The perfect Independence Day gift

             Tampa Bay has been a destination where Yankees go to die lately, losing seven straight there including getting swept in three games to begin the 2012 season. The dimmed lighting, the fast surface, the bandbox dimensions, the funky catwalk obstructions, and the half-empty stands usually spells doom-n-gloom for the Bombers.



              With CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte still on the absentee list, the spot start of the first game was awarded to Freddy Garcia who has been solid out of the bullpen lately and has worked his way out detention.



             Opposing Freddy and his 84 mph fastball was the hard-throwing Matt Moore and his 98 mph stuff, but in a contrast of pitching styles Freddy was able to bravely keep the game at 2-2 all the way into the 6th inning. Garcia's runs resulted from surrendering two solo homers to Carlos Pena and B.J. Upton. Thanks to some ABC baseball in the top of the 7th, the Yanks were able to plate Chris Stewart for the 3-2 after Jeter moved the runner to third and then Granderson got him in on a sacrifice fly. Then in the bottom of the 7th, more Tropicana Field misfortune fell upon the Yanks. Boone Logan walked Sean Rodriguez with one out in the inning, and then let him get to second base on a wild through. Although Logan was able to retire the next batter, a runner was still in scoring position and Girardi elected to bring out his trusty David Robertson to get the last out. In the usual manner of Joe Maddon getting one up on Joe Girardi, Maddon went to pinch-hitter Brooks Conrad (who?) and he delivered an RBI double off the wall in right to tie the game 3-3. Then the next hitter, the 9th place hitter, Elliot Johnson, cued a groundball to first which Gold Glove caliber first baseman Mark Teixeira misjudged the hop and let the ball go by him. Conrad scored to give the Rays the 4-3 lead and that was it for the Yankees. Fernando Rodney, who the Yanks can never touch, came on to close out the Tampa victory.



             The Yankees were able to toss one of their "realer" starters for the next game in Ivan Nova with his 9 wins on the season. He looked like he was on his way to his 10th win when by the 3rd inning the Yanks had a three-run lead against Tampa's James Shields, capped off by a 3rd inning solo homer from the increasingly impressive Dewayne Wise.  Then Tropicana Field struck again against Nova in the form of a barrage of singles, a stolen base, with a walk mixed in and Tampa had tied the game at 3 in the bottom of the 3rd. Although an inning later the Yanks briefly recaptured the lead at 4-3 thanks to an RBI hit from Eric Chavez, Tampa answered right back in the form of a 2-run homer from Sean Rodriguez. Nova went 6 innings and gave up 5 earned runs. Tampa Bay added 2 more runs in the 7th to make it 7-4, which ruined the Yankee debut of Chad Qualls who was charged with one of them. Once again Fernando Rodney was called in the top of the 9th to put the Yankees away and he did for his 24th save of the season and increased the Yankee losing streak at Tropicana Field to a painful nine games!!



                Another loss against the Rays and getting swept again in 2012 in Tampa seemed to be how the Yankees were going to spend their 4th of July holiday with the featured starting match-up of the tough lefty David Price against rookie David Phelps, making the spot start for the Yankees. Surprisingly, Phelps was able to go toe-to-toe with the annual Cy Young candidate Price and only gave up one run in his 4.1 innings of work. Joe Girardi pieced together the bullpen from there and the game was tied in the bottom of the 7th due to a solo homerun off of Price by Mark Teixeira. Anytime the Yanks scored in this series, Tampa was always able to return the favor, and they did it again. Lefty reliever Boone Logan misfired again and served up a 2-run homer to Carlos Pena which gave the Rays a 3-1 lead and it looked like the Yanks were done. Then something strange happened, two moves made by Joe Maddon turned out to not work (odd isn't?). He had old friend Kyle Farnsworth start the 8th inning and he ended up walking four batters, including A-Rod with the bases loaded on a close 3-2 pitch which made the score 3-2 as well. With lefty hitter Robinson Cano due up next, Maddon called on lefty reliever Jake McGee to get out of the jam, but he instead served up a 2 RBI single to the hot-hitting Cano which gave the Yanks the 4-3 lead and provided the Rays with a taste of their own Tropicana medicine. Although he didn't do his job, with the lead Logan was in line for the win. David Robertson redeemed himself from the poor outing two nights before with a scoreless 8th that included two strikeouts, looking very Robertsonish as he regains his armstrength after being on the DL. Former Rays closer and now $14 million dollar Yankee, Rafael Soriano, worked the 9th to seal the stolen 4-3 victory for the Yanks.



              With the next day off, the 49-32 Yankees head up to Fenway Park to try and beat down the sluggish Red Sox who will likely be without Dustin Pedrioa who will likely be on the DL with a thumb issue.....

At least Boston is 0-3 Too!

     In what should have been a promising opening day weekend for the Yankees, turned out to be the worst way to spend all three games, and that's with losses.



     The Yankees were pushed around by their fellow AL East competitors as they were swept in the three games against the Rays in Tampa. Every button Rays manager Joe Maddon pushed worked out to perfection while Yankees manager Joe Girardi started the season with a number of head-scratching decisions. Maddon had the right players in the right batting order to get big hits, and all of his usual funky defensive alignments prevented Yankee hitters from getting on base.



     Friday's opening game actually had the intensity and excitement of Game 7 of a World Series. Both starting pitchers Sabathia and Shields didn't have their best stuff that day, but a big decision early on came when Tampa had two men on with first base open and two outs. Instead of having Sabathia face the light-hitting Sean Rodriguez with the two outs, Girardi opted to have the right-handed hitter walked intentionally in favor of the left-handed hitter Carlos Pena. The risk there is even though its a tough match-up for Pena, one swing of his bat could result in a grand slam, and of course that's exactly what happened which put the Yanks in an early 4-0 hole.



       The Yankees actually fought their way back and took a 6-4 lead thanks to a mega welcome-to-the-team 3-run homer from Raul Ibanez. The game rolled along like a chess match with one bullpen move after another, and potential rallies halted. It all game down to Mariano Rivera with a 6-5 lead in the 9th inning, which usually spells game over, but it wasn't to be this time around. The uncomfortable fast track of Tropicana Field had Jennings lead off with a single up the middle on a 1-2 pitch, followed by a triple from Ben Zobrist which tied the game at 6-6. After intentionally walking the bases loaded again to face Carlos Pena, again, Pena was able to hit a shot deep enough in center for the Rays to score a walk-off win in dramatic fashion.



      Saturday's game was less competitive at the start as new comer Hiroki Kuroda was roughed up in his first start as a Yankee. In only the second game of the season, Girardi optioned to have Jeter DH and shaky defender Eduardo Nunez play shortstop. This turned out to burn the Yankees as an early Nunez error led to some Tampa runs. Nunez also had problems fielding last season as well and if he's going to give Jeter and A-Rod some breathers in the field, he's going to have to cut down on those errors. Although Girardi mentioned Jeter was going to see ample DH time this season, this is only the second game of the season. The Yankees made a late rally of their own in the 9th inning to cut the Rays lead from 8-2 down to 8-6. With the tying run on base and A-Rod at bat to perhaps get some revenge on Tampa for the tough loss a day before, A-Rod with into yet another Joe Maddon perfectly positioned defense and the game was over.

      The final game yesterday became somewhat crucial as nobody wants to get swept to start a season, and Phil Hughes at least restored some type of normalcy to the starting rotation with his 4 2/3 innings of work, but unfortunately for the Yankees their bats left Tampa before they did. Sunday ended with a 3-0 loss and a 0-3 start to the season.



       In another Girardi decision that wasn't too stellar, he DHed Swisher and had the forty-year old Raul Ibanez play right field. Although Ibanez was brought to the team to play defense once in a while, this was only the third game of the season, and his legs were on a tougher indoor track. An early defensive error by Ibanez on a ball Swisher would've likely handled put the Yankees in a 1-0 hole. The Yanks couldn't get anything going on offense as their best opportunity to possibly tie the game at 2-2 was with two runners on and only one out, but Swisher popped up to the infield and Ibanez gave a promising drive to center, which was flagged down by Jennings. Other than that the Yankees went quietly on Easter Sunday.

       I'm sure they'll be other points in the season when the Yankees will lose three or more games in a row, so it shouldn't be dissected that they lost these first three games. What probably makes it sting more is that one of the losses was a blown save from the always reliable Rivera and the fact that across town the Mets are off to a surprising 3-0 start.



       I believe Joe Girardi knows his players very well and usually makes the right decisions, but this weekend he was surely over-matched. The funniest comment I read was, "Joe Maddon always calls a limo for Girardi to make sure he gets to the ballpark."

       The only victory for the Yankees is that the Boston Red Sox also lost their first three games....