Girardi: I'm not going to hurt my pitchers

Why did Chad Gaudin and Sergio Mitre pitch crucial innings tonight instead of David Robertson and Joba Chamberlain?

Joe Girardi said it was a matter of looking at the big picture.

“They’ve been used a lot lately,” Girardi said of Chamberlain and Robertson. “It’s something we felt we had to stay away from them.”

Robertson pitched Friday and Saturday – two endlessly long games [both losses] – in Texas. Chamberlain, however, pitched only on Friday, throwing 21 pitches, and has thrown four innings since Sept. 1. Chamberlain said he was healthy and could have pitched but also said, “you have to listen to your body” this time of year.

Some of the questions to Girardi centered around the premise of just how important winning the division is if Gaudin and Mitre were pitching critical innings.

“[It’s about] not hurting guys,” Girardi said. “You’re trying to win the game. We’re doing everything we can to win the game…We just felt we had to stay away from some guys tonight.”

To some degree, though far from entirely, Girardi’s choice in relievers overshadowed the brilliant pitching of both CC Sabathia and David Price.

“He was good, I thought our guy was better,” Jorge Posada said. “CC threw a hell of a game. But we couldn’t score because Price was that good too.”

*** Nick Swisher pinch hit tonight and grounded out, and all but limped his way to first. Swisher will go for an MRI on his left knee tomorrow, something that had been determined before the game.

“On one leg isn’t exactly the way I want to be going out there,” he said.

It will be Swisher’s second MRI within two weeks. The first one didn’t show anything but Swisher isn’t sure.

“We took the MRI before and it said that there was nothing but I find that really, really hard to believe,” Swisher said. “We’ll go in there tomorrow, whatever happens, just take it head on.”

And with that, back tomorrow night as it will be rookie Ivan Nova (1-0, 2.92) taking on Matt Garza (14-8, 3.68).