The Yankees lost to the Orioles tonight. There’s so little that we can read from the 2nd game of the season, so I won’t attempt to overrreach. I get pretty fired up after a Yankees loss sometimes, but its too early to matter.
Chien-Ming Wang looked a bit lost, and couldn’t get his sinker to work. This isn’t something that we are unaccustomed to. He didn’t have a particularly eventful spring training, and he had a few moments where he had his old stuff, so for now we can just write it off as one game.
Koji Uehara tricked the Yankees into submission. The Yankees got hit by a new, crafty pitcher who changes speeds. Give them a few looks at him, and his 89 mph fastball will get knocked around pretty well. I suspect that the Yankees won’t be the only team that struggles against him in the first month or two of the season.
Derek Jeter continued to hit well. Jeter’s last great season came after a poor WBC. His critics have been more vocal than usual this off season, and he might be playing with a chip on his shoulder. We’ll see how April goes.
I really don’t get the Mark Teixeira booing. Really Baltimore? You boo a guy who never played for you for signing elsewhere, even though the Nationals and Red Sox also beat your offer?
That’s about all I’ve got for the night. Two games are just a blip on the radar screen. Did you all see anything else notable?
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4 Responses to Recap: Yankees lose to Orioles 7 to 5
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TIQ IQ
1. It seems like you can always tell how Wang’s games will go from his first inning, when his sinker’s up it’s flat and hitters dominate it.
2. Whenever the Yanks rally like that in the 9th inning they always go on to win the next game, I’m calling it right now, Yanks win tomorrow and Burnett saves our pen 3 straight days of overuse with 6-7 strong innings. Mo gets his first save of the year.
3. Bruney doesn’t have the command to be the 9th inning guy… if I were Girardi I would use Bruney in the less meaningful 6th possibly 7th and use Marte and Veras and Albaladejo in the 8th and more important hold situations.
4. CC is either un-clutch (look at his postseason and opening day start numbers) or he just stinks in cold weather.
5. Tex is pushing too much and trying to do too much, he just needs to relax and let his natural ability take over.
EJ,
I totally get the booing. If Texeira had responded by doing something good in his first 8 at bats, then the booing wouldn’t nearly be as bad. It would have subsided by now. But when a guy responds by not hitting the ball hard 8 times in a row, then it continued and will continue until he responds in a positive manner. He can say what he wants, but he obviously was pressing and did not get good wood on the ball until his 9th at bat of the season. This was after a torrid spring, so the only explanation is that the boos got to him. He more than likely is going to get that treatment everywhere in the league now until he responds.
Tim Sherman
I was at the game last night the booing was crazy, sounds alot worse than the treatment ARod gets in Baltimore.
Tim,
I don’t think that we can read anything into two games. Players get booed all the time, and little gets to them. Teixeira had a pretty peaceful spring, and it doesn’t seem that there is much pressure on him.
Even if you’re right though, its just weird. Have we ever seen this before?