The three players Brett Gardner, Ramiro Pena and Francisco Cervelli played in place of Wednesday -- Hideki Matsui, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada -- have combined for 4,852 major league hits. Gardner, Pena and Cervelli entered Wednesday with 60 career hits.
But for one game, at least, the kids were all right. Gardner went 2-for-3 with his first big-league homer and three RBI, Pena was 1-for-4 and Cervelli went 1-for-4 with his first big-league RBI as the Yankees shrugged off the absence of a handful of key veterans and beat the Blue Jays 8-2 in Toronto. "It's really nice, because there's going to be days where we want to give guys a day off," Joe Girardi told reporters afterward. "You don't want (someone) to be out there because they're hurt, but you have to pick up the slack when somebody goes down. It's an opportunity for someone to help the club win, and that's what the bottom of the order did tonight."
For Gardner and Pena, their stints as starters are likely to be short. Gardner, who opened the season as the Yankees' starting center fielder but lost his job to the scorching Melky Cabrera, was pressed into duty in center field (with Cabrera moving to left and Johnny Damon to designated hitter) when Matsui, the regular designated hitter, was shelved with a tight right hamstring. Pena made his second straight start Wednesday as Jeter recovers from an oblique pull.
Cervelli is just 10 days removed from Double-A, but he'll split time behind the plate with veteran Kevin Cash for the next few weeks with both Posada and Jose Molina on the disabled list. Cervelli hit .273 with seven homers in 633 minor league at-bats, so any offense the Yankees receive from him is a bonus, but he has impressed the Yankees with his work behind the plate. The club is 3-0 with him behind the plate, and CC Sabathia threw a complete-game shutout in Cervelli's first big-league start last Friday.
"He's been very mature," said Girardi, a former catcher. "He's handled some guys that have a lot of wins and a lot of experience. Sometimes that can be intimidating for a young catcher. It's easy when you're catching someone that you've caught before and is young as well, but when you get some seasoned veterans, that's not so easy to do as a young player and I think he's handled it great."
YANKEES 8, BLUE JAYS 2: Brett Gardner hit his first major league homer, had three RBI and was one of four Yankees with two hits as the Yankees cruised past the Blue Jays in the middle game of a three-game series in Toronto. Gardner also tripled and scored two runs. Johnny Damon continued his hot hitting by going 2-for-5, the sixth time in nine games he has delivered multiple hits. Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano also had two hits apiece. Andy Pettitte allowed five hits and four walks while striking out two in six innings, but he minimized the damage by stranding seven runners and surrendering just two runs (one earned).
