Grading the New York Yankees: Opening Day

Joe Girardi, Mng: (A)  With the game tied at 2 in the top of the seventh, Girardi, not his pitching coach, sprinted out to the mound to chat with starter Chien-Ming Wang.  Wang began the inning by surrendering a double to Aaron Hill and then lucking out when Jason Giambi made a great play on Marco Scutaro's line drive.  Wang then retired Gregg Zaun after falling behind 3-1 in the count, for the second out of the inning.  At 91 pitches, Wang probably would have been pulled at this point last year under Joe Torre and some middle reliever most likely would have allowed the inherited runner to score from third, giving the Blue Jays the lead.  But this is a different Joe.  Girardi heard what he needed to hear from Wang and let his starter remain in the game. Wang then quickly retired David Eckstein on one pitch to complete the seventh.

A-Rod then led off the bottom of the seventh with a single to right center and when the next batter, Jason Giambi, ran the count full, the Yankees had a decision to make.  Announcer Michael Kay asked his analyst Paul O'Neill if he thought New York should send the runner.  The former right fielder said, "Probably not with no outs."  But this is the new regime.  Manager Girardi sent A-Rod, and while it didn't matter because Giambi walked, the aggression on the base paths was very refreshing to see.

Johnny Damon, LF: (C+)Damon tripled in the eighth inning, but as the lead-off man, he needs to get on more than once in four plate appearances.

Derek Jeter, SS: (C-) The Captain was 1-4 and had a very un-Jeterlike at bat following Damon's lead-off triple in the 8th.  With a chance to score the insurance run on an out, Jeter grounded a 1-0 pitch weakly back to the pitcher, stranding Damon on third, where he would remain for the rest of the inning. Jeter was also thrown out attempting to steal second in the third, but it was another great aggressive move because there were two outs and the count was 0-2 on Abreu.

Bobby Abreu, RF: (A-) Abreu also failed to get the job done in the eighth as he jumped on the first pitch, grounding out weakly to first base and failing to bring Damon home from third with less than two outs. But Abreu had an overall good game, going 2-4 with a run scored.

Alex Rodriguez, 3B: (A) A-Rod picked up where he left off in 2007, going 2-3 with a double, a walk, a run and a clutch two-out RBI in the first.

Jason Giambi, 1B: (C) Giambi's great grab in the seventh on Marco Scutaro's line drive was a game saver.  If the first baseman doesn't make that play, it's an RBI double and the Blue Jays are threatening to score at least another tack-on run and chase Wang from the game.  Not as good at the plate for Giambi, though, where he went 0-3 with a walk and stranded three runners, two in scoring position with two outs.

Robinson Cano, 2B: (B+) Cano went 1-3 at the plate but he did strand two runners.  In the field, he helped turn a big double play.

Jorge Posada, C: (C) Posada was 0-2 with a strikeout and a double play, but he did pick up a walk and called a good game for Wang.

Hideki Matsui, DH: (C) Matsui was 0-3 but he did pick up the game winning RBI with a force out in the seventh.  Godzilla also gets bonus points for sneaking off to marry a girl who looked attractive in her police sketch.

Melky Cabrera, CF: (A-)Yankee Stadium gets more of the credit than Cabrera does for his game-tying solo shot down the right field line off Halladay in the sixth. Melky does get a bunch of credit, however, for the gutty ten-pitch at bat.

Chien-Ming Wang, SP: (A) Wang escaped a two on, one out jam in the first with one of his patented double play balls.  After giving up single runs in the second and fifth, he weathered another mini-jam in the seventh to end with a line of: 7ip, 6h, 2er, 2bb, 2k. Most importantly, Wang out-dueled Halladay to pick up the win.

Joba Chamberlain, RP: (A-)Joba had a shaky eighth, giving up a walk and getting a beneficial high third strike call from home plate umpire Gary Darling, but Chamberlain didn't give up a hit and struck out two en route to a scoreless inning.

Mariano Rivera, RP: (A) A perfect ninth with one strike out earns Mo high marks, but you can't get an A+ for just one inning of work.

Overall Yankees Grade: (A) Great way to start the season.  I'll be at the game tonight and will hopefully have another report tomorrow morning.