Both teams need a pick-me-up after late night out

CARLOS BELTRAN normally drinks one cup of coffee before work, but he knew Saturday morning it would take more to perk him up for the Yankees’ afternoon tilt with Boston.

“Today, I have to load myself with coffee,” said Beltran, who estimated he would drink three or four cups before he served as the designated hitter at the Stadium. “That will get you going.”

Who could blame him? The Yankees and Red Sox took their rivalry to extremes Friday night, playing 19 innings in a game the Sox won, 6-5. It was the longest game by time in Red Sox history and the longest home game by time in Yankee history at six hours, 49 minutes. It ended at 2:13 a.m.

There were signs of exhaustion all around the ballpark before Saturday’s game. Boston manager John Farrell said he got three hours of sleep before returning to the park by 8:30 a.m. Players moved slowly around the clubhouses, groggy. Neither team took batting practice.

Joe Girardi said before the game that the Yankees had sent home their relievers who had already pitched on Friday, even though the game was still going on. “What inning?” someone asked. “I don’t know,” the weary manager responded. “One of them.”

But, as Girardi and several players noted, being tired is part of the job. Teams routinely fly to new cities after night games and don’t get to sleep until the wee hours.

“The one thing about the game, you get used to being tired because of the schedule we keep,” Girardi said. “As much as you don’t want to get used to it, you get used to it.”

The late night caused some lineup shifts, too, and probably cost Chasen Shreve his spot on the roster, at least for now. Shreve was optioned to Triple-A Scranton so the Yanks could import a fresh arm — lefty Matt Tracy. Shreve threw 3.1 scoreless innings Friday and would not have been available for at least Saturday’s game.

Alex Rodriguez got his first start at first base on Saturday, in part because he had played only 11 innings Friday, Girardi said. Rodriguez was originally supposed to get the day off. Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira, Stephen Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury were not in the starting lineup.

Adam Warren, the Yanks’ scheduled starter on Saturday, said he left the Stadium around the ninth inning Friday to go home and rest. Not surprisingly, he was one of the first arrivals in the clubhouse.

Friday night, both clubs used 21 of their 25 players. The only Yankees who did not see action were the four members of the rotation not named Nathan Eovaldi, the man who started the game but was around for only the first 5.1 innings.

There was also a 16-minute delay — not included in the time of game — because of a power outage in the bottom of the 12th inning. According to the Yanks’ postgame notes, the club believes the power outage was caused by a power surge throughout the building.

Only one Yankee game has been longer — the June 24, 1962 contest at Detroit that lasted 22 innings and exactly seven hours. The Yanks won that one, 9-7. Friday night was the sixth game of at least 19 innings in franchise history.

In the clubhouse Saturday morning, there seemed to be two trains of thought — sleep as much as you can and still make the 11:30 reporting time or keep to your regular routine, regardless of how little sleep you got.

Beltran got home between 3:30 and 4 a.m., but, as usual, could not go to sleep immediately after playing. “I lay in bed for an hour before I go to sleep,” he said. “That’s me. There’s no options. There’s no secret to it. You just do what you have to do when you get here. It’s our job to compete and try to win ballgames.”

Andrew Miller was in early after about five and a half hours of sleep. “I want to get my same physical warmup,” Miller said. “I got off easy yesterday — I threw one inning.

“All 50 guys are going to have to deal with it. Both teams are going to have the same situation, same conditions. It is what it is.”