The New York Yankees new formula for success worked perfectly on Opening Day.
First they got six solid, but unspectacular innings from their starter CC Sabathia. The Yankees will look for better performances out of their ace going forward, but will gladly take three runs in six innings from the rest of their starters. The point is that Sabathia kept them in the game long enough for the offense to get to Justin Verlander. And the way the Tigers ace was struggling with his command, you knew it was only a matter of time before the Yankees got to him.
But CC’s biggest accomplishment was getting the ball to the Yankees superior bullpen and those arms worked perfectly to the tune of three consecutive 1-2-3 innings. Joba Chamberlain proved his spring renaissance was no illusion, Rafael Soriano looked very comfortable in the set-up role and Mariano Rivera was Mariano Rivera. In shutting down the Tigers, Mo did get a big assist from Curtis Granderson, who had a terrific game and made a spectacular catch in center field, the kind we used to see when Bernie Williams strolled that territory.
This is the way Yankee games will be managed for the rest of the year, with Joe Girardi hoping to get five or six innings of yeoman’s work from his starter and then handing the ball to his bullpen studs. If it works as well as it did yesterday, the Yankees could do a lot better than the wild card that all the baseball experts are projecting for them.
One game down, only 161 more to go with the new formula.
First they got six solid, but unspectacular innings from their starter CC Sabathia. The Yankees will look for better performances out of their ace going forward, but will gladly take three runs in six innings from the rest of their starters. The point is that Sabathia kept them in the game long enough for the offense to get to Justin Verlander. And the way the Tigers ace was struggling with his command, you knew it was only a matter of time before the Yankees got to him.
But CC’s biggest accomplishment was getting the ball to the Yankees superior bullpen and those arms worked perfectly to the tune of three consecutive 1-2-3 innings. Joba Chamberlain proved his spring renaissance was no illusion, Rafael Soriano looked very comfortable in the set-up role and Mariano Rivera was Mariano Rivera. In shutting down the Tigers, Mo did get a big assist from Curtis Granderson, who had a terrific game and made a spectacular catch in center field, the kind we used to see when Bernie Williams strolled that territory.
This is the way Yankee games will be managed for the rest of the year, with Joe Girardi hoping to get five or six innings of yeoman’s work from his starter and then handing the ball to his bullpen studs. If it works as well as it did yesterday, the Yankees could do a lot better than the wild card that all the baseball experts are projecting for them.
One game down, only 161 more to go with the new formula.
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