Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Grand Opening

As far as Opening Day games go, tonight was a Yankee classic.

A solid start from Wang. The Joba we love. The Mo we worship idolize. Great defense. Enough hitting to get by.

While you can argue that tonight's game belonged to Wang for his start that seemed to match Halladay nearly pitch-for-pitch, it would have probably been a much nastier affair if not for the highlight-reel defense of Melky Cabrera.

Okay, so Melky might not have the .300+ average we are used to seeing in our centerfielders after Bernie, but his defense is why he belongs in center.

Also, how many times do you see it where an outfielder has a great defensive half-inning and then goes on to hit a home run in the next half-inning?

Anyway.

Giambi had heads-up baserunning in the seventh, and that run on the Matsui sacrifice was classic small ball.

It would have been nice if the Yankees had gotten Damon in from third, but just as long as we don't make it a habit, I can deal with it.

OPTIMIST TAKE: A lot to be optimistic about--only Giambi, Posada and Matsui were hitless, and Giambi and Matsui still had key at bats. Wang was solid--not perfect--but he got out of his jams, and as they say, any solid start is three runs or less over seven, and that's exactly what Wang did. He pitches like that every game, he'll win 19 again, and because he went seven innings, the Yankees only needed to use Joba for one inning and Mo for one inning, and when you have to play 20 games in a row, the less you have to use the bullpen, the better.


SCORES AND STUFFS

Mets and Florida are tied at four in the eighth. Pedro Martinez came out early with a hamstring injury. Tough luck for Mets fans.

St. Louis over Colorado 1-0 in the sixth on a HR from Jose Molina's youngest brother. I'm not going to try to spell Yadier.

Angels over Minnesota 5-1 in the seventh. Vlad Guerrero has 2 RBI and Mike Napoli a HR.

Boston-Oakland, Texas-Seattle, San Diego-Houston and San Francisco-LA yet to get underway.

4 comments:

  1. Peter Abraham had it that Wang got 12 ground ball outs and retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced.

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  2. Great Game! Nice win for Yankees to start the season.

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  3. I think the Yakees played a great game - just like you'd draw it up with Wang for 7 and turn the lead over to Joba in the 8th and Mo in the 9th.
    Not to be a downer, but the one thing that did bother me was not scoring a run on the leadoff triple with no outs. It didn't cost the Yanks tonight, but that run has got to score. Could mean a game in the future.

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  4. I agree with Fran, but I'm trying to look at that particular inning as overexcitement for Opening Day. I think maybe two of those batters swung at the first pitch. I'm hoping that will settle down.

    And, yes, that was totally the Joba I love.

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