Yankees vs. Tigers ALDS: Jorge Posada to DH vs. righties; Nova & Garcia to pitch Games 2 & 3

Joe Girardi confirms Thursday that his ALDS rotation will include CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova (above) and Freddy Garcia. A.J. Burnett will pitch out of the bullpen for the Bombers.
Joe Girardi confirms Thursday that his ALDS rotation will include CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova (above) and Freddy Garcia. A.J. Burnett will pitch out of the bullpen for the Bombers. (Ron Antonelli/News)

Jorge Posada never imagined it. Even after all that he went through this season, he would not allow himself to think about not making the Yankees playoff roster.

"I wouldn't let myself, because for me it was a negative and I couldn't let myself go there when I wanted to be on the (playoff) team," Posada said.

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The Yankees did not release their postseason roster Thursday, but Posada knows he will be on it as the designated hitter against the Tigers' all-righthanded rotation for the division series, which begins Friday night.

"When I came in, he (Joe Girardi) just told me that I was (the designated hitter)," Posada said about Friday night's Game 1.


Jesus Montero, who said he was fine after taking a ball off his bare hand Wednesday night, will likely be on the roster and used as a pinch-hitter against lefty relievers and as Russell Martin's backup.

Posada, who struggled with giving up his role as the starting catcher and adapting to his new role of full-time DH, is just happy to be back in the lineup for what is his 15th and likely last postseason as a Yankee.

"I am not a guy who lives in the past. I look to the future, day-by-day. I am excited to be here," Posada said. "This is what you are here for, fun playoff games. I think it comes down to this is what you play for, you get excited for this. You look forward to playing in the playoffs."

Girardi confirmed Thursday that he will use a three-man rotation of CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia through the AL division series. Sabathia will pitch a Game4 if needed.

"We decided to go with the three-man rotation in the first round," Girardi said. "(CC) would be the only one that would have to pitch on short rest (on Tuesday). That's why we decided to do it."

A.J. Burnett, who is expected to pitch out of the bullpen in this series, faced just one batter in that role Wednesday night in Tampa.

"You want to see how quickly he can warm up. That's something we got an idea about," Girardi said. "And I feel that he can do it if he has to."

Girardi said that Burnett, who pitched himself out of a postseason starting spot with a shaky regular season, was open to the trial run Wednesday night.

"We talked about it and I gave him the option, because he had just thrown about 100 pitches on Sunday. It would have been his throw day, his bullpen day anyway so he said, 'Yeah, I want to give it a shot.' He was great about it."

Former Yankee reliever Phil Coke was asked Thursday to compare his current teammate, fiery and animated Tigers closer Jose Valverde to his former Yankee teammate Mariano Rivera. "Aside from outcomes, they're pretty different people," Coke said. "Valverde's very exuberant and Mo's very - I want to say stoic, but it almost sounds negative. I don't want to say it in a negative light. (Rivera's) very straight-laced, ready to go, goes and does the job like he's got ice water running through his veins."

Valverde had 49 saves this season to Rivera's 44.

Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera used the media throng in front of his locker as a means of getting a message to the Mets' first batting champ, Jose Reyes. "I want to say congratulations to him. I think he got a great year," Cabrera said of Reyes. "I feel happy for him. I want to say that here - you guys, give him the message."


Mark Teixeira thinks adding another wild-card team to baseball's playoff system is just about "making a few extra bucks" and Wednesday night's fantastic finish is all the proof Bud Selig or anyone else should need that the system is fine the way it is.

"(Wednesday) night proves that over 162 games, you still have 4-5 games that meant a lot to each of those teams and the fan gets to turn on his TV and watch all that, it's pretty cool," Teixeira said. "... Adding a wild card just for the sake of an extra game for TV doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If you want to talk about drama or selling tickets, there's a lot of things we could do. We could have home run derbies and extra innings. Starting pitchers could go out and box for a couple innings. I don't know why we need to worry about selling tickets or putting things on TV. I think we have a pretty good product. We've had a good product for over 100 years."

Teixeira was in the Yankee clubhouse Wednesday night watching the other games on TV.

"I was in there with some of the pitchers and other players who had already played," Teixeira said. "We were fans, we were cheering and yelling. It was fun."

Curtis Granderson started his career as a Tiger and once thought he'd be Detroit's center fielder for years. But he was traded to the Yankees before the 2010 season and while some might be bitter about being dealt away, he's thrilled by the prospect of meeting his old team in the division series. "It's going to be exciting," Granderson said.

"Anytime I get to play against them, it's exciting, even if it's spring training, but now that it's the postseason, it's a little more exciting."

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