Yankees prepare for rare run in sun

Fans of afternoon baseball will get a rare treat over the next seven days as the Yankees will play six day games, starting with today's against the Athletics.

Thursday is the beginning of five 1 p.m. starts in a row wrapped around Labor Day weekend. It's the first time the Yankees have hosted five consecutive day games since April 2004.

Next Wednesday is the one that has some scratching their heads. It's not a getaway day for either the Yankees or Orioles; both teams are off the next day. Day games usually mean lower ratings on TV because viewers are at work.

Maybe the Yankees are just doing it because baseball is meant to be played during the day?

"Crazy, man," Nick Swisher said. "Baseball's meant to be played at night. That's kind of my philosophy on that. The lights are on. You want to be under those lights."

Perhaps Swisher feels that way because he went into last night batting .311 in night games and .273 during the day this season. But most regular Yankees have performed better during the day in 2010.

The Yankees have the highest daytime batting average in the majors at .283. They have the second-best daytime winning percentage (31-16, .660). The best? Oakland (30-13, .698).

Of course, the Yankees' night winning percentage isn't bad. It was .595 before last night's win; Oakland's was .398.

CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes all have better ERAs in day games. Only Javier Vazquez bucks the trend.

Derek Jeter is a .326 hitter in day games this season vs. .234 at night. Jorge Posada is .316/.223. Mark Teixeira is .326/.228.

"I like playing day games," Teixeira said. "I see the ball better as a hitter. Plus, at the end of the night, you get to spend time with your family. My kids and my wife are usually asleep when I get home from the stadium. I get to spend time with my family and have kind of a normal life for once."

Reliever Kerry Wood, who spent 10 seasons with the day-game loving Cubs, said day games are appealing to players with young children.

"The day games in Chicago, you're done at five o'clock, so it's like a normal job, a 9-to-5 job," he said. "It can give some normalcy to this crazy kind of life."

On the other side . . . do day games - especially the ones after night games, like today's - cut down the late-night carousing players may wish to do?

"Day game's the next day," Swisher said. "You've got to shut it down. You've got to get ready to play." But, he conceded, "That wasn't always my thought process."

Do some players come in bleary-eyed before a day game after not "shutting it down" early enough the night before?

"Everybody's seen that," Swisher said. "But you don't have to worry about that on this team. These boys bring it every day. You don't want to be the weakest link. You want to make sure you're ready to go every day. Regardless of whether it's seven o'clock, four o'clock, one o'clock, whatever, it's time to go to work."