Monday, August 24, 2009

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi squashes notion of A.J. Burnett-Jorge Posada issue

Yankees manager Joe Girardi sees no reason to split up batterymates A.J. Burnett and Jorge Posada despite some obvious miscommunication between the duo during a 14-1 loss to the Red Sox on Saturday.

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi squashes notion of A.J. Burnett-Jorge Posada issue

Posada

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi squashes notion of A.J. Burnett-Jorge Posada issue

Burnett

Burnett allowed nine hits and a career-high nine runs in five innings, dropping to 0-3 in his last five starts.

"I don't have a lot of concerns about it,'' Girardi said. "We had a bad game and we move forward.''

Burnett (10-7) got off to a rare poor start when he allowed three runs in the first on a two-run double by David Ortiz and an RBI single by Jason Bay. In his 15 previous outings, Burnett allowed just one first-inning run.

"I tried to get on the same page as him," Posada said. "At times we were, and then we weren't a lot of times. It's frustrating, because, obviously, he wants to throw a certain pitch and I want to throw another one. When they're hitting like that, it's tough to get on the same page."

Girardi said "too much is being made of the story," and he referred to an Aug. 7 game at Yankee Stadium in which Posada caught as Burnett one-hit the Red Sox in 7 2/3 scoreless innings.

"We throw what we want to throw; he's there to aid," Burnett said Saturday. "It's definitely not him. I had a good hook today and I feel like I should have used it more."

In three games this season with Jose Molina, the former Blue Jays pitcher is 1-0 with a 4.08 ERA.

"The way that I have caught Jorge and Molina is that Jorge has either caught two of three or three out of four,'' Girardi said. "I have not given anyone a personal catcher. I will continue to rotate it. [Jorge] isn't 25 anymore.''

Jim Rice blames reported Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez remarks on rivalry, misquoteReal - No Arsenal bid for Klaas