Cashman won’t limit German in playoffs
The three weeks Domingo German spent on the injured list with a hip flexor injury might keep him away from an innings limit. And if the Yankees reach the postseason, the club won’t curb the ace righthander’s workload.
“There are no innings limits when you are in October,’’ general manager Brian Cashman said Thursday afternoon before the Yankees were routed 19-5 by the Indians in the opener of a four-game series at Yankee Stadium. “All safeties are off.”
German has logged 116 innings in 21 games (20 starts) and leads the AL in victories with 16 to go with a 3.96 ERA. German’s major league high in innings is the 85 2/3 he threw last year in 21 games (14 starts). His career high is 123 ¹/3 in 2014, when he was in the Marlins’ minor league system and had Tommy John surgery, which cost him all of the 2015 season.
“He already has had a timeout,’’ Cashman said of German, who is 7-0 with a 4.11 ERA in eight starts since coming off the IL. “I am not going to say what the level of his limitations were or are, but it would be more of a fair assessment issue to be dealt with if he didn’t have that timeout that he has already taken.’’
Thursday was Yankees team photo day — though the pictures weren’t taken by an MRI machine. … The Yankees and Indians combined for 10 homers, the most in a Yankees game since June 23, 1950 in Detroit, when they combined with the Tigers for 11. … Mike Ford pitched the final two innings, marking the first time a Yankees position player had logged two frames on the mound.
Including Thursday, when Chad Green started for the 12th time this season, the Yankees have used the opener plan 14 times, and Cashman didn’t completely rule it out in the postseason. He might, however, have second thoughts about that after the Indians pounded Green for five runs and four hits, including two homers, in one-third of an inning.
“Without question, we know it is effective because it has been effective against us,” Cashman said. “Especially in a one-game situation, it could be strategic and beneficial.”
Dellin Betances threw a bullpen session and will duplicate that this weekend.
Danny Borrell’s deal to become Georgia Tech’s pitching coach became official Thursday. It is a five-year contract for $1.5 million for the former Yankees minor league pitching coordinator, who had been a coach in the system for 11 years.
“There is nothing against the Yankees. They have been great to me for 18 years,’’ said Borrell, who pitched in the Yankees’ minor league system for nine years and had a big hand in the development of Deivi Garcia, considered by many to be the Yankees’ top prospect. “We wanted to get closer to home [North Carolina].’’
The Yankees are honoring Mariano Rivera on Saturday and will open the gates for the 1:05 p.m. start two hours earlier. Usually the gates open 90 minutes before first pitch. The ceremony begins at 12:30 p.m.
After missing more than a month, the TV voice of the Yankees, Michael Kay, will return to the broadcast booth on Saturday afternoon, according to a YES Network spokesman.
Kay, 58, has been out since early July with a condition that caused him to have a nodule removed from his vocal cord.
Following the surgery, Kay was not allowed to speak until this past Tuesday, when he was cleared by his doctor.
Kay will return to his 98.7 FM ESPN New York radio show on Aug. 26, according to the station’s GM, Tim McCarthy.
McCarthy and YES president of programming and production John Filippelli have both said they want Kay to take it slow upon his return.
In Kay’s place on YES, Ryan Ruocco handled the bulk of the play-by-play, while John Flaherty and Ken Singleton each handled a few. Bob Costas called one doubleheader.