A.J. Burnett

Yankees $16.5 million starter A.J. Burnett had another sub-par outing Tuesday night, surrendering four runs in six innings against the Angels. Although Burnett hasn’t recorded a quality start since June 29, manager Joe Girardi told reporters he’s sticking with the right-hander.

In Tuesday’s 6-4 loss, Burnett (8-9, 4.60 ERA) pitched five shutout innings before giving up four in the sixth.

“I haven’t won in a long time,” Burnett said. “I think I’ve pitched a lot of games that I could have won. I think a lot of things are out of my hands and are out of my control. I’ve given [up] three runs in [14] of my starts. If that is not good enough to win, I don’t know what is.”

In Burnett’s one start against the Red Sox this season, he allowed eight runs over 5 2/3 innings. Girardi has explored the option of moving Phil Hughes from the rotation to the bullpen, but he’s apparently unwilling to do the same with Burnett.

Each of the three Red Sox-Yankees games from this past weekend drew big numbers from around the country, according to the MLB Public Relations department.

Friday night’s game was MLB Network’s highest-rated game of the season and second all-time only to Stephen Strasburg‘s major league debut last year.

Saturday’s game scored over four million viewers on FOX, the station’s highest rating for a day game in three years.

Sunday night’s game took the cake with 4.72 million viewers, making it the most-watched ESPN game in over four years. ESPN hasn’t had a larger audience since June 3, 2007, which was also a Yankees-Red Sox matchup.

Alex Rodriguez

Major League Baseball has been investigating Alex Rodriguez‘ alleged involvement in illegal poker games over the past few days, but according to Todd Venezia of the New York Post, Rodriguez is not in danger of being suspended.

“Even if it is determined that he was [playing illegal poker], he will not be suspended at this time for this infraction,” a source said. “He will be warned again and not lightly.”

Rodriguez is scheduled to meet with investigators within the next two weeks. Although it seemed the Yankees slugger might face severe punishment, he will reportedly avoid suspension unless he admits to a more serious offense than the current allegations.

As for his on-field progress, Rodriguez could reportedly make a rehab start as early as Friday.

Phil Hughes

Yankees starting pitcher Phil Hughes could end up in the bullpen for the rest of the season depending on his performance Tuesday night, according to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News.

Manager Joe Girardi will have to decide between Hughes and Ivan Nova, and Feinsand reports the skipper is leaning towards Nova for a spot in the rotation.

“Competition is a good thing,” Girardi said. “I think it brings out the best in people, so I think they’re both working hard, going about their business. … You’ve got to look at what your needs are, who’s throwing the ball well and what we need to do. If they both throw the ball the way we want them to, then decisions will have to be difficult on what we do.”

Nova, who will get the start on Thursday, will look to join a shaky back-end of the rotation with Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and A.J. Burnett. Hughes is 1-3 with an 8.24 ERA this season, while Nova is 9-4 with a 4.01 ERA.

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Yankees are looking to trade for left-handed pitching to counter the Red Sox’ lefty-heavy lineup. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman doesn’t think the market for lefties is good enough to make a move.

“I don’t think I can trade for any starter that is better than Bartolo Colon or Phil Hughes, or a reliever better than Rafael Soriano,” Cashman said. “One of our areas of weakness is the left side, but I can’t force it. I can’t make it happen if it is not there.”

There aren’t many left-handed pitchers on the trade block, but Sherman offered two righties, Matt Garza and Anibal Sanchez, as possible trade deadline targets for New York. While the Yankees held the best record in the American League entering Tuesday, they’ve won just one out of nine games against Boston this season.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has told teams that he is open to making major moves to improve New York’s roster before July’s trade deadline. “I’ve told everybody out there that I’m up for the incremental upgrades or the significant upgrades,” Cashman said Friday.

Bartolo Colon‘s strained hamstring has raised doubts about an already shaky starting rotation, and Derek Jeter‘s stint on the disabled list has left a void in the infield.

“We’re wounded in some aspects of it right now,” said Cashman. “It’s up to me and our staff to make it better, plug the holes and improve even when everybody is healthy.”

The first weekly update on the American League All-Star voting bodes well for the AL East, but not necessarily for the Red Sox.

The Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista leads all candidates in the majors with 1,261,659 votes, thanks to his league-leading 20 home runs through Tuesday. Bautista likely is the only Toronto player who will start in the All-Star Game, while six different Yankees are in line to be starters.

If the All-Star Game were to start tomorrow, the AL squad would have an all-Yankee infield, with Mark Teixeira at first, Robinson Cano at second, Derek Jeter at shortstop, Alex Rodriguez at third and Russell Martin behind the plate. Curtis Granderson is second in the outfield voting behind Bautista, so he’s in line to start as well.

The closest Red Sox player to a starting job is David Ortiz, who is 30,000 votes behind Michael Young at designated hitter. Adrian Gonzalez is more than 200,000 votes behind Teixeira, and Dustin Pedroia is nearly 500,000 votes behind Cano.

Fans can vote here until June 30 at 11:59 p.m.

Rafael Soriano was expected to return to the mound this week after being placed on the disabled list with an elbow injury on May 17. However, the right-hander had to stop his Monday bullpen session early, and he had an MRI on Tuesday.

“I’m more concerned now,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I thought we’d have him getting ready to go on a rehab assignment soon. But that doesn’t seem to be the case now.”

The Yankees made the 31-year-old Soriano the sixth-highest-paid reliever in major league history with a $35 million contract this past winter, but the former Rays closer has responded by surrendering nine runs in just 15 innings. Soriano gave up only 12 runs in all of 2010 with Tampa Bay, when he had 45 saves.

Welcome to Wednesday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

WHAT’S HAPPENING LOCALLY WEDNESDAY:
MLB: Red Sox at Indians, 7:05 p.m. (NESN; WEEI)
NHL: Islanders at Bruins, 7 p.m. (NESN)
MLS: Revolution at Whitecaps, 10 p.m. (CSNNE)

AROUND THE WEB:

♦ The Yankees — who squandered a late four-run lead and lost in 10 innings to the Twins Tuesday night — are involved in a “misunderstanding” with the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The team for many years has had a between-innings scoreboard segment in which three MTA trains race to Yankee Stadium. The MTA allowed the Yankees to use its name and those of the trains — B, D and 4 — because it promoted public transportation, and all the MTA asked was that the team not sell sponsorship of the segment. When the Yankees went ahead and sold sponsorship to Subway restaurants this year, the MTA tried to contact the team. The Yanks not only did not return the MTA’s call, they changed the names of the trains. “It would be a win-win for everybody involved to get the numbers and letters of these three subway lines back on the trains,” an MTA official said. “Hopefully it will happen.”

♦ The prosecution completed its presentation Tuesday in its case against Barry Bonds. At the San Francisco Chronicle, Gwen Knapp writes about the slim chance that Bonds will take the stand Wednesday to defend himself.

♦ A hit-and-run driver knocked over a heavy metal fence and left tire tracks in the front yard of Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb‘s Virginia house over the weekend. McNabb and his family were not home at the time.

♦ Most of the talk about UConn’s NCAA championship game victory over Butler remains centered on the poor shooting by both teams. In the New York Daily News, Dick Weiss points the finger at the NCAA for playing the game in a cavernous football arena, Houston’s Reliant Stadium, noting the warehouse-like feel had to affect the players.

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA: On April 6, 1973, the designated hitter made its debut in a game between the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway. New York’s Ron Blomberg became the first DH to register a plate appearance when he drew a walk off Luis Tiant. Who started at DH for Boston and went 0-for-6 in the Sox’ 15-5 win

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Welcome to Thursday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

WHAT’S HAPPENING LOCALLY THURSDAY:
NHL: Canadiens at Bruins, 7 p.m. (NESN)
MLB Preseason: Red Sox at Marlins, 1:05 p.m.

AROUND THE WEB:

♦ Forbes magazine did an analysis of Major League Baseball and determined that the Yankees are the sport’s most valuable team for the 14th straight year, worth $1.7 billion. The Red Sox are No. 2, but 86 percent less valuable than the Bronx Bombers, at $912 million.

The Padres were the most profitable in 2010, with an operating income of $37 million. The Red Sox had an operating income of minus-$1 million, but they make that up with their share in NESN. The average value of a major league team is $523 million, up 7 percent from last year.

♦ Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco began his soccer tryout with Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday. According to Terez A. Paylor of The Kansas City Star, Ochocinco was feisty but rusty playing the game he loved as a youngster. Afterward, Ochocinco denied it was a publicity stunt. “What you rather have me do during a lockout? Go get arrested, get in trouble? Act like Charlie Sheen? I’m one that never gets in trouble, I do nothing wrong. I just try to have fun,” he said.

♦ Agent Scott Boras responded to a critical piece written by an anonymous major leaguer in ESPN the Magazine by telling the New York Post the player’s implications that he does not provide struggling clients with enough support are baseless. “Our commitment to the player is extreme,” Boras insisted.

♦ In The New York Times, Jere Longman writes about Baylor women’s basketball player Melissa Jones, who lost vision in her right eye after a collision on the court in February but is back with protective glasses, helping the top-seeded Bears advance to the Sweet 16.

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA: On March 24, 1974, which Bruin had an assist in a 6-3 victory over the Canadiens to become the third player in NHL history (joining teammates Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr) to have more than one 100-point season?

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