Ugly Opener for Yankees

Just an hour after the loss, I’ve already received four negative comments regarding the Yankees from my friends.  The ball didn’t bounce our way today, and there’s nothing you can do about that.

Quick recap:

The Yankees were down 3-0 early, and then fell into a deeper hole in the fifth inning. Hideki Matsui’s two-run homer shrank the deficit to 6-5 in the seventh inning. But Phil Coke and Brian Bruney were blasted in the eighth for four runs, putting the game out of reach for the Yankees. Ful box score here.

Thoughts:

I was limited to watching the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, but I noticed a lot of unlucky things happen to the Yankees in that brief span.  In the fifth inning, two balls were hit just out of the reach of Cody Ransom’s glove, and then a ball was hit right to short stop but Derek Jeter was out of position covering second base for the steal attempt. Three runs were scored that inning.

Offensive notables:

Jeter had a nice day leading off, as he singled three times. Unfortunately, nobody behind him could bring him all the way around. When he singled in the sixth inning, Xavier Nady was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada both homered in the game. Posada led off the sixth with a no-doubter to right-center field, and Matsui’s was also to right-center field.

Pitching notables:

CC Sabathia had an awful Yankee debut, maybe a little unlucky, but still walked five batters and struck out none.

Next game:

Yankees get all of Tuesday to mull the loss. They will return, hopefully with vengeance, on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. EST, Chien-Ming Wang will face Baltimore’s Japanese rookie Koji Uehara.