Monday, April 2, 2007
Opening Day!!! (Liveblog): Tampa Bay Devil Rays (0-0) at New York Yankees (0-0) - 1:05 pm
Scott Kazmir (0-0, -.—) vs. Carl Pavano (0-0, -.—) (probable)
Man, am I excited about this. The one advantage of getting older is that the offseason doesn’t seem as long each year. The ONE advantage.
This is a team built for the regular season. With this lineup, they’ll win a lot of games even if the pitching is lousy, and the pitching shouldn’t be lousy. Unfortunately, it shouldn’t be great, either, which could hurt them in October. But by then, they might have Clemens, they might have Hughes, and they might have swung a trade for some other genuine stopper. Or maybe even somebody they already have could turn into a stopper. Let’s not forget that Carl Pavano gave up only one run in nine innings to the Yankees in the 2003 World Series. Hey, stranger things have happened.
I’ll be updating this post as the game goes on, so join in for some chatter in the thread. It’s a celebration, bitches!
Pregame: Buster Olney (who looks and sounds sort of like Patton Oswalt, except he’s not funny), just called Hank and Hal Steinbrenner “Hank and Hal Swindal”. Maybe this explains why Steve is getting divorced. (Do they allow gay bigamous marriage in Florida?
Top of the First: Here’s the first pitch from Pavano… and it’s a ball! That won’t get anyone on your side Carl…
Base hit to left on the third pitch. And ESPN showed Crawford running out of the box instead of the ball being put in play. Do we have FOX producers running the show at ESPN this year?
And right away Crawford steals second… this is an ominous beginning.
Pavano falls behind Zobrist but comes back and strikes him out swinging. Pavano seems to be working the outside corner today. If he can hit that spot he’ll do reasonably well.
Baldelli flies out to deep left. First deep fly of the year, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. I guess I just have no confidence in Pavano.
A foul popup on the first pitch to Wigginton—Pavano’s gonna get out of this without a run! And A-Rod misses it! Yeah, that’s not gonna help him out, either.
BTW, why is TY WIGGINTON batting cleanup for the D-Rays? THAT’S not impressive. Well, Pavano gets out of it anyway with a tapper back to the mound. One inning down, no damage. Yet.
Bottom of the First: Damon comes up and takes three pitches before offering at anything, then bounces the fourth pitch through the right side. A good start there. The D-Rays have a good shot to win if Kazmir keeps his pitch count reasonable, so the Yanks need to work it.
Jeter’s up—he got robbed of the MVP last year, but I don’t think he’s going to repeat that performance this year. He pops out to right…
Abreu—I think HE’S gonna have a big year. There’s really no pressure on him here in NY, and I think the first half last year was something of a fluke. I see him hitting 25 homers again, with an OPS around .950. THAT’S not fair. He works the count to 2-2 after falling behind 0-2 and hits a single to left, setting up the first “clutch”-ish situation of the year for A-Rod.
And A-Rod gets a standing ovation! C’mon Alex, do something big.
Ever notice that when Abreu takes pitches for strikes he’s being patient, but when A-Rod does he’s choking?
I have a feeling that they’re going to take away that error on A-Rod after the game. Wait, it’s A-Rod, they probably won’t.
And A-Rod strikes out on a pitch off the plate that he probably shouldn’t have swung at…
And A-Rod gets booed! Jeez.
Giambi works the count to 3-1… and rips an RBI single to right-center! Kazmir is really throwing a lot of pitches this inning, and now the Yanks lead. So far this game is going well for everyone but A-Rod…
Now Godzilla has worked the count full on Kazmir… here comes his 30th pitch of the inning… and it’s ball four!
There’s Donald Trump in the owner’s box… he’s not bald. I guess he won that Wrestlemania thing. What a shock.
Posada pops up a 2-2 pitch to end the inning, but with two runs on the board and 35 pitches on Kazmir’s arm, that was a very good first inning. For everyone but A-Rod.
Top of the Second: Delmon Young pops up to right center on the first pitch for the first out. Things are going okay for Pavano so far, though I think a better lineup than this probably would have hit him so far.
Iwamura grounds out to short… and Jeter throws it in the dirt, and past Phelps. Well, I guess there’s someplace Mientkiewicz would help.
And for some reason ESPN shows A-Rod in the aftermath of the error. What the fuck?
Dioner Navarro runs the count full… and pops it up to Jeter.
This liveblogging stuff isn’t easy…
The D-Rays’ lineup isn’t really that scary, but looking at some of these kids, you get the impression that that is going to change soon. Dukes walks to bring up Upton, and Pavano is in a little trouble with two outs.
And Upton hits it PAST A DIVING JETER! First of the year! It’s now 2-1, but Crawford pops out to Damon on the first pitch, so the Yanks still lead.
Bottom of the Second: Kruk calls Robinson Cano a “young Bobby Abreu”. Well, which is it, a young Abreu, or a young Carew?
Cano strikes out on three pitches. He ain’t no Abreu.
Here’s Phelps, who I’m glad they picked up. We’ve already seen that his defense sucks, but if he can put up an .800+ OPS, I’ll take it. I’d rather see him out there than Mientkiewicz.
And he draws a walk. Patient, powerful, lousy defense. He fits right in here…
Damon pops the second pitch up in front of the plate for the second out. This inning isn’t going quite as well as the first. Still, Kazmir’s near 50 pitches already.
Jeter falls behind 0-2 and then gets nailed in the shin, so the Yanks have a little two-out rally working here. And Abreu dribbles a 1-1 pitch third to end it.
Top of the Third: Zobrist runs the count full but grounds out to Jeter. Another low throw, but Phelps digs this one out. Jetes is giving Phelps some practice over there today.
Baldelli pops up to Phelps… and limps back to the dugout. Wow, that’s the last thing the D-Rays need. Hopefully Pavano doesn’t start having empathy pains.
Wigginton grounds out to A-Rod, and the third is over quickly and painlessly. Here comes A-Rod to lead off the third…
Bottom of the Third: A-Rod hacks away this time and quickly falls behind 0-2. And he strikes out on a check swing—but they don’t call it a swing. But he grounds out to short anyway.
Kazmir is looking a lot better than he did in the first, which really isn’t surprising, getting ahead of Giambi now 0-2, and the sets him down looking on a 1-2 at the knees. Think the Mets wish they still had this guy?
Godzilla ground out to first on the second pitch, and that’s it for the third.
Heh.
Top of the Fourth: Pavano is over 50 pitches already, so he’s not going to go deep today. He’s looked okay so far. He strikes out Young here, and there’s one away.
Well, he doesn’t look so good there, walking Iwamura on four pitches… but he gets out of it with a first-pitch double play to short.
Bottom of the Fourth: Posada leads off the fourth with a homer to right-center, and the Yanks lead 3-1! Jorge’s 36 in August, so he’s going to be slowing down at some point—probably around August—but he’s still got a big bat.
I’m surprised they didn’t give him a curtain call. 
Cano flies out to left for the first out.
Olney’s in the booth for ESPN now saying that fans are gonna chant “opt out now!” if he struggles. He said that in the pregame, too. Ahahahaha, Buster, you’d so clever!
Phelps walks on five pitches again… boy does he fit in well.
Now Damon walks… man, I love this lineup.
Jeter strikes out looking on a borderline pitch. The fans boo the ump, but if A-Rod had taken that, they’d be booing him. Just sayin’.
Abreu grounds out to first to end the inning, sparing A-Rod more boos if he makes an out. And if he hit a homer, they would have forgotten it fifteen minutes later anyway.
Top of the Fifth: Elijah Dukes crushes his first major league homer to dead center to lead off the inning. This kid has great power, I didn’t think that one was gonna go when he first hit it.
And B.J. Upton rips a single to left… uh-oh. Carl may implode here.
And now Upton is at second… D-Rays can tie the game without a hit now.
Crawford ties it with a single… and they get him caught in a rundown… but Phelps throws it into the outfield! Yikes. This isn’t so good.
Zobrist bunts it… but it bounces up and hits him—AND he was standing on home plate when he hit it. He gets called out for ONE of those things.
Crawford nearly gets picked off at second. That was close.
And now Baldelli singles to left to give the Rays the lead. Crap, there’s the Pavano we all think we vaguely remembered. And there he goes.
Pavano gets some boos as he leaves, but he didn’t really pitch that badly. He just wasn’t that good. He does get some applause, too.
I’d like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to Chrissy, the official hot babe of the Replacement Level Yankees Weblog. No real reason, I was just chatting with her on AIM.
Brian Bruney comes in and strikes out Wigginton, but lets Baldelli steal second while doing it. And Young singles to left to drive him home… this has been a horrible inning.
Young tries to steal, but Posada finally get someone out, and the inning is over at last. The Yanks can make up two runs, but man, that shouldn’t have happened.
Bottom of the Fifth: A-Rod flies out to right to lead off the inning. Giambi bounces out to Kazmir. Not good.
Matsui strikes out to end the inning. That was weak.
Top of the Sixth: We seem to having some server problems now. Yay.
I’m going to check that out right now… the liveblog can wait.
Well, that seems to have only been a hiccup. Things seem to be okay for now. We’ll have to keep an eye on that.
Sean Henn comes in and does a decent job, and keeps the score 5-3. It’s starting to get to crunch time—hopefully this is Kazmir’s last inning.
Bottom of the Sixth: Melky came in for Damon in the top of the sixth. I dunno why, but that can’t be good.
Posada works the count full, and rips a single to left to lead off the inning. Kazmir is over 100 pitches now, so Cano might be his last batter.
Robby nearly swings at the first pitch, which also nearly hits him.
Update on Damon: cramps in his calf. Well, you don’t wanna take any chances there. Melky can handle leading off and center just fine.
Robby singles to right, so this could be the rally they need. That’s it for Kazmir, and in comes Shawn Camp. Tampa Bay has a lousy bullpen, so the Yankees better hit them.
Server problem: The problem seems to be with our hosting service, whose homepage is also down. Hopefully this won’t be an ongoing problem.
Eyechart comes up and lays down a sac bunt, then Melky gets hit with the first pitch, and Jeter runs the count to 3-1 with the bases loaded. A base hit to center ties the game at 5, which makes up for that error earlier.
On a personal note, there’s a girl with a nice ass outside of my window.
Maddon goes the pen again. This could be a big inning.
Top of the Seventh: Not sure where Larry went, so I’ll take over. -SG
Vizcaino’s first regular season inning as Yankee goes well. 3 up, 3 down. You can feel the trust building already.
Bottom of the Seventh: While Larry chases down the girl with the nice ass, Alex Rodriguez leads off the bottom of the seventh with a “single” that should have been fielded by Ben Zobrist.
Giambi up…
Rodriguez with an unclutch steal of second base.
And Giambi drives him in with the single between the second base bag and the second baseman. 6-5 Yanks.
Posada lines out to RF, and Delmon Young makes a sick throw in and almost doubles Giambi off first.
Robinson Cano batting, and he pops up to BJ Upton for the third out. Top of the eighth coming up. Will it be Proctor or Farnsworth coming in?
Top of the Eighth:
And it’s Farnsworth. When else would you expect the Eighth Inning Guy™ to pitch?
Is Farnsworth throwing a splitter now? The pitch to fan Baldelli was a 92 mph pitch with nasty downward drop.
A single is followed by a popup to Cano. Two down, Wigginton on first. Farnsworth looks like he’s got good command today.
And Farnsworth gets out of the inning with a grounder, 4-3.
Bottom of the Eighth:
Mariano’s warming in the pen. Ruddy Lugo in for Tampa, facing Doug Mientkiewicz. Mientkiewicz absolutely crushes one about 20 feet, but BJ Upton can’t pick it cleanly.
And Melky sacrifices Mientkiewicz to second. I think that’s smart. When you’re facing a bullpen like the Devil Rays, you have to try and score by any means necessary.
Jeter up, new pitcher coming in for Tampa. I’m sure whoever it is is awesome. He is Juan Salas.
Jeter grounds out and the crowd showers him with boos for failing to come through in the clutch. Let’s see if Abreu can pick him up.
Bobby Abreu is so freaking awesome. He singles in Mientkiewicz, Yanks 7, D-Rays 5. Metallica’s tuning up in the garage.
And with the game already well in hand, A-Rod hits a meaningless HR. Yanks 9, Rays 5.
Giambi flies out to center. To the ninth we go… Will it be Mo or Rasner?
Top of the Ninth:
Exit light.
and Mo Ks his first opposing hitter of 2007 on four pitches. He’s hitting 95.
Call him bus driver because he’s taking the D-Rays to school. Two up, two down, both on Ks.
YES gun may be fast, but they’ve got Mo at 97.
And he Ks the side. Yanks win on opening day. Yay!
Comments
I predict a 5-3 win for the Yanks today. I really hope Pavano can stay healthy through 5…. Don’t want him turning into another Wright.
I’m going for 7-2, with Pavano pitching 6. I also predict there will be a scare with Pavano. Line drive hits him, bat comes flying at him, trips on the dugout steps, something. But he’ll get through it OK, and I think he’ll start the 7th on the mound, and after warm-ups Torre will take him out so Pavano gets the cheers from the crowd.
I also predict there will be a scare with Pavano. Line drive hits him, bat comes flying at him, trips on the dugout steps, something.
Maybe he gags on a sunflower seed? 
The Yankee lineup really is incredible. Cano at 8th and Phelps 9th. If Phelps does half as well as he did this Spring, this lineup will cause tons of trouble this year.
Over/Under of Pavano’s arm falling clear off his shoulder: 7th pitch
If the year 2011 in my OOTP sim is any indication, Elijah Dukes will hit at least six home runs today.
Come on Pavano, strikes.
Not a bad pitch by Pavano that Crawford hit….but not a great way to start.
Looks to be a tight zone early.
Yay Carl.
Strikeouts: “There are times when you REALLY need one.” - Ken Singleton
REALLY need one the second batter of the entire season? Starting where we left off I see.
Pavano is being clocked at 92 mph, which is a good sign. By the way, I have no idea why Zobrist is batting 2nd for the Rays. He’s not much of a hitter.
Um, boooo.
Oh my god A-Rod. Oh my god.
A-Rod….ugh.
If this is on Cold Pizza tomorrow with Woody damn Paige and Skip damn Bayliss whining because the fans are booing and A-Rod can’t catch pop ups and becomes indicative of an entirely new season, I quit. I quit right here.
I think Ken Singleton just called Damon “Johnny Bench”...
Anyone watching the ESPN game notice that John Kruk said Phelps has a ‘great glove’ but it’s ‘yet to be seen what he can do with the bat.’ I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, how do these people keep their jobs?
Yay Bobby.
Standing ovation for A-Rod… good to see.
What a moron.
Looks like A-Rod is doing the El Duque socks this year.. a style I personally prefer.
I was calling Kruk a moron, btw.
Agreed. Alex Rodriguez already sucks less. Just because of the socks.
Ugh.. ball 4.
Well, he worked a full count at least. 
Giuliani in the background. Ugh. Shouldn’t he be, campaigning or something? The Yankees being associated with celebrity and glamor sort of loses its luster to me when we are a team full of superstars displaying for the better part of seven years utter sucktitude.
We need some grit! Some heart! Yeargh~!
Regardless of how the inning turns out, at least they’re making Kazmir work. If they can get him out of the game in 5, the chances of a win are quite favorable.
Yay Giambi!
Giambi rules!
A hot start by Giambi would be nice
RISP knock from Giambi early. I like what I see!
Anyone have a Kazmir pitch count?
Low strike zone today.
29 pitches, by god!
Kazmir is at 30 pitches thus far…
This piece of crap was clearly not worth the wonderful Victor Zambrano.
I really love this lineup.
I really love this lineup.
I think it’s going to be a consistent yet boring recurrent display of the Yankee’s recent penchant for blowing up in big spots.
Posada will lose all patience come late August. Giambi will still swing at every high fastball ever, and you’ll never really be able to count on Rodriguez because he’s in too many high leverage spots and frustrates himself.
Kazmir catches a break with the back part of the line up in the 2nd.. Cano, Phelps and Damon. Yeah, I like this line up too.
Hey CIC, it’s Opening Day, what’s with the pessimism?
Damn, how to use the ignore feature? Seems like it is a fun thing to learn with some early pessimists.
Remember how everyone was worried about the left handed bats against lefty pitching. By my count..
LH 3 for 3 with a walk
RH 0 for 3 with a strikeout
Yeah it’s early, small samples, etc. But I think they’ll do OK
How’s that Phelps glove now, Kruk…..truthfully it was Jeter’s fault.
I am just pessimistic I guess because I don’t like the team for the money. I think the product has become tired and stupid. I think in October I’ll be disappointed and it pisses me off.
Not that I’m not rooting against my own predictions.
i guess we know why Phelps is a DH.
There’s Donald Trump in the owner’s box… he’s not bald. I guess he won that Wrestlemania thing. What a shock.
He did. He was decent, god bless him. He took a stunner though that looked utterly horrifying. He should stick to real estate.
Then please wait until it is October. Bitching about it into the first inning of the season does not make it any better, but makes it unbearable for others.
So ignore me, don’t bear it. It’s my opinion and I have a right to it, asshole.
“Passed a diving Jeter.”
CiC, don’t you like the direction the team is moving? Do you think Cano, Wang, and Cabrera are tired and stupid? Is winning it all in October the only reason to watch baseball?
Why are we blaming Phelps? Iwamura is not exactly a blazer. Why doesn’t Jeter take his time and nail the throw? Also, let’s give Pavano credit for not being unnerved by the errors unlike his antagonist Mike Mussina.
Stop it. If you don’t want to hear it, then ignore him. Click on his profile and put him on your ignore list.
Don’t call him an asshole, CiC.
Awesome, I love the ignore feature. Something tells me it is a very handy thing to have.
Larry, appreciating the liveblogging from my office.
CiC, don’t you like the direction the team is moving? Do you think Cano, Wang, and Cabrera are tired and stupid? Is winning it all in October the only reason to watch baseball?
I like the direction they’re moving with the youth, I just wish the transition would be a little quicker. I know we’re caught in some crappy contracts but that just makes it all the more frustrating. Especially with the pitching. As for the young guys, we’ll live and die with them but they won’t get the credit or blame either way. That’s all.
The live blogging rocks, you ought to do it one hundred and sixty two times per year.
Go Phelps! You take that walk!
Josh Phelps is white? Learn something new everyday.
And when did Cano switch his number? That’s what’s been screwing up my “yankees infield” roulette plays.
Yeah, this is a bazillion times better than BTF right now. So much friggin’ lag.
Yeah, I tried and quit the Game Chatter at BTF. Too slow.
hey, a Jeter HBP of the non-diving over the plate variety…hmm
I’m going to see if I can get Sean and SJ to pick up some of the liveblogging when I can’t do it. We’ll try to make it a regular thing.
I think the issue with the play with Phelps was that he looked really bad on it, and he let it go by and Iwamura ended up on 2nd. He should have cut his losses and dropped down in stead of trying to glove it. But yeah, Jeter’s fault for the really bad throw.. he skipped it about 4 feet in front of Phelps.
BTF has a lot of lag because they have a ton more traffic than us. We’re running on the same engine, though we do have a different server.
Poor Bobby. Poor, bald Bobby. That couldn’t have happened to a better guy and that’s just shit.
Whatever server BTF runs can’t handle its load. They get more traffic but they can’t seem to handle it. I think if the liveblog because a regular thing around here though, you may have the same problem. Which is a good one to have I guess.
I like Bobby a lot. Great guy.
Nice play by A-Rod
:banana:
Is it Peanut Butter Jelly time?
I want to see the Yankees blow this open soon so that I can not feel bad about going to play frisbee in half an hour.
Yes, bananaman is back.
Frisbee? My wife’s in labor right now and I’m home. It’s opening day.
Kiddinbg of course
A commanding lead would allow me to focus on this 5 short-essay mid-term I’m trying to type out. But in the end I’m just going to BS it anyways so oh well.
I think I’m over on A-Rod on the socks alone, man. He can hit .000 this year for all I care.
Certainly are more toys with the new RLYW.
Well, I’m not going to be able to watch the whole thing anyway - In fact I’m calling today a victory because I’m able to watch 4-5 innings or so live. The computer lab here closes shortly after I would go play disc anyhow.
Stupid 6 hour time difference.
Interesting that your labs close. BG’s are 24 hour labs. The computers are crap though, I’d never be able to watch a game on them anyway.
I like the style of the chatters, larry. Like old Primer.
Is that a peanut or a dog turd at the end of everybody’s name?
Yeah, at Iowa they’re 24 hours as well - but everything other than bars and kebabs shops close by 9 or so here.
If I had money I’d just buy a computer to replace my busted one - what a novel thought that is.
Nice strikeout, Carl.
I’m going to change your peanut to a pair of Red Socks, kevin, give me a second.
Followed up by a crappy 4 pitch walk.
Followed up by a DP. Nice. 
Three cheers for Chien-Ming Pavano and the GDP.
Grady Sizemore. MVP candidate?
Hey, if we’re getting personalized images, can I have an iamb, or five?
Against a fairly young, fairly weak line-up Pavano has looked good so far. If he can pitch like this consistently through the year, the outcome won’t always be the same but he’ll be a fine bottom-end rotation guy.
On an unrelated note, I wish they’d just let Bobby broadcast the game instead of continually making light of his cancer. It’s a nice gesture and all, but I’m sure feeling normal would be even better for him.
Jorge Posada! 200 HR here you come.
Yes Jorge!
Pretty good. Thanks, larry.
Ok, Hooray deserves this:
:banana:
JORGE! NICE!
Grady Sizemore. MVP candidate?
He should have been one last year. He’ll probably be one this year as well.
Hey, and I have Jorge on my fantasy team this year. Double nice!
Jorge is my catcher also.
So, the way I see it, the Yankee strengths this year will be the offense and the relief pitching. The weaknesses will be the back of the rotation and the defense.
I benched Jorge today on one of my teams (have Mauer).
What does the peanut mean anyway? Does the peanut just mean “poster” and the thunderbolt “moderator”?
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