BOSTON – There cannot be questions about the Yankees already, can there?
One game is far too much to draw any real conclusions about anything. But in the high octane world of the Yankees, adding in facing the Red Sox, the entire equation changes as all sense of perspective and rational thought immediately is thrown out of the window, replaced by hostility, anger, and who knows what else.
The antenna rises up. This would not be the case if they were facing say, Baltimore.
Oh, wait.
They played the Orioles the first three games of last year and after losing the first two, it appeared crisis management was going to be in order if they didn’t win the series finale.
Suffice to say, it is difficult to draw any real conclusions about the bullpen’s outright ineffectiveness at Fenway Park last night in the world champions 9-7 loss to the Red Sox. The only real analysis that can be made here early is that the struggles of the pen that became known shockingly in the playoffs after having a mostly dominant regular season.
Getting the ball to Mariano Rivera became a very arduous task even as the Yankees found a way to win their 27th championship. With the Yankees lead at 5-2, the lead dwindled to 5-4 before CC Sabathia departed the game after 104 pitches and two outs in the sixth.
This is not October, so Rivera is not coming in for more than three outs here. Calm down people, this is just the first game. However, it would be on the bullpen to get the final seven out in a place where no lead is safe.
David Robertson was the first man called in to put out the fire. Last season, he was perhaps the teams most underrated performer and in search of an even larger role this season. The man he would face would be Adrian Beltre and on the first pitch, the new Red Sox hit a sharp ground ball that went past Robinson Cano into centerfield for run-scoring single to tie the game at five.
Robertson and the Yankees pen got a reprieve when the offense put up two runs in the top half of their seventh inning to retake the lead by two. Now they only needed to get six more outs to the get the ball to Rivera and escape with a win.
Those outs never came.
New Yankee Chan Ho Park would enter the game for his first ever taste of “The Rivalry”. Let’s just say he will not be telling his friends and family the great memories of it.
Park gave up a single to Marco Scutaro and then struck out Jacoby Ellsbury looking. With a 2-1 count, Park would hang a changeup that Dustin Pedroia would hammer down the left field line, hook inside the foul pole over the Green Monster for a homerun to tie the game as the crowd was alive again.
With two outs, Park would give up a double to Kevin Youkilis and at that point, Girardi (along with everyone else) had seen enough. The night for the new right-hander was over and now the baton (now resembling a lit match) was going to be in the hands of Damaso Marte.
Marte was a revelation during the playoffs last year, and his task for this night was to get out David Ortiz and preserve the tie. Instead, he uncorked a wild pitch on 1-0 to move Youkilis to third. Then, with the count 3-1, a miscommunication (or simply a bad pitch) caused a passed ball, rolling to the right of Posada far enough for Youkilis to score from third with the go-ahead run.
Disaster.
Now trailing by a run, the Yanks looked to Joba Chamberlain to hold the deficit just long enough to give the offense a chance in the ninth inning where Alex Rodriguez would represent the tying run leading off.
Instead, he never got the chance.
With one out, Chamberlain would give up a single to Mike Cameron. Scutaro then drew a walk, and after Jacoby Ellsbury flew out to center, Pedroia once again came through with an RBI single to right to create added insurance, eliminating the biggest threat, the Yankees would have had going down to their final three outs.
The final stats were not a pretty sight. Four relievers needed to get eight outs, using up 66 pitches and giving up six hits, two walks and four runs (three earned) and giving back two leads.
In the end, it amounted to a Yankee defeat. Perhaps there will be better days, and the talent of the bullpen will shine above the ugly results of the season’s first game, but it will be a question nonetheless as to whether they will be able to build a stable enough bridge to get to the game’s greatest closer Rivera.
Through one night, it was not the best of starts.
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