Liveblog 10: The Season Begins

It's not Opening Day, but it's the deciding game of the first series this year against the Blue Jays. In the first game, the Yankees won due to good and somewhat lucky pitching by Wang, Joba, and Mariano. Melky had a big game, making two good catches and sneaking a game-tying home run past the wall in right. A-Rod drove in the team's first run of the season. In game two, the pitching wasn't so good, with Mike Mussina being decent but not good enough against AJ Burnett, who's usually hurt but impressive when he isn't and who can opt out after this season. A-Rod homered, but that was about all the offense they got. Ross Ohlendorf looked pretty good in the ninth, though. Tonight is Phil Hughes' first start of the season, and thanks to quirky scheduling for Spring Training, the first time he'll pitch on TV since the playoffs. Here's hoping he holds his own against Dustin McGowan, who emerged in impressive fashion last year.

Top 1 - Phil's on the mound. Let's see if he can reverse his bad Stadium split from last year. Fastball doesn't have the velocity it did in Tampa but he gets Eckstein to ground out weakly. He strikes out Stairs looking on a beautiful curve. After looking at a few breaking pitches, Rios is also punched out looking at a fastball at the knees. Nice start.

Bottom 1 - The crowd has already taken to doing a "Hughes" call with two strikes and two outs. Pretty nifty. McGowan strikes Damon with a nice fastball out of the zone. Jeter grounds out afterwards. If anyone's following on Gameday, don't trust what it said in the first inning, I don't think they even got the number of pitches right. Abreu swings weakly at the third strike, and we might have a pitcher's duel tonight.

Top 2 - Wells pops out to deep second, nice play by Cano. Not off to the hottest start but I'm excited about his potential for this season. Thomas skies one to Melky on the first pitch. Overbay takes a couple balls before grounding to second. Woo.

Bottom 2 - A-Rod hits it hard but right to third. Giambi works a full count and then walks. No hits yet but he's gotten on base twice. Cano up, hitting sixth again, which I still find interesting and great. He grounds into a force but just beats out the double play. Still needs to work on plate discipline, no need to swing at a pitch outside like that. Gameday's pitch identification isn't flawless yet, because I know McGowan's fastball ain't 86 MPH. Non-speedster Cano steals second, but it doesn't matter because Matsui didn't check his swing in time and is called out.

Top 3 - Hill is right on Phil's pitches, fouling two off. He smacks the third to Melky in center. Scutaro flies out to right. Phil's coasting. Zaun hits a grounder sharply but Giambi snags it. I don't know what's wrong with Michael Kay, it's one thing to bring certain possible outcomes up when it's been five or six innings, but he can't wait until the third is over.

Bottom 3 - Molina's playing again instead of Jorge, who's still got a bad shoulder. It could just be small sample size but Phil pitched better last year with him catching. He singles up the middle. Kay's calling the Yankees' three young pitchers (Hughes, Joba, and Kennedy) Generation Tres. This is a terrible nickname for two reasons. One, it sucks. Two, why would you want to evoke Generation K, a similar situation for the Mets that turned out to be a huge flop? Melky draws a walk, and Kay says it was the second in the inning, but quickly corrects himself. Damon up with opportunity knocking. Paul O'Neill's grousing about lost opportunities when teams don't bunt with runners on base like this. Someone show that man a run expectancy chart. Damon hits it hard, but right at Rios. Jeter's on my fantasy team, so he has two reasons to come through here. Unfortunately, the bastard grounds into a double play.

Top 4 - Interesting storyline this year involves Jeter and the new Stadium. He can set the record for hits at this Yankee Stadium, but he'll have to get at least 91 this year, before they move. He should do it, but he might not. Eckstein pops a duck-fart double down the left field line, and that's the first baserunner for the Jays. Stairs bounces a grounder that moves Eckstein over, and the shutout's in jeopardy. Rios singles cleanly, running his hit streak against the Yankees to 23 games, and Hughes will not have a 0.00 ERA this year. Oh well. Rios goes for second and Cano misses the ball, allowing him to move to third. God damn it. Wells works a full count but strikes out swinging on a nice curve. Thomas does the same, looking at a fastball. He thought it was inside and Gameday agrees, but usually it doesn't help to argue with the umpire, and he gets ejected.

Bottom 4 - The overhead camera shows it was inside too. The new Gameday has problems. Sometimes it will just duplicate at bats, and then you have really confusing looking pitch sequences for a bit. Abreu stings a single to right. A-Rod pops out to deep second. Zaun is starting to annoy me, as does any catcher who jerks the glove a little too much on borderline pitches. Giambi grounds out, but Abreu makes it to third because no one was covering the base thanks to the defensive shift. Kinda funny. Cano hits it well but right to stairs, and another chance wasted.

Top 5 - Hopefully a quick inning here to make up for the last one. Hughes is getting called high strikes on the curve, which makes things a bit easier. Overbay grounds out on the fourth straight offspeed pitch. Hill grabs another curve but hits it lazily to Matsui. Scutaro draws a walk, which is a silly thing to allow him to do. Zaun lines a double right on the line, and Phil's gotta step it up. A-Rod botches a grounder and Eckstein beats the throw, allowing another run to score. Stairs grounds out, inning over. Someone tell Kay he can only say so-and-so works into and out of trouble if they don't allow any runs to score. I swear he has like six things he knows how to say. I'm gonna microwave something, the offense needs to do something.

Bottom 5 - Matsui dinks a single the opposite way. That's how to get started. Zaun just stole a call with his stupid jerk move. Someone hit him with a bat. Molia pops out to Hill ranging to his left. Melky managed to ground into a double play before I finished the second part of preparation for my overly-elaborate microwave dinner. You know what's irritating? This game.

Top 6 - Phil's still in, although I expect this is his last inning regardless of what happens. He almost hits Rios with a bad curve. Bruney's in the bullpen, and I don't think Kay is contractually allowed to mention him without saying he lost twenty pounds since last year. Rios flies out on an ill-advised swing at a 3-0 fastball. Another bad curve comes close to Wells, who then pops out to right. Shannon Stewart, in for Thomas, looks at a strike. He grounds out to Jeter. He could pitch the seventh without getting to 100 pitches, but I don't see him getting the chance.

Bottom 6 - While I was fumbling with my gravy pouch, Damon worked a full count, and then he doubled to right field. Jeter was down 0-2 but drew two balls before getting hit by a breaking ball. It's time for something to happen. If nothing else, they're making McGowan throw a bunch of pitches, but the Jays' pen ain't shabby. Abreu walks and A-Rod's got the bases loaded. There's butter and gravy on this corn. There's a wild pitch and the runners move up, now they're trailing 2-1. A-Rod strikes out, and now Giambi's got a chance to be the hero. He lines an out to Rios and Jeter scores to tie it, but Overbay cuts off the throw and gets Abreu at third, end of the inning.

Top 7 - Billy Traber's pitching, so while Hughes can't get the win, he can't lose either. He matched McGowan, pretty good first start. He strikes out Overbay, and his night's done. Ah, the life of a LOOGY. Bruney's in. Hill works the count full before grounding out to Cano. Scutaro pops out to right field, now let's get a lead.

Bottom 7 - But before that, we'll have to listen to Kate Smith sing "God Bless America" for the 800th time. Seriously Yankee Stadium, enough. And YES, you don't have to show it. Cano weakly grounds out on a pitch from reliever Brian Wolfe. Matsui strikes out. Molina breaks hit bat and grounds out. It's Joba time.

Top 8 - I don't get this sudden debate over Joba's fist pump. Every player I've heard from doesn't mind it, including notoriously angry O'Neill just now, so radio hosts should just find something new to argue about. Zaun strikes out looking. Eckstein grounds out on a nice play by Cano. Who does Kay think he is using "demonstrative" to describe excitable pitchers? Speak like a human. Stairs singles to the right side. Rios flies out to Abreu. Offense!

Bottom 8 - Melky singles to right field. I'm smelling a pretty good year from him. Scott Downs coming in to face the lefty Damon. Damon bunts, and reaches base thanks to a bobble by the pitcher. I guess Girardi needs a run expectancy chart too. Jeter bunts as well, and almost gets a hit out of it. I guess you can't argue with second and third with one out. Abreu dunks a single in front of Wells, Yanks take the lead. A-Rod's down looking on three pitches. MORE LIKE K-ROD AM I RIGHT? Giambi gets hit, and has reached base three times this season despite having yet to get a base hit. Cano flies out, and Mariano will try to protect a 3-2 lead again.

Top 9 - Wells grounds a single up the middle. Stewart grounds to third, moving Wells to second. Another ground ball moves Wells to third. Hill looks at the third strike, and another close win for the Yankees. Last year, Rivera recorded his second save of he season on May 3rd. This year, April 3rd.

Wrap-up - If the bullpen keeps going like they have this year, it will be a good season. They've allowed one run in 8 1/3 innings. They started off on a similar good footing last year, but the difference is they haven't been overworked yet. Phil looked good, and it's encouraging when you can win two of three games against the Jays' rotation when you haven't had a good offensive performance yet. Ian Kennedy pitches tomorrow.