The Bronx Stop: A Yankees Blog

Bryan Hoch/MLB.Com:

The 24 combined runs in last nights game were the most scored by the Yankees and Red Sox at Yankee Stadium since July 7, 1954, when New York defeated Boston, 17-9, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Here in the present day, the decisive point came in the bottom of the fifth inning, when 20 runs were scored in the first five frames alone. Trailing, 9-7, the Yankees took the lead with four runs off eventual losing pitcher Julian Tavarez, as Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano contributed RBI hits to tie the game and Melky Cabrera legged out a fielder's choice to give New York the lead.

Neither starter fared well. The Yankees jumped on Buchholz for three runs in the first inning, including Rodriguez's homer, which moved him past Willie McCovey and Ted Williams for 15th place on baseball's all-time list. The solo shot came back-to-back with Bobby Abreu, who clubbed a two-run homer. Buchholz threw 85 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs on eight hits before being dispatched to the showers.

Five days after Wang twirled a complete-game two-hitter at Boston, the right-hander wasn't able to replicate his success, allowing that many hits -- and two runs -- in the first two innings alone. Struggling with his command, Wang went just four-plus innings before he was lifted as part of a six-run fifth, tying a career high by allowing eight runs on nine hits.

All five batters Wang faced in the inning reached base, and four came around to score, with Ross Ohlendorf relieving Wang following J.D. Drew's two-run single. Notorious for his favorable home record, it was the first time in Wang's Major League career that he was unable to complete five innings at Yankee Stadium.

"I couldn't find the strike zone and the sinker was running," Wang said. "They don't swing at the first pitch."

"It's hard to get upset with a sinkerballer when he's below the zone, because that's where you want him," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "The last couple of innings, he got the ball up in the zone. Maybe he overadjusted a little bit, but these are two very good hitting teams, and these kind of things can happen."

Sean Casey drilled an RBI single to left-center off Ohlendorf to tie the game, and Dustin Pedroia ripped a two-run single -- his second hit of the inning -- past a diving Rodriguez to give Boston a two-run advantage that would not hold up.

Yankees beat the Rays, 8-7, WP: Brian Bruney(1-0), LP: Al Reyes(1-2)

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The Yankees are playing what seems like they're first warm weather game (even if is indoors) since spring training and boy when they are warm they can certainly hit.

Damon has a solo homerun, A-Rod has a solo homerun, Ensberg has a solo homerun and the rest of the Yankees are doing what they haven't been able to do all season--bat in runners in scoring position.

7-1 Yankees top of the fourth.

Back with more later.

Red Sox beat the Yankees, 8-5, WP: Daisuke Matsuzaka(3-0), LP: Phil Hughes(0-2)

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Royals beat the Yankees, 4-0, WP: Zack Greinke(2-0), LP: Kyle Farnsworth(0-1)

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George A. King/New York Post reports:

Alberto Gonzalez, not Wilson Betemit, will play shortstop until Derek Jeter returns.

Gonzalez, an above-average minor league defender who didn't look sure of himself in a 12-game big-league gig last September, joined the Yankees today from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Triple-A) and is expected to be in the starting lineup tonight against Royals right-hander Zach Greinke at Kauffman Stadium.

Cashman said Gonzalez is coming to play, so that means he will be at shortstop until Jeter is ready. Jeter, who felt something in his left quad muscle Sunday and left Monday's game after two innings, is out at least until Friday night, when the Yankees open a three-game series against the Red Sox in Fenway Park.

There is no guarantee Jeter will be ready by Friday.

The Yankees toyed with moving Alex Rodriguez from third base to his old position of shortstop but opted to go with Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, a slow starter at the plate throughout his minor-league career, was hitting .154 (2-for-13) for SWB.

Brian Cashman wasn't ready to divulge who was out to make room for Gonzalez, 25, but did say the Yankees were staying with 12 pitchers so that means it's either Betemit, Duncan, or Ensberg.

Yankees beat the Rays, 6-1, WP: Mike Mussina(1-1), LP: Jason Hammel(0-1)

From Mark Feinsand and his Blogging The Bomber's Blog:

4/4/08- Well, not exactly-- but Joe Girardi is certainly making his presence felt in the American League.

Back-to-back bunts, playing the infield in with a guy on third in the fourth inning it was a successful first series for the Yankees, capped off by a very un-Yankee-like win.

Now, let’s not revise history and say that Joe Torre never called a bunt. He may have done the exact same thing tonight in the eighth, but the infield-in call in the fourth was what caught my attention.

In a scoreless game with a man on third, one out and the middle of the Jays order coming up, Girardi brought the infield in, not wanting to concede a run on a ground ball.

Interesting thought, especially with the way the Jays pitched this week and the cold weather impacting the Yankees’ offense. Alex Rios hit a single that would have been a hit no matter where the infield was playing, but when Rios reached third base on a steal and an error, Girardi brought the infield in again.

“It’s not something that you’re going to do very often, but when runs are at a premium, the weather, the pitcher you’re facing, you don’t want to give them easy RBIs,” he said. “You want to make them work for it.”

As for the bunts in the eighth that led to the winning run, let’s also note that Girardi would have approached the inning differently if it had been A-Rod and Giambi due up instead of Damon and Jeter. Once Damon’s bunt was bobbled by Scott Downs and it was first and second with no outs, Jeter’s bunt was an obvious call. Either way, Girardi is showing that he’s prepared to do whatever is necessary to win, and the players are buying into it.

“Especially against tough pitching staffs where one run can be the difference, we’re going to have to do that kind of thing,” Damon said. “We plan to be in most of our ballgames this year, so if we can get an extra run or two across, it’s going to be huge.”

Bryan Hoch/Yankees.com:

Eighty-five years after Babe Ruth christened Yankee Stadium with a home run, the Yankees kick-started the ballpark's glorious sendoff season with the creation of a new set of memories, posting a tight 3-2 victory over the Blue Jays.

With red, white and blue bunting dangling from all decks of the facility once lauded as a towering, triple-tiered wonder of the sporting world, Melky Cabrera homered and made two outstanding catches to earn a curtain call -- the Yankees' first in a season that promises to be rife with celebratory ovations.

In the sixth, facing Blue Jays starter Roy Halladay, Cabrera connected with a high, arcing shot toward the right-field corner, well ahead of Alex Rios' leap and destined to hammer off the concrete walkway to tie the game. Cabrera's right arm shot out toward the outfield wall as he raced around the bases, and he was later summoned out of the dugout to again acknowledge the crowd.

Cabrera had a long way to run in the third inning, dashing into the gap in right-center field to flag down Lyle Overbay's deep drive before thudding against the wall with a leap. One batter later, Cabrera was racing toward left-center field, stumbling ever so slightly before grabbing Aaron Hill's low liner, completing his acrobatics with a flourishing head-first skid across the wet outfield turf.

The Yankees took the lead in the seventh off Halladay when, with the bases loaded, Aaron Hill couldn't find a quick handle on Hideki Matsui's hot ground ball to second base. Hill flipped the ball to shortstop David Eckstein's bare hand to record a putout, but Alex Rodriguez crossed the plate with the go-ahead run on the fielder's choice.

Splintering bats often with his expanding repertoire, sinker-balling starter Chien-Ming Wang limited Toronto to two runs and six hits over seven innings -- a Marco Scutaro run-scoring fielder's choice in the second and Shannon Stewart's RBI groundout -- before yielding to phenom Joba Chamberlain for the eighth inning. Chamberlain allowed the tying run to get as close as second base before he recorded two strikeouts to end the frame, pumping his fist and screaming as 55,112 did the same.

There was sweetness for Rodriguez as well. In his first at-bat since signing a landmark contract that will keep him in New York for the next decade, the reigning American League MVP picked up right where he left off in 2007 by ripping a two-out double up the gap in right-center field, scoring Bobby Abreu.

Rain Threatens:
ESPN is reporting that rain is threatening play at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

Apparently the tarp has been in place on the field for almost 2 hours. Officials hope that they will be able to get this game in but Kruky is reporting that that all depends on who you ask.

UPDATE 12:57pm: Opening Day in the Bronx has been postponed until 2pm. Who knows if it will even get underway by that time. Check back for more later.

Another note:
Bob Sheppard's voice will be at Yankee Stadium after all for Monday's season opener, the final Opening Day in the ballpark's history -- for one batter.

Sheppard, the Yankees' public address announcer since 1951, will not be able to attend the game as he recovers from health issues that have limited his workload. But shortstop Derek Jeter plans to have Sheppard introduce him for his at-bats, the first of which will come in the bottom of the first inning against the Blue Jays' Roy Halladay. Jeter has had Shepard's introduction recorded on tape.