BALTIMORE — Orioles manager Buck Showalter has the reputation of being an expert at gamesmanship and somebody who searches for the slightest ways to gain a competitive advantage.
So when the Camden Yards grounds crew rolled out the tarp after the O’s were done taking batting practice before Tuesday night’s Yankees-Orioles game, it meant the Yankees weren’t going to take BP on the field that was dry.
A scheduled early batting practice session Tuesday had been scrapped and the Yankees were coming off a day of rest Monday.
Clearly, the Yankees weren’t pleased with what many believed was Showalter’s latest ploy to get an edge. That doubled when not a drop of rain fell the rest of the night.
“They hit and they’re covering the field,’’ manager Joe Girardi said in the middle of a session with the media in the third-base dugout prior to the game.
With his team severely struggling at the plate and not having worked out Monday, missing batting practice wasn’t an ideal way to get out of a team-wide slump. And it didn’t since the Yankees went down, 4-1. Of their seven hits, six were singles and they went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
CC Sabathia has dropped 15 pounds since the end of spring training by doing something very simple.
“I don’t eat after games,’’ he said.
Sabathia said he is down to 300 pounds thanks to avoiding the clubhouse spreads at home and on the road.
Sabathia, who starts against the Orioles Wednesday night, was back in the Camden Yards clubhouse for the first time since the final weekend of last season. He left the team before the last regular-season game of the year and headed for a Connecticut alcohol rehab facility.
Girardi said general manager Brian Cashman’s announcement Monday that neither he nor any coaches were going to be fired after the Yankees opened the season 8-15 didn’t have much of an effect on the manager.
“It is for my coaches, I hope,’’ Girardi said of the positive reinforcement provided by Cashman, who has never fired a coach during the season. “I know for me, I never worry about my job.’’
If Girardi wagered, he would rush to get down on a bet he guarantees will be a winner.
After watching Dellin Betances give up homers in three straight appearances last week, the manager predicted that will never happen again.
“That’s probably the most shocking thing,’’ Girardi said. “If I was a betting man, we won’t see that again.”
Aroldis Chapman will throw Thursday and Friday in the extended spring training program and rejoin the Yankees next Monday when his 30-game suspension for violating MLB’s domestic abuse policy is completed.
“He is excited to get up here and assist,” Cashman said of the left-hander with a 100-mph fastball who will take over the closer’s role from Andrew Miller.
Rob Refsnyder returned to the position in which he broke into professional baseball Tuesday night for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when he started in right field. Aaron Judge, the regular right fielder, didn’t appear to be ailing since he took batting practice.
Refsnyder was moved to second base and this past spring training played third.