Yanks ring in home season with win over Halos 
NEW YORK – The last time the Yankees played a game at Yankee Stadium, they won their 27th world championship.
Over four months later, they were back playing baseball again and the winning results remained the same.
Raising their 2009 banner and collecting their championship ring to celebrate their accomplishments of last season, the Yankees officially can put store away the memories of last years and focus on becoming the first team to repeat since the 2000 Yankees won three in a row.
After appearing to cruise to victory, entering the ninth inning with a 7-1 lead, the Yankees had to survive a one out, ninth inning grand slam from Bobby Abreu to hold on for a 7-5 victory to christen the 2010 home portion of the season in front of 49,293 at Yankee Stadium.
It was a game right out of the world champions playbook. Build an early lead, continue their prowess of working a pitcher to the point of exhaustion, hit homeruns, get tremendous pitching from their starter and beat up opposing teams bullpens later in a game.
World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, now in an Angels uniform, received the loudest cheers from the crowd in his return to The Bronx. His first inning at-bat included a standing ovation from not only the fans, but also his former Yankee teammates in the opposing dugout.
The Yankees kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the first when Nick Johnson turned on a 1-1 fastball from Angels starter Ervin Santana and drove it into the right field bleachers for his first homerun of the season to take a 1-0 lead.
NEW YORK – The last time the Yankees played a game at Yankee Stadium, they won their 27th world championship.
Over four months later, they were back playing baseball again and the winning results remained the same.
Raising their 2009 banner and collecting their championship ring to celebrate their accomplishments of last season, the Yankees officially can put store away the memories of last years and focus on becoming the first team to repeat since the 2000 Yankees won three in a row.
After appearing to cruise to victory, entering the ninth inning with a 7-1 lead, the Yankees had to survive a one out, ninth inning grand slam from Bobby Abreu to hold on for a 7-5 victory to christen the 2010 home portion of the season in front of 49,293 at Yankee Stadium.
It was a game right out of the world champions playbook. Build an early lead, continue their prowess of working a pitcher to the point of exhaustion, hit homeruns, get tremendous pitching from their starter and beat up opposing teams bullpens later in a game.
World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, now in an Angels uniform, received the loudest cheers from the crowd in his return to The Bronx. His first inning at-bat included a standing ovation from not only the fans, but also his former Yankee teammates in the opposing dugout.
The Yankees kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the first when Nick Johnson turned on a 1-1 fastball from Angels starter Ervin Santana and drove it into the right field bleachers for his first homerun of the season to take a 1-0 lead.
Derek Jeter would increase the lead to 2-0 in the third when he also took 2-0 Santana fastball and hit it over the wall in right center for his first homerun of the season. He would drive in another run in the bottom of the fourth when his hard hit ball ricocheted off the leg of Santana for an infield hit to increase the lead to three.
This margin was more than enough for Andy Pettitte, who in his second start of the season was as good as he was at Fenway Park last Wednesday.
Pettitte logged very few innings during the spring because of unlucky weather conditions that postponed several of his starts. He gave up only one run in six innings against the Red Sox and pitching the home opener, was just as impressive.
He held the Angels scoreless through the first four innings, and worked out of trouble in both the fifth and sixth, getting a key double play from Howie Kendrick.
Pettitte threw six shutout innings, giving up five hits, walking two and striking out six.
The offense would break the game open in the bottom half as the Yankees loaded the bases on walks. Santana’s day would end, replaced by reliever Jason Bulger, who would yield a two-run single to Alex Rodriguez to increase margin to 5-0.
Despite having an exceptional breaking stuff, it was not enough for Santana on this afternoon. The Yankees had him in trouble throughout his 5 2/3 innings of work, throwing 113 pitches, giving up five runs, eight hits and five walks, while striking out seven.
Chan Ho Park pitched the next two innings, but gave up a solo homerun to Kendry Morales to break up the shutout in the eighth. The Yankees responded with two in the bottom half when Jorge Posada ripped an RBI double and Curtis Granderson continued his hot hitting with an RBI single to create a six-run cushion.
Things were very comfortable going in with David Robertson looking to nail down the final three outs. Instead, three successive singles loaded the bases before Abreu went deep, summoning Mariano Rivera from the bullpen to get the final two outs of the game. The final out came when Matsui popped out Robinson Cano to end the game.
At 5-2, the Yankees will look to win their third straight series tomorrow afternoon. Scott Kazmir starts for the Angels and Javier Vazquez will look to rebound after a shaky first outing last Friday against Tampa Bay.
No comments:
Post a Comment