Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A Good Start
Well, for at least one more day we can dream of the Yankees going 162-0. The Yankees edged Toronto 3-2 in a well-played game by both teams. Chien-Ming Wang pitched 7 effective innings, although he didn’t seem particularly sharp at times. Roy Halladay matched Wang pitch for pitch and inning for inning and run for run until the seventh, when the Yankees scratched out their third run. Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera finished it off, and the Yankees are tied for first place.
So much attention has been paid to Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Chamberlain, but Wang is probably the key guy in the rotation this year. After his disastrous post-season and poor spring training it was good to see him pitching pretty well.
I’ve written way too much about the Yankee defense during the last few years, surely to the point where a lot of you are sick of reading about it. Melky Cabrera made a couple of fine catches in center field, justifying his zone rating and projection. An OF of Bobby Abreu, Melky and Johnny Damon has a chance to be the best defensive Yankee OF since the late 90s. Even the much-maligned Jason Giambi played a solid defensive game. I’m not expecting either good defense or good health out of Giambi this year, so whatever he can contribute will be a big boost.
In the big picture, it’s just one game, but it’s great to have meaningful baseball back, and it’s even better when it starts out with a win.
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