Chad Jennings

cjennings@lohud.com

On the day he returned to the big leagues, Bryan Mitchell was pretty sure he knew the routine.

It was the day before his start, and there wasn't much for him to do, so Mitchell asked CC Sabathia what time the national anthem started. He needed to know when to line up in front of the dugout with the rest of the pitchers.

Sabathia told him to head for the bullpen.

"I don’t know who started it or who initiated it, but that’s what we do now," Mitchell said.

Ever since the Mets series at the start of August, the entire Yankees rotation has gone to the bullpen before every game to watch that day's starter warm up. The rotation then follows the starter out of the bullpen, through the outfield and into the dugout.

"I think that’s a CC initiative," manager Joe Girardi said. "It’s kind of …"

Girardi held his hands with the fingers locked together.

"It feels like you've got all the guys behind you," Mitchell said.

It's no coincidence that the new routine started with the Mets series. According to Nathan Eovaldi, it was seeing the Mets' rotation do the very same thing that sparked the idea.

“We just saw it right there with the Mets games," Eovaldi said. "CC saw it, he liked it, so we were all on board. You just get to see everybody compete and how they’re feeling, and you’re showing support for the other guys, too."

Sabathia wouldn't take credit for spearheading the initiative, but he's the recognized leader of the pack, and there's little chance this show of support would have taken off without his say-so. Sabathia pointed out that the Yankees' rotation has done this in spring training, but they hadn't carried it into the regular season. Eovaldi said he'd played on other teams that had done it.

“We just came up with the idea," Sabathia said. "It’s cool. It gets us all together and behind one another. I think it works."

While the veterans see a bonding experience, it seems the younger guys see a learning opportunity.

"We get to see if there’s something that they do that we haven’t done," Chad Green said. "How do they start out, and how do they finish the last five or 10 pitches before they get ready to walk down? Do they go all-out? Do they just touch and feel the whole time? ... Seeing how far they throw in the outfield. How long do they throw? How many pitches do they throw? Just learning. CC’s been doing it for a while. Pineda’s had success. Tanaka obviously does his thing. So just take bits and pieces from those guys."

Green noticed that Michael Pineda is more aggressive in his pregame warm-ups, Masahiro Tanaka seems to take it easy with every pitch, and Sabathia has more of a minimalist routine. Green said he added some intensity to his final warm-up pitches after seeing the veterans up close.

Luis Cessa saw a benefit from the opposite angle.

Sure, he gets to see the veterans warm up, but they also get to see him.

"In that moment, they’re just watching,” Cessa said. “But maybe the next day, CC will say, maybe you opened too quick or maybe you opened too low on a certain pitch. That’s amazing for the team. The starters are looking when you warm up, and everybody helps you with little things. Important things, but sometimes they’re little, little things."

Hard to quantify the impact of such a largely symbolic gesture, but the Yankees have played their best baseball since the start of August, and throughout this march to relevance, the rotation has stuck together before each and every game.

"Everyone goes out together," Green said. "I like that part of it. Nobody is excluded from the group, I guess you could say. We care about how that guy does, and we’re not just in the dugout spitting seeds for nine innings."