In Memoriam again

R.I.P. Nick Adenhart, the 22-year-old rookie starter for the Angels who died from injuries sustained from a car crash hours after his brilliant start. Moment of silence, please.

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The Yanks mustered some solid offense today, led by Nick Swisher (3-5, 5 RBIs, HR), Robinson Cano (3-4, 2 RBIs, HR, 1 BB!), and Brett Gardner (2-4 with 1 SB). Mark Teixeira also broke out of his Baltimore blues with two hits including a solo shot. As a result, the Yankees picked up their first win of the season, credited to A.J. Burnett who had a solid outing. Next stop: Kansas City to face Sir Sid and his Royals!

After Swish's performance today, there's been a lot of banter related to giving him more starts in RF and dropping Nady. I see two problems with this. One, JoeG has made it clear that Nady is the starting right fielder, so unless something drastic occurs that's probably not going to change. And two, this is all based on one game. Just as we couldn't predict the entire team's long-term performance based on the first two games, it would be an injustice to permanently elevate Swish to the starting role just because of his offensive explosion today. Don't get me wrong: I think Nick is a great addition to this club and I'd love to see him return to his Oakland form, but let's get a larger sample size before we go demanding changes to the roster.

Random notes: Despite Troy Percival's best efforts to blow it, the Rays held on to take the series from the team from Boston. How the hell did Varitek manage to hit another home run? ... Related to that, that puts the Yankees and Red Sox at the bottom of the AL East together. No wonder why I haven't heard from RSN in two days! ... On his return to the mound, Chris Carpenter of the Cardinals took a no-no into the 7th. ... Jarrod Washburn and Glen Perkins had a duel in the Metrodome this afternoon. Unfortunately, Perkins collected the L as the Twins went down 2-0 (Glen only gave up one of those).

LOL of the day: Carl Pavano's line for the Indians:

1 IP,  6 H,  9 ER,  3 BB,  2 HR

Also, because I slacked off yesterday...

LOL of yesterday: The Phillies were down 10-2 entering the seventh and yet managed to beat the Braves 12-11. The Phils staged this comeback by scoring eight in the bottom of the 7th, four of which came on bases-loaded walks delivered by three different pitchers. Wow Braves. Just wow.

Walkoff in the Metrodome

It was the bottom of the 9th, with a score of 5-3 Mariners. Brandon Morrow came in to close it out for Seattle. The inning played out as follows:

• Joe Crede strikes out swinging. One out.
• Delmon Young flies out. Two out.

Then...

• Carlos Gomez walks, and later gets to second on defensive indifference.
• Jason Kubel walks.
• Brian Buscher walks. Gomez to third and Harris, running for Kubel, to second.

Bases loaded with Twins. Morrow is pulled for Miguel Batista.

• Denard Span singles! Gomez scores and all runners move up. M's lead 5-4.
• Alexi Casilla, on the first pitch he sees, singles to center, scoring Harris to tie it and Buscher for the win. Twins take it 6-5!
  

WHAT an epic comeback by the team from Minnesota. According to the guys on MLB Network, the last time the Twins managed to walk-off after being down to their final out with no one on was about 40 years ago. I guess you can say such a comeback doesn't happen every day.

The Twins needed that (or I needed that, to retain my baseball sanity). Bedard was crusing through the first few innings, and Blackburn strugged early and didn't have his best stuff. Pulling off the first victory of the season in such a fashion made up for that. Good job, boys.

(Also, I wasn't jumping head over heels when Joe Crede was signed, but I realized today that I really appreciate his defense. Perhaps Bill Smith finally found a veteran who will actually help the team out and not hinder them, a la Livan Hernandez.)

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The off day for the Yankees was obnoxious, but what can you do. The worst part is that it will give the tabloids a.k.a. ESPN and New York media an extra day to write garbage saying that CC and Tex weren't worth the money (because the season is apparently two days now). Oh, and it's also pretty frustrating that the team from Boston had a solid win this afternoon. Oh well--we'll be back in the swing of things tomorrow.

LOL of the day: KC @ CWS. The Royals, behind a pretty sharp Gil Meche (7IP, 7H, ER, 0BB, 6K) carried a slim 2-1 lead into the 8th. Then enter Kyle "The Farnsacoaster" Farnsworth, who gives up a couple of hits and then a no-doubt 3-run blast to Jim Thome. The White Sox went on to win. Ah Farns. Nice to see that you haven't changed!

Opening Day 2009

I'm posting this box not because it's something good, but because it's something to remember.

[I'll get to it eventually.]

I hope every member of the Yankees puts that in their lockers for the rest of their season as a reminder that there's only one place to go: up.

Look, it's Opening Day of a 162 game season. Am I concerned about the Yankees' performance last night? No, because I don't believe it will be indicative of long-term success. But it was highly obnoxious nonetheless, and here's what bothered me the most:

• The effects of the change in mentality is astounding. A few days ago the Yanks were on a Spring Training tear, winning some eight or nine straight (at least). And they looked sharp. But yesterday, since it "mattered", they looked like a totally different team. What gives?
  
  
• The defense on two fronts. One, Cody Ransom. I know he's expected to be a replacement-level player until Alex returns, but he at least exhibited competent defense in ST. Yet he was a mess yesterday with his two bobbles. But on the first mistake he wasn't helped out by the second defensive issue--Derek Jeter. Unlike Ransom, the Cap'n did NOT look that good in ST (at least from the games I saw), and I fear for our defense up the middle. I swear that Jete should have backed Ransom up on his first botched play (shouldn't the SS have played behind the 3B and the 2B covered second base?), and later on I remember a single up the middle that he didn't charge. Come on Captain--I know you're getting older, but you shouldn't be wearing the lead boots already.
  
  
• Mark Teixeira was noticeably affected by the boos from the O's fans, and as such was pressing. Mark--you're a Yankee now. You're gonna get booed everywhere; please get used to it.
  
  
• I really have faith in Brett Gardner, and I think he's going to be a vital piece of this team (despite what Joe Morgan says). And I know he can bunt, but christ JoeG, after a leadoff double, let him swing! That was the situation in which I hate the bunt the most, since you essentially gamble and probably will beat yourself. Which is exactly what happened. A rally killing move, indeed.
  
  
• Team goat: Xavier Nady. The low point of the game was his costly baserunning error. Yes, I know this was primarily the 3B coach's mistake, but it didn't make Nady look good at all.

I am not concerned about CC, since he was having a statistical rough outing and I don't expect that to happen very often. And if his defense was any better, he may have had a more successful evening. Who knows.

But yeah. Long story short--yesterday was a low point, and I hope the team got it out of their system and will get back to work tomorrow. There is a division to win, after all!

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Sabathia wasn't the only ace to have issues on Opening Day. Take a look at what the top pitchers in the game did on their first day back:

Cliff Lee (CLE)    - 5   IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
CC Sabathia (NYY)  - 4.1 IP, 8  H, 6 ER, 5 BB, 0 K, 0 HR
Brandon Webb (ARI) - 4   IP, 6  H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 2 HR
Roy Halladay (TOR) - 7   IP, 6  H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HR

Yikes. Baseball's a funny thing, isn't it? We certainly don't expect those patterns to predict the season.

Random notes: The Twins, behind Liriano, were bested by King Felix Hernandez and the Mariners. It wasn't good news for me, but Griffey's HR swing was a thing of beauty. ... On that note, it's cool to see "The Kid" back in his original uniform. ... Marlin's leadoff 3B Emilio Bonifacio stole three bases and had an inside-the-parker. But it was against the Nats, so what do we expect? ... I meant to watch the A's/Angels game, but I was busy and didn't sit down for the whole thing. I'm really excited for the A's offense, and I wish Jason Giambi the best as he returns to his original colors.

LOL of the day: Probably the 9-8 slugfest between the Diamondbacks and Rockies. Nothing like making a statement about the NL West to kick off the season!

Sporty

There was once a time when I wasn't really into baseball, and now it's become an unhealthy portion of my life. There was also a time when I couldn't care less about the NFL, but now it's my premier offseason (with respect to baseball, of course) sport. However, I never have been and never will be sucked into the Madness of March, despite my often fleeting interest in the tournament. For example, last night Siena beat Ohio State in 2OT, and I have to admit that I was getting somewhat emotionally invested in it. But this is ONLY because Siena's like, what, 25 minuets away from my house? and I always root for my home teams. So yeah. I do the same with Syracuse, but to a lesser extent. As long as the local teams are representing the great Upstate I'll keep watch, but as soon as they're done, I couldn't care less about Final Fours or brackets or what have you.

Why is that? Because for me March is about getting prepped for the upcoming MLB season. Surprisingly, I haven't followed Spring Training all too closely this year because every moment of it makes me want the regular season more and more. Well luckily the World Baseball Classic appeared to fill that void (well, somewhat). Ah, the WBC...

Long story short, I started out seeing it as meaningless exhibition, but I've since changed my tune. This stuff is real to everyone else in the world. I have to say that I'm somewhat jealous that, oh, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, for example, seem to have more national pride in this than I do (and our athletes). It's not meaningless--a ton of pride is at stake, and if the US is the only country in the world who thinks otherwise, well, we're the odd ones out.

That being said, go Team USA!