Sunday, April 4, 2010

Opening Day - Yankees vs. Red Sox

The excitement is palpable. In less than one hour, the first pitch will be thrown and the Yankees will officially begin to defend their World Series title. The conditions are excellent at Fenway Park with the temperature in the low 70s and clear skies. The wind is supposed to pick up into the night with gusts reaching 20 MPH, so it might be a tough night for the outfielders. The game airs on YES and ESPN2 at 8:05 p.m. Get your cracker jacks ready, baseball is back!

Yankees
Jeter - SS
Johnson - DH
Teixeira - 1B
Rodriguez - 3B
Cano - 2B
Posada - C
Granderson - CF
Swisher - RF
Gardner - LF

LHP C.C. Sabathia

Red Sox
Ellsbury - LF
Pedroia - 2B
Martinez - C
Youkilis - 1B
Ortiz - DH
Beltre - 3B
Drew - RF
Cameron - CF
Scutaro - SS

RHP Josh Beckett

Game Notes: The Yankees lost to the Red Sox 9-7 in a game dominated by offense. The pitching on both sides was pretty bad, but Boston's bullpen was able to limit the damage to two runs while the Yankees relievers repeatedly gave up the lead. Beckett looked awful throughout his turns, while Sabathia cruised through four innings and then completely lost his command in the fifth and sixth. He clearly ran out of gas in those later innings. Sabathia's final line: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K - 104 pitches, 58 for strikes. Posada and Granderson hit back-to-back homers off of Beckett in the second. In the fourth, Jeter and Gardner pulled of a double steal of second and home. The Yanks tied the game up 7-7 in the top of the seventh, but then in the bottom of the frame Chan Ho Park imploded and served up a two-run homer to Pedroia and the Youkilis scored on a passed ball. Chamberlain came on in relief and was attacking the hitters, he looked sharp, but gave up a run on two hits and a walk. It was a roller coaster ride of a game and unfortunately the good guys couldn't pull it out in the end. The team has off tomorrow and then squares off against Jon Lester. It'll be interesting to see if Brett Gardner, who had a good game today (2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SB), will be in the lineup against the tough lefty or if it will be Marcus Thames.

The YES network inserted a new feature in their on-screen box score that indicates how many pitches each pitcher has thrown. Sabathia ran out of gas around 90 pitches. Beckett threw 31 pitches in the second and 33 in the fourth.

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