Girardi begs: “Play ball!”

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After enduring four days of hype and angst about the weather and speculation about how this batter would do against that pitcher and so on, few people were looking forward to tonight’s first pitch of the American League Championship Series more than Yankees Manager Joe Girardi was.

‘The days off can be enjoyable,’ he said, ‘but you look forward to playing. Just because that’s what we’re used to doing. We’re not used to having all these days off So it seems kind of strange.’

In fact, the four-day break between playoff series equals the longest stretch between games the Yankees have had since spring training, matching the lull they had at the All-Star break in July.

‘We took a travel day and then another day and physically we got our guys ready the last two days,’ Girardi said. ‘But I’m really looking forward to [playing].’

-- Kevin Baxter