In the last game of last season, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi turned to Joba Chamberlain and Damaso Marte as his bridge to Mariano
Rivera. That tandem was good enough to clinch a World Series title, and it may be good enough this season as the Yankees try to defend it. But Girardi does not know for sure. He would like to settle on a designated reliever to pitch the eighth inning — as Phil Hughes did last season — but he is still sifting through his options.
“No one has really claimed that spot,” Girardi said before the Yankees’ opener against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night at Fenway Park.
Chamberlain and Marte are in the mix, as are the newcomer Chan Ho Park and Dave Robertson, who excelled during the 2009 postseason. The Yankees have more established relievers in their bullpen than at this time last year, when four members — Brian Bruney, Jonathan Albaladejo, Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras — were hardly contributing by season’s end. Bruney, who began the season as the setup man but ended it as an afterthought, was the only one to pitch in the postseason.
Hughes performed the setup role with distinction after taking over in June, and after he was named the fifth starter last month, Chamberlain was viewed as the favorite. Girardi has hinted that Chamberlain, as long as he remains healthy, will emerge as his choice.
“That’s something that will work its way out the sooner, the better for us,” Girardi said. “You’d like to establish that role.”
Complicating matters, at least for now, is Marte’s temperamental left shoulder. He missed four months last season with inflammation before emerging as a postseason dynamo, and he recently had a flare-up. It was not serious enough for the Yankees not to include him on their roster, but Girardi said he was not sure if Marte would be available Sunday.
Boone Logan, who was demoted Saturday, may be recalled if Marte does not bounce back soon. Girardi also trusts Robertson, who held left-handed hitters to a .189 average last season, in high-leverage matchups.
GRANDERSON EXPECTS MORE As a member of the Detroit Tigers, Curtis Granderson played 13 games at Fenway Park. Still, he expected Sunday’s game here, his first as a Yankee, to be a little different.
“The game has been sold out before, the intensity’s been there, all that stuff,” he said. “But the one thing coming over as a Yankee, you have that respect from the fans that, hey, we know, that your team is going to be good.”
When Granderson was traded to the Yankees, he said he was looking forward to three games — his first time back in Lakeland, Fla., where Detroit trains; his first game at Comerica Park in Detroit; and his inaugural visit to Fenway in pinstripes.
Nick Johnson, Javier Vazquez and Marcus Thames are all on a second tour with the Yankees, so Joe Girardi said he did not think they would have trouble adjusting to the rivalry with Boston.
Girardi, who said he was curious to see how Granderson responded, related the experience to succeeding Joe Torre.
“I could sit in Joe’s office as a coach and have an idea of what it was like to manage the New York Yankees, but you really don’t know what it’s like until you go through it,” Girardi said.
GOOD NEWS IS GRATIFYING As spring training goes along, the manager becomes the grim reaper of a clubhouse. It is his job to tell most players in camp that they have not made the team. It is a series of uncomfortable conversations.
“We don’t enjoy them,” Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said. “I know the players don’t. But when you get to tell players good news, it’s gratifying.”
This spring, he had good news for Scott Atchison, a 34-year-old right-hander who made an opening day roster in the majors for the first time in his 12 professional seasons. Atchison, a 49th-round draft choice in 1998, has a 4.10 earned run average in 53 career games with Seattle and San Francisco and spent the last two seasons in Japan.
He returned to the United States to be closer to his 2-year-old daughter, who had surgery in February for a rare bone disorder. A strong exhibition season (two earned runs in 12 innings) earned him his spot.
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