as fans voted evenly on whether or not Robinson Cano should hit cleanup when Alex Rodriguez returns from the disabled list.

The Yankees have a surprisingly great record without A-Rod in the lineup, but in an earlier post I found that is most likely due to facing weak opponents.

Cano’s numbers have been slightly better out of the cleanup spot than the five-hole, but only in a very small sample size.

Hitting fourth: 81 PA, 6 HR 20 RBI, 10 BB, 10 K, .338/.420/.648
Hitting fifth: 475 PA, 19 HR, 67 RBI, 38 BB, 51 K, .319/.379/.541

I say you stick with what’s worked all year. Cano is still very effective hitting fifth. Plus, A-Rod was heating up before he got injured.

Great news for the Yankees: Andy Pettitte could be back in two weeks.

The Yankees haven’t been the same team since Pettitte hit the DL July 18, and their record shows it. New York was 58-33 (.637) on July 18, and are 21-17 (.553) ever since then.

Pettitte’s absence has affected the rest of the staff as well, accumulating a 4.18 ERA. The Yankees had the second best ERA in the league with him in the rotation.

In my opinion, the Yankees don’t have a prayer to repeat as champions without a healthy Pettitte. CC Sabathia has been outstanding, but he isn’t enough to carry them past deeper rotations.

Pettitte needs to return in the two weeks expected of him, and he needs to return to his great early-season form immediately.

A.J. Burnett did not provide the boost the Yankees needed in the opening game of a three-game series against the White Sox. He was hit hard for nine runs, eight earned, and exited with one out in the fourth, as the Yankees were defeated 9-4.

Best of All: Nick Swisher had a two-run homer and a double. He also airmailed a throw to home plate, which forced a laugh out of me despite the Yankees getting romped.

Worst of All: Burnett is obviously the major cause for concern. The Star-Ledger reports his spot in the rotation may not be completely secure, as Joe Girardi said “we’ll evaluate after this weekend where we are and what we need to do.”

Derek Jeter went 0-for-4 with a groundout, strikeout, fly out and double play. But he wasn’t the only one; Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada each went 0-for-4 as well.

Coming Up: The Yankees play Saturday night at 7 p.m. with their ace on the mound and then 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

In the past two years, two Yankees have had very, very abnormal home-road splits. Last year, Nick Swisher hit 72 percent of his homers away from the dinger-friendly Yankee Stadium. This year, Phil Hughes has allowed 19 home runs, 16 of which in the Bronx.

There’s really no explanation for either, but let’s dig a little deeper.

Last year, the most homers hit per game came at Yankee Stadium (1.261/game). This year, nothing’s changed. Yankee Stadium has yielded the most home runs per game in the majors at a mark of 1.553 per game.

So if you asked me which home-road split makes the most sense, it would be Hughes’. What in the world was Swisher thinking in the batter’s box at Yankee Stadium last year? Of course, this year his homers are split dead even home vs. road — 11 each.

It’s my last day of my internship! Below are a few Yankees headlines you need to see.

• Yanks give Jays taste of own medicine in 11-5 rout – Yankeeist
• Steinbrenner to get monument – ESPN New York
• Damon chooses to remain with Tigers – AP
• Yankees may have interest in Hiroki Kuroda – Ken Rosenthal
• Irate Lee: Yankees no sure thing to sign me – NY Post

The first African American to ever play for the Yankees, Elston Howard was a 12-time All-Star selection, two-time Gold Glove winner, six-time World Series champion and the 1963 MVP.

He isn’t a Hall of Famer, but his No. 32 is retired out in Monument Park.

Here are Howard’s career stats:
Report Created on Baseball-Reference.com

This just in via LoHud:

Ivan Nova will start on Sunday. Javier Vazquez will move to the bullpen. Vazquez will be available in relief beginning tomorrow.

It’s a great call by the Yankees as far as I’m concerned. Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal outlined Vazquez’s season beautifully into three distinct segments: awful-great-awful. And it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll be climbing out of his latest hole. I gave up on him almost two weeks ago.

Nova, on the other hand, looked very sharp last night against a powerful Blue Jays lineup. He featured a live fastball, a biting breaking ball and a darting changeup, at times. According to the LoHud article, Joe Girardi hasn’t made any plans past this Sunday, but Jack Curry of YES did some reporting of his own:

Some Yankee officials envision a scenario where Nova stays in rotation 4 rest of season. Remember, Hughes has innings limit.

This makes perfect sense to me. Vazquez has clearly lost his  spot in the playoff rotation. Why not let a respectable prospect fill in and gain valuable major league experience? If he performs well, the Yankees will be able to sell him at a much higher price if they choose to this offseason.