Yankee Position Players Who Pitched

Occurrence. Date: Name, usual position. Pitching performance on that day.

1. 1908: Hal Chase, 1B. Pitched to 1 batter and got him out. I have no further information, not even an exact date. This is the same Hal Chase who was accused of throwing multiple games and ultimately banned from baseball, one of the most disreputable characters in the game's history.

2. May 11, 1909: Charles "Butch" Schmidt, 1B. Pitched 5 innings, finishing the game. 8 runs, but only 4 earned. 10 hits, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts. Later won a World Series with the 1914 Boston Braves.

3. June 1, 1920: Babe Ruth, RF. Appropriate that he's Number 3 here. He made 5 appearances as a pitcher for the Yankees, after having been a really good pitcher for the Red Sox from 1915 to 1918. But by 1919, he was almost a full-time pitcher, so this counts.

On June 1, 1920, he started, pitched 4 innings, gave up 4 runs, 2 earned. According to the rules of the time, he got credit for the win. On June 13, 1921, he started, pitched 5 innings, gave up 4 runs, 3 earned, hit 2 home runs, and got the win. On October 1, 1921, he pitched 4 innings of relief, and got the win, despite allowing 6 runs and causing the game to go into extra innings.

All 3 of those appearances were home games at the Polo Grounds. (The original Yankee Stadium didn't open until 1923.)

He didn't pitch again until September 28, 1930, another late-season performance, a complete-game victory over the Red Sox, who, knowing the former Sox start might bring in a huge crowd, asked the Braves to borrow Braves Field, instead of playing it at Fenway Park.

His mound finale was another end-of-season job, October 1, 1933, his only outing as a Yankee pitcher at Yankee Stadium. He was shaky, but he went the distance in a 6-5 win over the Red Sox.

Then it didn't happen for the Yankees again for 33 years -- and then it happened on back-to-back days.

4. August 25, 1968: Rocky Colavito, RF. The Bronx native starred for the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers, but was only a Yankee for the last 3 months of a career that saw him hit 374 home runs and showcase a rifle arm in right field.

He pitched most of the 4th inning, plus all of the 5th and the 6th, against the Tigers at Yankee Stadium, allowing no runs on a hit and 2 walks, striking out 1, and ended up the winning pitcher as the Yankees won, 6-5 at Yankee Stadium. He had previously pitched 3 innings in a 1958 game for the Indians, and in 5 2/3rds career innings pitched, his ERA was 0.00.

5. August 26, 1968: Gene Michael, SS. The very next day, "Stick" went 3 innings, in relief of Al Downing, against the California Angels, and allowed 5 runs -- none of them earned. Ironically, it was the man substituting for him at shortstop that day who made an error that led to a 4-run 8th inning: Ruben Amaro Sr., father of the current Philadelphia Phillies' general manager. (A mark and his son, Ruben Amaro Jr., also played for the Philadelphia Phillies.)

Stick allowed 5 hits, but no walks, and struck out 3. The Yankees lost, 10-2. This was the last time a position player pitched for the Yankees at the old Stadium.

6. August 6, 1991: Alvaro Espinoza, SS. The last long-term Yankee shortstop before ol' What's His Name, he got 2 outs in the 8th inning of a 14-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox in Chicago.

7. July 18, 1996: Mike Aldrete, OF. The last player to wear Number 20 on a Yankee title team other than Jorge Posada, he pitched the last inning of a 16-4 loss away to the Milwaukee Brewers. It was his last season in the majors, but he got a ring.

8. August 19, 1997: Wade Boggs, 3B. The Yankees were in the middle of what used to be a traditional bad August trip to the Coast -- some of them were "Borg roadtrips," where we lost seven of nine and resistance was futile -- losing 12-4 to the Anaheim Angels (as they were then known), when Joe Torre brought Boggs in to pitch the 8th inning. He threw 16 knuckleballs and didn't allow a run.

He would also pitch a scoreless inning for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

9. April 13, 2009: Nick Swisher, RF. The Yankees got off to a rough start in their 1st season in the new Yankee Stadium, before losing badly in 2 of their 1st 3 games in it. This was a 15-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, after trailing 9-0 after just 2 innings.

Swish pitched the 8th and final Yankee inning in the field, and allowed a hit and a walk, but no runs. Meaning that, at that point, he was the Yankees' best pitcher of the season. Things did settle down, and the Yankees won the World Series.

10. June 30, 2012: Dewayne Wise, OF. This was the 1st time it happened for the Yankees at the new Stadium, in a 14-7 loss to the White Sox.

Wise throws lefthanded, so it's surprising that Joe Girardi didn't pitch him over and over and over again to pitch to 1 lefty batter and then take him out for a righthander. Of course, he had Boone Logan for that, to every Yankee Fan's dismay. Wise got 2 outs in the 9th, without allowing a run.

11. May 15, 2013: Alberto Gonzalez, IF. Got the last out of a 12-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

12. April 19, 2014: Dean Anna, SS. Another whacked-out move that couldn't possibly have been in Girardi's Binder Full of Strategies, he allowed the last 2 runs of a 16-1 battering from the Rays in St. Petersburg. As with the last day on this list, the shelled starter was Ivan Nova.

13. May 23, 2015: Garrett Jones, 1B. Got the last 2 outs of a 15-4 home throttling at the hands of the Texas Rangers.

14. August 25, 2015: Brendan Ryan, 3B. Coming 47 years to the day after Colavito's mound appearance, in a 15-1 home disaster inflicted on us by the Houston Astros, he pitched the 8th and 9th innings, pitching to 8 batters, allowing 2 hits, no walks, and no runs. 

Pitching Is Not a Hard Subject to Grasp, Unless You're Joe Girardi

Pitching is not a hard concept to grasp. If a pitcher is pitching well, and shows no sign of fatigue, you leave him in, and let him continue to do his job. If he's not doing well, get him out sooner, rather than later.

No, pitching is not a hard concept to grasp. Unless you're Yankee manager Joe Girardi, and you trust your binder rather than your eyes and your instincts.

*

On Friday night, after winning the first game of a 4-game series against the 2014 Tampa Bay Rays -- otherwise known as the 2018 Montreal Expos -- Girardi sent Hiroki Kuroda out to start the second game. For 5 innings, this was a great decision, buoyed by a 4-run 2nd inning, highlighted by a bases-loaded double by Scott Sizemore. Kuroda allowed 2 runs in the bottom of the 4th, but with 1 out in the bottom of the 6th, the Yankees still led, 4-2.

Then Kuroda allowed singles to Matt Joyce and Evan Longoria. Girardi consulted his Binder Full of Strategies, and sent pitching coach Larry Rothschild out to talk to Kuroda. (Ironically, when the opposition first entered the league in 1998, as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Rothschild was their manager. Let's just say that, like many other pitching coaches turned managers before him, as a manager, he made a good pitching coach.) At first, it seemed to work, as Kuroda got a 2nd out.

But then, Wil Myers singled home Joyce, to make it 4-3. That was enough for Girardi, who replaced Kuroda with David Phelps, who has not exactly inspired in this new season. (Nor did he for most of last season.) Phelps did get the last out of the 6th, and when the Yankees scored in the top of the 7th, to lead 5-3, it looked like Girardi had made the right decision.

But Yunel Escobar led off the bottom of the 7th with a hit, and Ryan Hanigan hit a liner back to the box, which hit Phelps in the ribs. It rebounded to Kelly Johnson, playing 1st base for the injured Mark Teixeira, and Johnson got it and touched 1st for the out, but Escobar advanced to 2nd.

If Girardi made a mistake by pulling Kuroda too soon, he now compounded it by doing the same with Phelps. It was a panic move, because Phelps was fine. (He didn't pitch in Saturday's game, but he did pitch yesterday.)

Girardi brought in Matt Thornton. Thornton is a good young pitcher, but he wasn't properly prepared to be brought in, and he allowed a hit that loaded the bases. Then Girardi panicked again, and apparently the binder said, "You know what I said a moment ago? Forget it, I'm an idiot, but trust me now: Bring in Adam Warren." Girardi did. Result? RBI single, walk, 2-RBI single. Tie game.

As they would say in English soccer, "Four-nil, and we fucked it up." Also, "Five-two, and we fucked it up."

No, we didn't fuck it up. Girardi fucked it up.

Warren got the last out, and the 1st 2 in the 8th, but allowed a double and a homer to make it 7-5 Rays.

Girardi then brought in Cesar Cabral. Cabral is 25, so he's not a kid, although he is still, officially, a rookie. But he put on one of the worst Yankee pitching performances you'll ever see -- I hope! He faced 6 batters, and retired exactly none.

He allowed a single to Ben Zobrist. He threw a wild pitch to Brandon Guyer, advancing Zobrist to 2nd. He gave up a single to Guyer, scoring Zobrist. He hit Longoria with a pitch. He went to a 3-0 count on James Loney before hitting him with a pitch, loading the bases. Rothschild went out to calm him down. This had all the effectiveness of a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest. Cabral allowed a single to Myers, scoring Guyer and Longoria. Then, with his 23rd and final pitch, he reloaded the bases by hitting Logan Forsythe.

If that last one was intentional, it was probably because Logan Forsythe has the nerve to walk around with the name of a soap-opera character.

I don't think it was intentional, because Cabral's control wasn't that good. He was thrown out of the game -- which is understandable, given that he'd faced 6 batters and hit 3 of them. It's not that he's a headhunter: It's that his control was so bad, he could very well hurt somebody out there.

Shortly after the game ended, the Yankees announced that Cabral had been designated for assignment. Wow, that was fast. Almost as if George Steinbrenner was still alive and pulling the strings. If that had kind of pitching crapfest had happened in the 1980s, there would have been a phone call from Steinbrenner's box to a taxi company to pick Cabral up, and another from the box to the Tampa airport, to have George's personal plane fly Cabral directly to Columbus, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

But here's what I want to know: Why didn't Girardi take Cabral out sooner -- for example, after the second straight hit batter? Did he not have Shawn Kelley already warming up?

He could have told the umpire, "I think my pitcher's control is off because he's hurt." According to the rules, this would allow a manager to give the pitcher he's got, and/or the pitcher he wants to bring in, as many warmup tosses as he needs before play can resume. Girardi would have had control of the situation.

For all his flaws, and he had them as a manager as well as in his personal life, Billy Martin would have known this rule, and would have taken advantage of it. Don't break the rules, use the rules.

Kelley got the last out in the 8th, but the damage was done. Rays 11, Yankees 5. WP: Jake McGee (1-0). No save. LP: Warren (0-1, although this one was more Girardi's fault than that of any of his pitchers).

*

Saturday's game was the Yankees' worst in a long, long time. That's in terms of on-field performance, if not in terms of damaging injuries, although starting pitcher Ivan Nova did get hurt, and is now rumored to need Tommy John surgery, which means he'd be out for the rest of this season.

The Yankees got only 1 run on 3 hits, so it wouldn't have mattered if Nova had been fine, and only allowed 2 runs. But he wasn't fine. He allowed a run in the 2nd, 3 in the 3rd, and 2 in the 4th. So it was already 6-0 when he began the 5th.

A Zobrist single and a Joyce double began the bottom of the 5th. Only then, after Nova had already allowed 6 runs in 4+ innings, did Girardi suspect an injury, and remove Nova. If he'd removed him sooner, both the injury and the defeat could have been less severe.

By the time Matt Daley, whom Girardi brought in, was done, it was 14-1. Even backup infielder Dean Anna pitched an inning, allowing 2 runs, for the final of 16-1. That's right, sixteen to one. Paging William Jennings Bryan.

WP: Chris Archer (2-1). No save. LP: Nova (2-2).

*

Yesterday's game may not have been a "must-win" for the Yankees -- it's difficult to argue that any MLB game played in April is a "must-win" -- but the Yankees needed to get momentum back on their side.

The Yankees scored a run in the top of the 4th. Alfonso Soriano led off with a double. Teixeira, returning from the Disabled List, hit a fly to right that advanced Soriano to 3rd. Yangervis Solarte lined out to 2nd, and Sori couldn't score. But Brett Gardner doubled to right, to score him.

As for the pitching. As Bob Seger would say, Call me a relic, call me what you will, say I'm old-fashioned, say I'm over the hill. But, in my opinion, it does not take 5 pitchers to hold a good team to 1 run over 9 innings.

But it's not my opinion that holds sway in these cases, it's Joe Girardi's. Vidal Nuno was penciled in as the Sunday starter, so that both Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda would be fully-rested to go against the Red Sox at Fenway this week. Nuno has been shaky so far this season, and hasn't really been a starter. Girardi gave him 5 innings, and he made the most of them: No runs, 3 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts.

Phelps pitched the 6th, and into the 7th. He didn't allow a baserunner. Girardi should have kept him in longer, but he didn't. Did he know the game was going to go to extra innings? Of course not. Should he have been aware of the possibility, and not gone all willy-nilly with the bullpen? Of course yes.

He brought Thornton in, and 2 men got on. He replaced Thornton with Warren, and Warren allowed the tying run and loaded the bases, before getting out of the jam.

Warren pitched the 8th, and Girardi brought Kelley in for the 9th, to send the game to extra innings. Kelley also pitched a scoreless 10th.

The Yankees went 1-2-3 in the 10th, and wasted a Derek Jeter single in the 11th. Solarte led off the 12th with a walk -- and, as we've seen, those leadoff walks can be very productive (or dangerous, depending on which side of it you're on). Gardner grounded into a forceout, so now he was on 1st with 1 out. Brian Roberts lined out, and it looked like the Yankees would waste another chance.

But Brian McCann singled Gardner over to 3rd. Jacoby Ellsbury was intentionally walked, loading the bases but also setting up an inning-ending play at any base. Except Anna, not pitching this time, fouled off 3 pitches before drawing a go-ahead walk. Beltran and Soriano followed with singles, to make it 5-1 Yankees. Preston Claiborne kept the Rays off the board in the 11th and the 12th.

WP: Claiborne (1-0). No save. LP: Heath Bell (0-1).

*

So the Yankees split 4 away to Tampa Bay. Not a bad result. The aggregate score was ugly, but then, this isn't Champions League soccer, is it? As the Yankees themselves found out in the 1960 World Series, to their horror, it's not how many runs you score in the series, it's how many games you win. (The Yanks outscored the Pittsburgh Pirates 55-27 but lost 4 games to 3.)

With the Red Sox losing their annual 11:05 AM-starting Patriots Day game today (they always start it early to reduce traffic, as the Boston Marathon usually finishes up by the end of the game), with 23 weeks to go in the regular season, the AL East standings look like this going into tonight's games (which do not include the Yankees, as they're shipping up to Boston tonight):

TEAM	W	L	GB	MN
NEW YORK	11	8	0.0	N/A
Toronto	10	9	1.0	143
Baltimore	9	9	1.5	144
Tampa Bay	9	10	2.0	142
Boston	9	11	2.5	141

"MN" is Magic Number: To eliminate the AL East teams, any number of Yankee wins and Red Sox losses adding up to 141, and the Sox can't win the Division; it's 142 for the Rays, 143 for the Jays and 144 for the O's, who've played 1 fewer game than the Yanks and Rays, who've played a game fewer than the Sox.

As for Nova's injury: He had an MRI last night, and it "has revealed a partial tear of ulnar collateral ligament of his right elbow." He's gone on the DL. According to Sweeny Murti of WFAN, he hasn't yet been told how long he'll be out, or what surgery is required, if any.

The starting pitchers for the series at Fenway are listed as follows:

* Tomorrow night, first pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM: Tanaka vs. Jon Lester.

* Wednesday night, 7:10: Pineda vs. John Lackey.

* Thursday night, 7:10: CC Sabathia vs. Felix Doubront.

This will be the biggest test yet in a Yankee uniform for both Tanaka and Pineda. They're off to very good starts. May it continue.

And may Girardi not find a way to mess it up. Because pitching is not a hard subject to grasp.

Pineda Shines vs. Sox

"I don't always pitch against the Boston Red Sox. But when I do, I make them regret it. Stay Yankee, my friends."

Yankee general manager Brian Cashman still has much to answer for, but looking at what's happened to Jesus Montero in the last couple of years, and how well Michael Pineda has pitched in his first 2 games in a Yankee uniform, we can let him off the hook for this deal.

Pineda went 6 innings tonight. I was thinking, "Joe Girardi, if you don't send him out for the 7th, after the way he's pitched tonight, I'm going to have a fit."

He did send Pineda out for the 7th, but Daniel Nava hit one out, and Xander Bogaerts singled. That was it. Pineda allowed just that 1 run, on 4 hits (he had a no-hitter going until the 5th), 2 walks, and 7 strikeouts.

It wouldn't have mattered if the Yankees didn't get the man some runs. They did. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 4th. Jacoby Ellsbury reached base against his former team for the 1st time when 3rd baseman Jonathan Herrera butchered a grounder. Carlos Beltran singled. Brian McCann broke an 0-for-14 slump by singling to right, scoring Ellsbury. Alfonso Soriano did not strike out. In fact, he hit into a double play, making 2 outs -- but it still got Beltran home. 2-0 Yankees.

With 1 out in the 5th, Dean Anna hit his 1st major league home run. Rather than do the 1965 Shirley Ellis hit "The Name Game" -- Anna, Anna, Bobanna, Banana Fanna Fofanna, Fee Fi Momanna, Anna -- which seemed obvious to me, John Sterling said, "Anna is on the Dean's List!" Anyway, after a Brett Gardner strikeout, Derek Jeter hit a ground-rule double, and Ellsbury singled him home. Ellsbury was out trying to stretch it to a double, but the run counted.

So that was the 4-1 lead that Pineda handed over to Cesar Cabral. He struck out A.J. Pierzynski and Jackie Bradley. Leave him in to face Ryan Roberts? Nope, Girardi pulled him for David Phelps.

Time to go for the Mission: Impossible joke again: "Good evening, Mr. Phelps. Your mission, which is one I feel you must accept, is to get these Scummers out. Please do not self-destruct in five seconds."

He got Roberts to ground out to end the 7th. He went 1-2-3 in the 8th, including striking out the big fat lying cheating bastard David Ortiz to end it. And he went 1-2-3 in the 9th to end it.

4-1! We beat The Scum, 4-1! We beat The Scum, 4-1! We beat The Scum, 4-1!

WP: Pineda (1-1). SV: Phelps (1). LP: Clay Buchholz (0-1).

And, as Michael Kay would say, "The time of the game, a manageable 2 hours and 55 minutes."

A Yankees-Red Sox game ending in under 3 hours? There's one we haven't seen in a long time.

This would be where John Sterling would say, "You know, Michael, you just can't predict baseball." The series continues tomorrow night, with CC Sabathia pitching against Jon Lester.

Tanaka Time!

The Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds tonight, 4-3, in front of a massive crowd at Citi Field.

Okay, I lied. Yes, they did win, and I got the opponent, the score and the ballpark right. The crowd wasn't massive. It was listed as 35,845, but photos taken during the game suggest that it was significantly less.

Nevertheless, the Men of Flushing got their 1st win of the season. Took 'em 4 games. Not too bad, but not good.

*

Moving on to the major-league team from New York City...

The Yankees began a 3-game series in Toronto against those pesky Blue Jays. And this time, they figured out that it helps if you score first. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a double. Brett Gardner singled him over to 3rd. (Funny, but the Yankees got Ellsbury mainly for his speed, yet he couldn't score from 2nd on a single?) Carlos Beltran singled him home. Brian McCann flew out, moving Gardner to 3rd. Mark Teixeira singled Gardner home. The Yankees led 2-0.

Masahiro Tanaka took the mound for the 1st time in a North American major league game. The 1st batter he faced was former Yankee hero, turned exposed steroid user, Melky Cabrera. And on Tanaka's 2nd major league pitch, the Melkman delivered. Home run. 2-1 Yankees.

In the 2nd, 3 hits and an error brought home 2 more runs. 3-2 Jays. And Teix had to leave the game with an injury. (Oh boy, here we go again.) Joe Girardi played musical chairs with the infield, moving rookie Yangervis Solarte from 2nd base to 3rd base, and Kelly Johnson from 3rd to 1st, and sent Brian Roberts out to 2nd, taking Teix's place in the batting order (5th).

From that point onward, the Jays only managed 2 hits (1 of them erased in a double play), only 2 walk (neither by Tanaka), and no runs. So, for the 3rd time in 4 games, the Yank starters got into trouble early, and pitched fine from then on.

Tanaka was better than fine: 7 innings, 3 runs (only 2 of them earned), 6 hits, no walks, 8 strikeouts. Dellin Betances got into trouble with a pair of walks, but Matt Thornton before him and David Robertson after him were terrific.

But it wouldn't have mattered if the Yankees hadn't gotten a 3rd and a 4th run. They did, and then some.

In the top of the 3rd, Roberts walked with 1 out, and stole 2nd. Johnson struck out, and then it looked like Ichiro Suzuki had been thrown out at 1st. Girardi challenged the call under the new replay rule, and, for the first time in their illustrious regular-season history, the Yankees had an umpire's call overturned. Ichiro was found to be safe at 1st, and Roberts moved over to 3rd. Solarte continued his nice start, and doubled them both home. 4-3 Yanks.

(It wasn't the 1st time in their entire history, though: In Game 3 of the 2009 World Series, Alex Rodriguez hit a home run that was originally ruled a ground-rule double.)

Ellsbury led off the 4th with a double, got bunted over to 3rd by Gardner, and after Beltran was intentionally walked, McCann singled him home. 5-3 Yanks.

In the top of the 8th, rookie Dean Anna led off with a walk, and got to 2nd on a force play. (Girardi challenged this one as well, but lost.) A wild pitch got him to 3rd, and then Gardner singled him home. 6-3 Yanks.

In the 9th, with 2 out, Ichiro singled, and Solarte doubled him home. I can't wait for him to hit his first major league home run, so John Sterling can say, "Yangervis is Solar-te-powered!" And Anna got his 1st major league hit, a single to left. But a pair of former Yankees eliminated Solarte, as Melky threw him out, catcher Dioner Navarro (remember what a great prospect he used to be?) putting on the tag.

Yankees 7, Blue Jays 3. WP: Tanaka (1-0). No save. LP: Dustin McGowan (0-1).

Back to .500, at 2-2.

Day game after a night game. Michael Pineda finally makes his Yankee debut. May it be at least as good as Tanaka's.