The Futility Infielder

Okay, so that didn't go quite as planned. Mere hours after bragging about my TiVo in this space I was mildly cursing it. In a situation that seems to be related to YES sharing its Time Warner Cable slot with wee-hours paid programming, my recorder had a little braincramp and botched taping the 5 AM live feed of the Yanks' opening game from Japan. No matter, since an encore presentation was slated to air again at 9, slightly edited (they disappeared the fifth) to fit into a shorter time window. But that wasn't all that went awry.

In their much-hyped opener, the Yanks -- despite the smart deicsion to wear the traditional pinstripes for a road game, a first in their storied history -- looked flat and got knocked around, losing 8-3 to a team whose lunch money they've been stealing for five straight seasons. They got out to an early 2-0 lead as Jason Giambi homered on his first swing of the regular season. But starter Mike Mussina, one of the more vocal critics of this road trip apparently forgot to bring his A-game to Japan, and the Goddamn Drinking Bird -- Mussina's unsightly stretch move -- made its first appearance of the season in the second inning. As Will Carroll observed elsewhere, his mechanics were definitely off, and his attitude towards the trip turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the fourth, he walked two batters and gave up a game-tying single to Toby Hall.

The Yanks retook the lead on doubles by A-Rod and Gary Sheffield, the latter a check-swing job that reminded me the guy might have the quickest wrists in the majors, departed Alfonso Soriano be damned -- put some duct-tape over his mouth and he's going to be great in pinstripes. But they couldn't take better advantage of Rays starter Victor Zambrano's inability to throw strikes (only 56 out of 117 pitches), drawing only one walk of him and three overall.

Not that Mussina (54/108) was much better. Moose really got roughed up in the sixth, allowing a homer to Jose Cruz, Jr. (his 19th career shot against the Yanks) and then three straight doubles to Tino Martinez, Julio Lugo, and Hall. Paul Quantrill came on and got out of the inning with a mere three pitches, but in the next inning he apparently got a bruise from a mild collision with Alex Rodgriuez as he tried to field a bunt and departed. Felix Heredia came on in relief and was disastrous, making a two-base throwing error on a pickoff attempt before he'd thrown a pitch and then allowing an RBI single to Aubrey Huff and a two-run, stick-it-where-the-sun-don't-shine homer from Tino to cap the scoring at 8-3 Rays. Ony 16 of Heredia's 38 pitches went for strikes. Feh.

Good: the Yanks 3-4-5 hitters, Rodriguez-Giambi-Sheffied, were 5-for-10 with three doubles, a homer, 11 total bases and two walks -- that'll work. The bagels, from David's on 1st Avenue and 13th St. were awesome.

Bad: The Devil Rays were 13-for-29 on balls in play, a neat .448 average, meaning the Yanks' Defensive (in)Efficiency Ratio was .552, which won't cut it above tee-ball. The left side of the infield looked no less porous with A-Rod on the hot corner. Yankee fans should thank their local diety they don't play on turf 81 times a year.

Ugly: My gut reaction to Quantrill's injury was that "it's minor" will become a "precautionary" 15-day vacation. Hellooooo Scott Proctor. If Heredia keeps this up the Yanks will be looking for another lefty reliever before Memorial Day.

It's only one game, but one wonders whether Steinbrenner's thought about firing a coach yet, just to stir things up. Don Mattingly better mind those sideburns.



I'll be up early to watch tomorrow's ballgame, hoping things go better on the second day than they did on the first...