The Big Man takes the ball for his 4th Yankees opening day start.
Believe it or not, it’s been half a year since the Yankees played a real baseball game. Back on October 6th, the Yankees sent rookie pitcher Ivan Nova against the Tiger’s 2011 breakout pitcher Doug Fister. It all ended in yet another Jose Valverde obnoxious save, a 3-2 loss to end the Yankees’ season in the Bronx.
182 days later, we have a new season. The team lost their prized position-less hitting prospect, and gained one of the most promising arms in the game. The Yankees said goodbye to Jorge Posada, Jesus Montero, A.J. Burnett, Bartolo Colon, Hector Noesi, and Luis Ayala last year, and this year we get a crop of promising replacements in Michael Pineda, Hiroki Kuroda, Clay Rapada, David Phelps, Chris Stewart, Raul Ibanez, and Andy Pettitte. This is a team that has maintained its offensive prowess, and refurbished a questionable pitching staff. Today, the new and improved Yankees replay game 162, where in extra innings, the Rays beat the Bombers in Tropicana and pushed the final domino in the Red Sox collapse.
| Yankees | Rays |
| Derek Jeter SS | Desmond Jennings CF |
| Curtis Granderson CF | Ben Zobrist RF |
| Robinson Cano 2B | Evan Longoria |
| Alex Rodriguez 3B | Jeff Keppinger DH |
| Mark Teixeira 1B | Sean Rodriguez SS |
| Nick Swisher RF | Carlos Pena 1B |
| Raul Ibanez DH | Elliot Johnson 2B |
| Russell Martin C | Jose Molina C |
| Brett Gardner LF | Matt Joyce LF |
Joe Girardi sums up his own take on Opening Day saying, “Very anxious, I think you look forward to this day from the day we get to spring training. I’ve actually been looking forward to it since last year. We had a good spring training. I was happy with it. We got everything done we needed to. Now it’s time to play for real.”
The first pitch is scheduled at 3:10 pm on YES.
Go Yankees!
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16 Responses to Game One: A New Hope
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TIQ IQ
What a great day, Yankee baseball is finally here! Hopefully CC can get a quick start this year, if he can avoid his early season slump he has a good shot at the Cy Young. Hopefully Shields pitches more like 2010 than 2011 and starts with some big home runs today!
Shields last year as a Ray I bet.
What’s his contract look like? I know he has some club options but I don’t know how many. I was thinking he has options through 2014.
$9m option for 2013, and $12m for 2014. That’d be about a quarter of the Rays roster this year.
They’ll get a gold mine in return if he can have another year anywhere close to last season. He has to prove this year if he really is an ace or more a number 2 or 3.
Well that ball went far…
That intentional walk was a terrible move. Shame on Girardi.
I understand his thinking but I didn’t like it when he called for it, it just felt like a bad mood. You don’t walk a guy with limited power to face Pena.
Yea, there would be a decent reasoning if the team was limiting runs in the late innings. Way too early to start a risky damage control move.
If there was only one out it would be OK, but I agree with two outs in the first inning way too early to go to something like that.
If Alex hits like that all season we can sit back and enjoy the ride. He still has all the talent to be at the top of the league, he just hasn’t been able to stay healthy enough.
Alex is showing a ton of range in his first two innings.
Yea some really good plays from him thus far. Jeter looks like he’s back to hitting too.
What do you think of this YES crew? I like Cone and I don’t mind Michael, Lou seems to be a good third voice.
I love David Cone, and I think Lou is gonna be great this year. Michael Kay is a weirdo, but he’s our weirdo.
I was hoping being in Tampa, inside, that might help CC get off to a hotter start. He’s just a guy who starts slow and builds himself up though. I’d rather have that than the other way around though.