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Champs let Sawx, Rays know who’s still in charge


ST. PETERSBURG – When you are on top, every one attempts to chase and bring you down from behind.

The Yankees are the defending world champions. Looking down, they see the Red Sox and Rays as worthy competitors, rounding out three of the best four teams in baseball.

Many members of the (drive by) media have selected either one of these teams to unseat the Yankees atop the American League East. Early in the season, these first six games were to be a proving ground that these two would be worthy competitors.

Final votes will not be in until later this season, but this much we can judge after one week in this season…

Beating the Yankees is going to be tall order.

Andy Pettitte showed there plenty of good innings remaining in that left arm of his, slowing the Red Sox down for six innings.

After an average outing for AJ Burnett on Tuesday, he responded with a great effort for seven innings to help the Yankees win the rubber match of the three game series.

CC Sabathia shrugged off a rough end to his last start on Opening Night and came within four outs of a no-hitter on Saturday against Tampa Bay.

Having these three pitchers as your frontline puts you one-step ahead of most teams going into battle. That is before you account for the imposing offense and stellar defense that the team has displayed early on.

Two series and six games totaled four wins for the world champions, despite losing the first game of each series. It was a great way to begin the year.

Some of the good things from the early part of the year:

1. Curtis Granderson has fit in tremendously with new club.

Talk about not needing an adjustment period. In his first at-bat as a Yankee, he took a Josh Beckett fastball into the right field bleachers for a home run.

Wednesday in extra innings, he turned around a Jonathan Papelbon fastball and hit a game winning homerun to beat the Red Sox and win two of three at Fenway Park.

At 8-for-26 (.348), he continued to hit against the Rays this past weekend. Also, his defense in centerfield has been very good even with an occasional misread.

His best performance came on Sunday when he showed off his prowess in centerfield making a great catch on a line drive by Dioner Navarro in the fifth inning and was able to show his arm strength doubling up Pat Burrell at first.

Prior to that, he worked a lengthy at-bat against Rays starter James Shields before lining an RBI double into the right field corner to tie the game at two. In the sixth inning, he displayed even more of his talent after stroking a single to center. Granderson stole second, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch.

While some will look at him to hit 30 homeruns with the dimensions of Yankee Stadium, it is his all-around game that on this team that will finally receive notoriety.

2. The defense does not rest

While the Red Sox openly promote “run prevention”, the Yankees went about it a different way.

Many clamored for them to sign a left fielder that would be more productive than Brett Gardner would offensively. However, on a team projected to score over 900 runs, why add additional offense when you can prevent the other team from scoring on defense?

The combination of Gardner in left and Granderson in center has allowed the Yankees to cover more ground in the outfield, allowing their fly ball pitchers to make hitters put the ball in play.

You can make the case the Yankees possess a Gold Glove player at every position on the infield. Balls in play are sucked up like a vacuum. It gives the pitcher more confidence to throw whatever they want, knowing the defense will be there to protect them.

3. Burnett-Posada marriage counseling

AJ Burnett made a point to a reporter in the postgame last Wednesday when asked about his relationship with Jorge Posada by saying that it would be the last time he would ever talk about it.

Good for him.

The never-ending soap opera between the two was annoying at worst and pointless at best. All one had to do was watch the playoff games to figure this out. Even without Posada, Burnett still struggled through two of the games. Having Jose Molina out there was not a full proof plan to avoid “Bad AJ” from making an appearance.

Against the Red Sox on Wednesday, his pitch count rose and trailed 3-1 after Victor Martinez took him deep. Last year in this same situation, the percentages are high that he mentally would break. However, with Posada behind the plate, the duo battled and Burnett was able to get through five innings with no further damage.

On Sunday, Tampa Bay scored the first two runs of the game and had Burnett on the ropes, but could not push across any more runs.

In the sixth, the Yankees rallied to take a 4-2 lead and the game was in his hands to carry it the rest of the way. With two outs, Ben Zobrist singled and then Evan Longoria hit a high pop fly that hit the catwalk and the umpires ruled it a hit. Carlos Pena walked to load the bases and the Rays had their chance to strike and get back into the game.

Last season, Burnett with Posada catching him would not have been able to coexist and battle their way through adversity. Instead, making good on their promise to change, he induced B.J Upton into a pop out to Mark Teixeira to end the inning.

After giving up two runs to start, Burnett slammed the door, holding Tampa Bay scoreless through his remaining six innings.

After all that made between him and Posada last year, it is good to see them working together and getting positive results early on.

4. Robinson Cano is a beast

Who knows how long this will last, but if Cano can keep his head on straight for the entire season as he has pledged to do, there should be no reason why is isn’t a candidate for the MVP award at the end.

With the departure of Hideki Matsui, the responsibility fell on Cano moving up to the fifth spot in the lineup to protect Alex Rodriguez.

However, the thought has always been that Cano was too liberal of hitter and did not have the approach that would serve him well in situations where he would come out with runners in scoring position.

Last year he hit .207 in those spots. It was astounding for a player of his caliber to hit so poorly. Cano’s tendency to expand his hitting zone and being too overly aggressive played against him as pitchers knew he would go up to the plate hacking.

This spring, Cano took the approach to swinging at strikes and being aggressive, while allowing the game to come to him. With the help of Rodriguez to change his approach in run-scoring situations, telling him to attack and not be “content”, a different Cano has emerged so far.

The ball has jumped off his bat over the first games and the results have been positive (9-for-25, 2 HR). Yet the question still lingers whether he will be patient enough to wait for his pitch over a significant length of time? Or, is he simply going through one of his hot streaks?

As I said before the season, if he could draw 50 walks this season to go along with his above .300 prowess at the plate, he would be an MVP candidate. Just the ability to work the count and eventually draw a base-on-balls is enough to propel him into a different level of player.

Let’s see if it continues.

Now, time for the first Random Yankee Thoughts of the season…

At least Brett Gardner has shown the ability not to be a hole in the ninth spot in the lineup can only be a positive development.

I know it’s only two games, but I would prefer Marcus Thames never to play left field again.

Something I noticed about Nick Swisher at the plate…

He rarely is beat by a fastball from a pitcher. When he swings through, usually an off-speed pitch fools him. Andy Sonnanstine tried to sneak a fastball by in the eighth inning on Sunday and Swisher responded by depositing it deep into the right field seats.

The more you watch Teixeira on defense, the more you marvel at his incredible ability.

In the seventh inning with CC Sabathia pitching a no-hitter, he made a great diving stab on a line drive to take away a would-be single that would have broken up the bid.
There are very few two-way players like him. Tino Martinez was a great defender, but Teixeira is very close to making me draw the conclusion that he is the best Yankee defensive first baseman since Don Mattingly.

Now, if he could at least hit In April (3-for-29), everything would be fine.

After starting out 0-for-19 to begin the year, Teixeira got two hits on Saturday to welcome himself to the season.

No one really knows the cause for the first baseman’s early year struggles, but if he could ever figure it out, he would be an even greater monster when you consider he led the AL in homeruns and RBI despite hitting under .200 for the first six weeks of the season.

Speaking of Sabathia and his no-hitter…

Rarely will you ever see a “clean no hitter”. The meaning behind that is you never see just routine plays. During these types of games, you get a lucky bounce on a ball or your defenders make outstanding plays.

On Saturday, there were three tremendous plays that gave me the impression Sabathia would actually do it.

First, the Teixeira play. Second, Rodriguez made a great diving play and used his strong arm to gun down BJ Upton at first to finish the seventh inning. Third, in the eighth, Sabathia nearly snared a ball with his bare hands, but it bounced off him. Cano charged, fielded and fired to first in time to nail Willy Aybar for the out.

Unfortunately, Kelly Shoppach broke up the bid on a solid single to left.

Let’s be clear about this, no matter what Joe Girardi says, there is no way in the world he was going to take out Sabathia with a no-hitter in tact going into the ninth inning.

Yes, his pitch count was nearing the point where a legitimate discussion was in play. In only the second start of the season, where do you draw the line? Arms are not built up yet, and many starters are on pitch counts. Why would you stress him, throwing 130 plus pitches when you are trying to preserve him for the long haul?

That would have been an interesting conversation between the two of them.

I know that it is only one start, but you could not help to be somewhat puzzled by return debut of Javier Vazquez in road gray.

Many watching upon first glance could only think of 2004, and changing his number to “31” was not going to make that go away.

For three innings, he was fabulous. Suddenly, with a 2-0 lead, everything fell apart.

Vazquez hung a fastball that Carlos Pena belted for a home run. Marcus Thames misplayed a ball into a two-run triple, and then Willie Aybar drilled a homerun in the sixth inning to extend the Rays lead.

The final stats were ugly: 5 2/3 innings, eight runs, eight hits.

Welcome back to the American League. No longer are the Nationals, Mets and the 7-8-9 hitters in a lineup available to kick around.

Now, while I feel this is nothing more than a simple blip and still win at least 15 games, it was not a good second impression on a fan base whose lasting memory of you is seeing Johnny Damon crush a grand slam in Game 7.

Please get better soon.

The fickle nature of baseball is to beat down players who do not perform, and praise them when they do well.

This brings us to Chan Ho Park.

Before the season, I lauded that Park would be the best $1.2 millionthe Yankees will have spent this season. In his first game against the Red Sox nursing a two-run lead, he promptly gave up three runs as Boston rallied to win.

This led to me undergoing a minor anger management scenario saying “Chan Ho = no, no, no”.

Two days later, Girardi elected to bring Park back into a game with the score tied in the seventh inning.

Park rewarded him by hurling three scoreless innings, saving the bullpen as the Yankees came back to win 3-1 in 10 innings.

On this night, Park was a hero and re-earned my good graces.

I keep reminding myself of an old quote Super Bowl champion Head Coach Jimmy Johnson once said:

“I love you when you are making plays. The moment you stop making plays, I don’t love you anymore.”

It’s become my new baseball adage.

For better or worse.

Yankee Talk: Rivalry Edition – The Grandy-man can

Granderson starts with great first impression

BOSTON – Usually when a new player comes to the Yankees, the weight of the expectations from the fans and (drive by) media is enough to make them press and play below their level of performance.

Joe Girardi and Tino Martinez went through it. The same also goes for Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez and most recently, Mark Teixeira.

Perhaps these newcomers feel as if they have to do something dramatic in order to impress their new teammates. In reality, keeping a simple approach and being yourself works to be the best approach.

It looks like Curtis Granderson is adhering to that memo.

For some, it is never an easy adjustment. Starting out as a Yankee playing your first game and series of your new career in Fenway Park against the Red Sox would be enough for other players to wilt.

Not Granderson.

There is no better way to indoctrinate oneself and put right in the thick of The Rivalry then by coming up with a few big hits in these games.

On this front, Granderson has done just that.

In his first at-bat as a Yankee, he turned on a fastball from Josh Beckett and drilled it into the right field bleachers.

Now, here he was last night leading off the frame in the 10th inning in the rubber game of The Rivalry Act 1, Part 3 against Jonathan Papelbon in a hard fought games and the score tied 1-1.

Granderson in his career had already taken the Red Sox closer deep once was sitting dead red. Any fastball remotely in the strike zone and he would hack.

The fastball came and he was ready, putting a powerful swing into it that had that magical sound.

Papelbon put his head down as the ball went up. Granderson’s eyes raised up, and all JD Drew could was go back and watch it sail out into the right field seats as the Yankees took a 2-1 lead in their eventual 3-1 victory over the Red Sox.

The final stats for the series show him totaling four hits in 13 at bats with two homeruns. While there have been a few misreads on several fly balls, there has been nothing egregiously bad about his defense in center.

All of this amounts to a success first three games for the new Yankee.
Coming off a world championship, Granderson had huge shoes to fill as the team elected to part ways with Johnny Damon and replace him in the outfield with the former Detroit Tigers centerfielder.

Damon could have come back to the Yankees, but at his advanced age and outrageous salary demands, it made sense to move away from him and take advantage of the Tigers making him available for trade.

Rarely is a centerfielder with five-tool ability and under the age of 30 available in a trade. The only conclusion one could draw is that the Tigers have either run into money problems due to the economy or noticed a decline in his performance.

Nonetheless, the Yankees swooped in and made the trade, giving up touted prospect Austin Jackson as part of the deal.

Critics questioned whether Granderson had lost range and ability as a defender in centerfield as late last season he had several lapses, getting bad reads on fly balls, and at times, appearing lost. Add to it the decrease in on base percentage, increase in strikeouts, and extreme inability to hit left-handed pitching, and this did not resemble the player who in 2007 become the only player in history to hit 20 homeruns, steal 20 bases, hit 20 doubles and have 20 triples.

Damon’s toughness and ability to hit in key situations was never in question. We had eight years of evidence from his time in Boston and New York to draw that conclusion.

But now Granderson was coming from Detroit, not a big hotbed for baseball despite their great tradition, into the pressure cooker that is the Yankees. Here, every at bat undergoes extreme criticism and there are never any proverbial “days off”.

However, as we have seen just by the way he carries himself, he is a humble, graceful, eloquent individual who peers garner the highest respect for as an ambassador for the game of baseball. Former teammates and his previous manager, Jim Leyland, raved about the type of person he is both on the field and off, along with the great influence he is in the clubhouse.

On a team that that has converted from a team of mercenaries to a team of high-character individuals, Granderson is the perfect fit. The Yankees can best utilize his talents at the bottom of the lineup to create havoc for opponents.

Remember, he hit 30 homeruns last year while playing half of his home games at spacious Comerica Park. While the Yankees hope he does not get too pull-conscious and attempt to hook balls into the short porch, they would sign up for a repeat of his numbers from three seasons ago.

What they really would sign up for is an ability to hang in against left-handed pitching to not turn him into an automatic out in the lineup (.183 last season), and prove to be a big hitter in the clutch as Damon.

All it took was a few big hits against the Red Sox to say “So far, so good.”

Yankee Talk: Extra sweet

Yanks pop Pap in 10th, win series from Sawx

BOSTON – Just when the Red Sox thought they had the Yankees, they didn’t.

The Red Sox finally got a big start from a man they paid $82.5 to and still found themselves deadlocked after nine innings.

New Yankee Curtis Granderson would make his case for earning his stripes, turning on a Jonathan Papelbon fastball, crushing it to the right field seats to unlock the tie, paving the way to a series winning 3-1 victory in front a stunned 38,828 at Fenway Park.

After two games that bordered on the exceedingly tedious, both the Yankees and Red Sox easily played their best game of the series, featuring tremendous starting pitching.

Starters Andy Pettitte and John Lackey hooked up in a classic pitcher’s duel. The game was scoreless over the first two and a half frames before Boston struck for the first run of the night.

Dustin led off the bottom of the third with a double. Pettitte battled to retire Victor Martinez and Kevin Youkilis, before surrendering an RBI single to David Ortiz to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.

This appeared to enough for Lackey as he completely shut the Yankees down. No man reached past second base for the first six innings thanks to the help of his curveball dancing and diving away from hitters.

Umpires issued warnings to both teams in the sixth inning after Lackey drilled Derek Jeter with a fastball inside leading off with no men on. This was in response to Youkilis taking a Pettitte fastball off the top of his helmet.

Lackey pitched out of trouble when Alex Rodriguez grounded into a double play to end the Yankees half of the frame. For the night, he threw six scoreless innings, yielding only three hits in 99 pitches.

Pettitte held his own with Lackey, but still trailed on the scoreboard as his night ended after battling through six innings, giving up six hits and three walks, striking out four in 94 pitches.

Scott Schoenweis began the seventh for Boston and gave up a double to Jorge Posada in between strikeouts of Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson. Hard-throwing Daniel Bard entered to pitch to Nick Swisher and on a 2-2 pitch, grounded a single into right field that scored Posada from third to tie the game.

Posada is not the fastest runner around the bases, but as JD Drew came up throwing, he failed initially to touch the plate before eventually reaching the bag to score the tying run.

After giving up three runs and blowing a two-run Yankee lead in the seventh inning, Joe Girardi gave the ball to Chan Ho Park as a means to redeem himself.

Park quickly went through the meat of the Boston lineup six up, six down. Papelbon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, and going into the bottom half Girardi elected to stick with Park based on the way he threw the previous two innings.

The reward was another scoreless inning, but had to endure several long fly outs to the warning track by Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron.

To start the tenth, Granderson would jump on a 0-1 fastball from Papelbon and crushed it over the wall in right for a homerun to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

After Nick Swisher struck out, both Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter worked walks to chase the Red Sox closer from the game as his pitch count went over his limit.

Scott Atchison came on and loaded the bases by walking Nick Johnson. Mark Teixeira grounded into a fielder’s choice, scoring Gardner to increase the margin to two.

For the second straight game, Mariano Rivera came in and pitched a quiet 1-2-3 to give the Yankees the series win.

It was a great turn of events for the world champions after dropping the season opener. The game showed that while they may possess baseball most potent offense, they could win a battle of pitching even against the team that has changed their philosophy to that of run prevention and strong pitching.

Problem with that game plan is that a team that can hit can negate that.

With an off day scheduled for Thursday, the Yankees will resume action on Friday night in St. Petersburg against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Javier Vazquez makes his first start for the Yankees since 2004, opposed by young David Price.

Yankee Talk: Rising from the dead

Chamberlain breathes fire, shows flashes from past

BOSTON – JD Drew knew it. Jorge Posada knew it. More importantly, Joba Chamberlain knew it.

As Drew took a half swing through a filthy slider on 2-1 touching 88 on the radar gun inside Fenway Park, you could hear the “ooh” from the crowd. At the plate, you could see the groan on the face of Drew, made to look so foolish that he could not even take a full hack to even the count.

Chamberlain unleashed another slider. Drew swung and got nothing but air and dirt, striking out to end the inning.

Wow.

Consider me still in a state of shock and awe.

Surely my eyes did not just witness what I saw take place. Before Drew, Adrian Beltre stood no chance against a fastball that sunk straight out of the strike zone at 96, looking like 100.

Two batters. Two strikeouts and an eighth inning lead preserved.

It was just like old times for Joba Chamberlain.

As he walked off the mound, he pumped his fists in vindication, celebrating a job well done, but also making a statement that there is man with intensity, fire and an above-90’s fastball and killer slider still inside of him.

For the last two seasons, the wide-ranging, hair-splitting debate has been whether Joba Chamberlain would be suited better to be a starting pitcher, or the man in charge of getting the ball to Mariano Rivera.

We all remember the start he had to his career. Coming into games late and blowing hitters away with an explosive fastball and buckling slider that gave hitters little to no chance.

He originally came up as a starter, but converted to the bullpen to help the club and was so dominant that many looked at as the heir to Rivera. The next season, the team built him back into a starter during the middle of the year and things were going very well until a shoulder injury derailed him.

Last year, the goal was to make him a starter and keep him under a leash to make sure he did not overwork his arm.

This became known as “The Joba Rules”.

While he had some good starts, the rest of his season became mired in inconsistency.

The Yankees went to creative measures to make sure they would not exceed his innings cap, and in essence played mental games with him. However, as you watched him pitch closely, the same fire he used to have had been put out, replaced by a man forced to over-think and conserving himself by not throwing as hard, leading to worse results.

On the way to winning a world championship, Chamberlain returned to the bullpen where his velocity ticked back up and you could see the comfort level that he had out there. The man wants to attack and not nibble. He is a fighter, not a lover. He is a man that wants to be somewhat on the edge and let loose all of his emotion.

It is very difficult to do that over the course of 100 pitches and nearly 160 innings. Try doing it and you will find yourself burnt out in due time.

The 2010 season was to be year where he could let loose. Training wheels would be off, giving the team a look at what type of pitcher (without restrictions) he can be. However, privately the Yankees felt that Hughes would be a better starter and Chamberlain would be best suited for the team to come out of the bullpen.

He came into the game on Sunday with the Yankees trailing by a run and again his velocity was still not there. The control was not there and the Red Sox took advantage.

Questions lingered that the “old Joba” was no longer in existence, replaced by the man who is a shell of his former self. 98 on the gun now showing 92. A filthy slider turned into a pitch hitter simply lay off as they wait for him to throw enough strikes.

Fast-forward 48 hours. The Yankees lead the Red Sox by one run in the bottom of the eighth inning at Fenway. Kevin Youkilis is on second base representing the tying run and this leaves Chamberlain with no margin for error otherwise that would result in a tie game.

As he threw, you see that he possessed no fear and wanted the game in his hands. When Beltre swung late at a fastball, you could see that something was different about this version of Chamberlain.

The emphatic results eventually spoke for themselves.

The hope is that the fire-breathing, flame-throwing, emotions-on-his-sleeve reliever returns to help solidify the late innings alongside Rivera. Having that tandem with the starting pitching the team possesses will make an already tremendous team, utterly dominant.

Now the Yankees wish this is what they can expect from him going forward.

Yankee Talk: First win a free pass

Johnson’s walk in eighth gives Yanks lead, win

BOSTON – There is such a death grip nature to these games that in many ways it appears the winner only emerges after a bloody battle of attrition.

Rarely is there ever a clean victor, and last night at Fenway Park was no exception.

It indeed was tedious, not well played, and at other times ugly.

However, each of these teams will take the win no matter how they can get it, and the Yankees were the ones to emerge victorious on this night.

It is in these games where both teams force the other to throw strikes. Each squad lives off plate discipline and the ability to lay off bad pitches and swing at only good ones. The philosophy sucks other teams pitchers dry, leaving them sometimes with nothing left.

Last night, a walk would decide the outcome.

Nick Johnson, known for his keen batting eye and ability to swing at strikes drew the key walk with the bases loaded that would provide the Yankees with the game winner. Their 6-4 win over the Red Sox notched their first win of the season. It was a game typical of “The Rivalry” as it saw one team fall behind early, rally to come back and then hold on at the end in front of a crowd of 38,000.

Before the game, many questions surrounded the relationship of temperamental starter A.J Burnett and Jorge Posada. This first test would come in the bottom of the second inning when Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single that Curtis Granderson misread, stole second and advanced to third on the bad throw by Jorge Posada that found its way into center field.

Burnett avoided further crisis by yielding only a sacrifice fly to Kevin Youkilis to escape only giving up one run.

The Yankees answered in their half of the third against Red Sox lefty Jon Lester. Robinson Cano singled to center with one out. After Posada walked, Nick Swisher lined a double into the right field corner to score Cano to tie the game. Lester squashed any attempt for the Yankees to extend the lead when he struck out Granderson with one out and Posada on third and then inducing a groundout from Jeter to end the inning.

Victor Martinez hammered a Burnett fastball into the bullpen for a two-run shot to give Boston the lead again in the bottom of the third as pitch counts for both Burnett and Lester began to rise.

It would be in the fifth where the Yankees would break Lester down and get him out of the game. Granderson and Jeter started the inning with successive singles and Nick Johnson would be hit on an inside pitch to load the bases with no out.

Mark Teixeira’s fielder’s choice scored Granderson and then a double off the wall by Alex Rodriguez tied the game at three. A deep sacrifice fly by Cano scored Teixeira from third to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead.

Martinez would double off the Green Monster to re-tie the score as both teams continued to throw haymakers at each other. Burnett’s night would conclude after striking out both Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz to end the inning.

Both starters’ final numbers nearly mirrored the other. Each threw 94 pitches over five innings. Lester gave up four runs on hits, walking three and striking out four. Burnett gave up four runs (three earned) on seven hits, walking one and striking out five.

For the second straight game, it was another edition of “Battle of the Bullpens”.

The Red Sox won Round 1 on Sunday, and both teams each threw up scoreless frames in both the six and seventh innings. However, in the eighth, Boston’s bullpen broke.

Posada started the inning with a ground rule double to right off Hideki Okajima. After Swisher grounded to short, Brett Gardner lifted a shallow single to left that was not able to move Posada to third.

Granderson would then fly to center for the second out and the inning should have been over when Derek Jeter grounded into what was to be a routine play at short. The throw from the normally sure-handed Marco Scutaro went off the glove of Youkilis at first and everyone was safe to load the bases.

Nick Johnson came up and worked the count to 3-0 and then 3-1. Using his disciplined batting eye, he laid off a fastball high for ball walk, scoring Posada from third to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead.

Needing three outs to get the game into the hands of Mariano Rivera, David Robertson started the bottom of the eight and gave up a single to Youkilis. Damaso Marte came to face David Ortiz, and while trying to keep the Red Sox first baseman close to the bag, he lazily threw a pickoff and squirted under the glove of Teixeira, allowing Youkilis to advance to second.

Ortiz would later fly out and Joe Girardi summoned Joba Chamberlain to put out the fire. This move paid dividends as Chamberlain showed flashes of his 2007 self, overpowering Adrian Beltre and making J.D Drew look helpless, flailing at a slider to end the inning as Chamberlain pumped his fists upon leaving the mound.

Cano would provide added insurance in the ninth with a blast off reliever Scott Atchinson. This would be plenty enough for Rivera, who pitched a scoreless ninth to give the Yankees their first win of the young season.

Wednesday night is the finale as Andy Pettitte starts for the Yankees and new free agent acquisition John Lackey takes the ball for the Red Sox.

Yankee Talk: Rivalry Edition – Pen springs leak

Sawx hammer pen, brings about questions

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.

Yankee Talk: Rivalry Edition – Not a good first impression

Yanks blow lead, drop season opener to Sawx

BOSTON - Only Yankees-Red Sox games bring out emotional mood swings, turning what should be a normal opening day into something other than a baseball game.

So instead of slowly settling into the season, the intensity is already turned up several notched, making April feel like late September or even October.

For the Yankees, it was not the ideal way to begin the year.

What was to be one of the team’s biggest strengths immediately reverted to their combustible nature from last year in the postseason, helping the Red Sox complete a comeback from a four-run deficit, rallying to a 9-7 victory in front 37,440, selling out Fenway Park for the 551st consecutive time.

The highly publicized matchup of staff aces CC Sabathia and Josh Beckett did not live up to its hype. Beckett did not fool Yankee hitters at all and Sabathia seemingly was in complete control before tiring out in the sixth inning.

After a scoreless first inning, the Yankees quickly struck as Jorge Posada laced a ball down the right field line and hit off Pesky’s Pole for a home run. They would go back-to-back as newcomer Curtis Granderson crushed a Beckett fastball to the bleachers in right-center in his first at-bat with the club as the Yankees went ahead 2-0.

Boston would answer on a sacrifice fly by Adrian Beltre. However, in the fourth, the Yankees would jump on Beckett again.

With two outs and runners on first and third, Brett Gardner singled to left center, scoring Robinson Cano who reached on a double to start the frame. Derek Jeter would then single to center, scoring Nick Swisher to make it 4-1. With Nick Johnson up, Jeter attempted to steal second and Gardner broke for the plate and scored to increase the margin to four.

Beckett’s night was ugly. After allowing a two-out single to Cano and walking Posada that would signal the end of his evening. Going only 4 2/3, Beckett gave up five runs, eight hits and walked three over 94 pitches in which only twice did a Yankee swing-and-miss.

The margin seemed to be enough at first for CC Sabathia, cruising early, allowing only one hit through the first four innings.

In the fifth, the Red Sox would create a rally with three straight singles in the bottom of the fifth after Sabathia retired the first two men. Marco Scutaro’s run-scoring single brought home J.D Drew to make the lead 5-2, but the 25 pitch inning eventually would take its toll on the ace left-hander.

Dustin Pedroia began the sixth with a walk, followed by a double into the left field corner by Victor Martinez. Kevin Youkilis would then triple to right to shrink the margin to 5-4.

After retiring David Ortiz for the second out, David Robertson came on in relief and immediately gave up the tying run on a single by Beltre under the glove of Cano.

The final line on Sabathia read 5 2/3 innings, five runs, six hits, walking two and striking out four in 104 pitches.

With both starters out of the game, it would become a battle of the bullpens. Ramon Ramirez, pitching the seventh quickly walked Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez hammered a double off the Green Monster.

Hideki Okajima came in to face the lefty hitting Cano and the Yankees would retake the lead on an RBI groundout. A single to center by Posada scored Rodriguez to increase the lead back to 7-5.

New Yankee Chan Ho Park made his debut and it was not a memorable one. Scutaro singled to center to begin the inning and after striking out Jacoby Ellsbury for the first out, he would hang a changeup that Pedroia hooked inside the left field line over the Green Monster to tie the game at seven apiece.

With two out, Youkilis doubled to left-center. This brought Damaso Marte into the game to face Ortiz. Youkilis moved on a wild pitch to third, and scored when Posada’s passed ball rolled far enough for him to score to give the Red Sox their first lead of the game.

Daniel Bard pitched a scoreless eighth, and with Joba Chamberlain in the game, Boston would add an insurance run when Pedroia singled to right to increase the lead to 9-7, scoring Mike Cameron after he reached with one out on a base hit.

The bullpen finished the night on an atrocious note. Their 2 2/3-innings performance equaled four runs (three earned) and five hits with two walks.

Jonathan Papelbon came to close it out. He retired the first two men before Posada singled for his third hit of the night. Granderson came representing the tying-run, but Papelbon would retire him on a broken bat ground out to third.

While it is only one in 162, it was tough one for the Yankees to lose after leading by four. No lead is safe at Fenway Park and the combination of Sabathia tiring and the ineffectiveness of the bullpen allowed for it to happen.

After an off day Monday, the two teams go back at it Tuesday night at Fenway. AJ Burnett starts for the Yankees and Jon Lester makes the start for the Red Sox.