NEW YORK — Yankees manager Joe Girardi sat courtside for Rafael Nadal’s second-round US Open match Thursday night and offered up some thoughts on where Nadal might fit in on the Yankees.
“Well, I think you’d probably have to put him lead off because he’s got a lot of fire and you want those guys to try to make things happen,” Girardi told ESPN’s Brad Gilbert as he watched Nadal crush Rogerio Dutra Silva, 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, in Arthur Ashe Stadium. “And I’d probably have to put him at shortstop because he was a guy that could cover the whole field.”
(Apparently Derek Jeter would be displaced, perhaps to DH, in such a scenario. Also, Nadal is a lefty, which might make playing shortstop difficult.)
Asked if Nadal could bat third, Girardi said, “No, because I want the guy that has the fire and the passion to make something happen.”
Nadal is on track to meet super server John Isner in the fourth round on Monday and arch-rival Roger Federer in the quarterfinals Wednesday night, something that John McEnroe said he’s “praying for.”
As for the Yankees, Girardi knows they have to win at a major pace down the stretch to make the postseason for an 18th time in 19 years.
“Yeah, well, we need to win a lot of games, there’s no doubt about it for us to chase down the teams in front of us,” Girardi said. “And Baltimore is one of those teams and we kind of hope that they play all night tonight and get worn out before they get here because we have a nice day off.
“But we have to win a lot of games.”
