And…THEY’RE OFF (splat)!

The season has begun. A few misguided souls may think the season began last night, but those of us who bleed navy blue know that it began at 4:20pm eastern standard time when Derek Jeter stepped to the plate. A few notes on the opener follow.

CC Sabathia was awful. He threw two wild pitches in the first inning and generally demonstrated an inability to hold runners on. He was shelled for three runs in the third. His velocity was low, and the anemic Oriole lineup teed off on him. He pitched 4 1/3 innings, eight hits, six runs, no strike outs and five walks, including a bases loaded walk to end his afternoon. At the end, he would not throw his fastball. He was not helped by Cody Ransom’s ineptitude in the field.

Hardly the beginning we hoped for. But Sabathia was so dominating most of last year that we tend to forget he was 1-4 with a 7.76 ERA in April. Maybe the big fellow is a slow starter.

Of greater concern is the fact that Sabathia sat in the dugout between innings with a hot water bottle on his stomach. He might have been cold, but the Yankee announcers kept saying the weather did not warrant it. The whole scene was reminiscent of Philip Hughes and his cracked rib last year. After the game he said the hot water bottle was because he had a stomach ache. Well, his performance gave me a stomach ache.

The reorganized Yankee lineup paid dividends in the third inning. Brett Gardner led off with a single. Girardi played hit and run, and Derek Jeter bounced a single through the vacated short stop hole, sending Gardner to third. Damon promptly drove him in with a sacrifice fly. Nice to see Girardi do something right.

Mark Teixiera was booed vociferously by the Oriole fans. Since Tex is a native of Annapolis, the fans had hoped he would come home and become the next Cal Ripken. Fortunately, he had better taste; he is a life long Yankee fan, and Don Mattingly was his boyhood hero. Unfortunately, Tex stank out the joint today. At the key moment in the eighth inning, he could not get the big hit. Ended up 0-4.

Posada hit a home run. Clearly the layoff has not affected his hitting. Whether he can throw remains to be seen. He had no chance to prove himself today, since none of the Yankee pitchers could hold any of the runners on base. Matsui also hit one out. He can’t run at all, but you don’t have to if you put it in the seats.

Xavier Nady had an rbi double, but with two on in the 7^th down by one run, he grounded ignominiously into a double play. Swisher, who should be starting, hit a pinch hit double. Hopefully, Girardi will come to his sense and start playing Swisher. But then again, that notion presumes Girardi knows what he’s doing.

Girardi left Phil Coke in too long and it cost him two more runs. Then Brian Bruney fell apart, and Marte had to bail him out.   But the game was lost when Teixiera failed to produce. We should trade him. Final was 10-5 for the bad team.

But the big news was the big flop by CC. Let’s hope his performance was a momentary abberation.

View gormanb's Profile      Subscribe via RSS