Teixeira and Revamped Bullpen Start Strong for Yankees in Chilly Opener
Barton Silverman/The New York Times
Joba Chamberlain picked up the victory after throwing a scoreless seventh inning, with a strikeout, in relief of C. C. Sabathia.
By BEN SHPIGEL
Published: March 31, 2011
On the final day of March, it felt like just another afternoon of an endless winter Thursday at Yankee Stadium, raw and wet and frigid, with a wind that howled and swirled.
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Barton Silverman/The New York Times
Mark Teixeira, who did not hit his first home run until his 12th game last season, hit a three-run blast in the third inning. Joking about his notoriously slow Aprils, he said, “I've been petitioning the league to start in March for years.” More Photos »
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A crowd of 48,226 filled chilly Yankee Stadium. More Photos »
Barton Silverman/The New York Times
Fans showed their gloves and their love for the Yankees. More Photos »
Jason Szenes for The New York Times
Dana Fontanez shows off her fingernails, painted especially for the opener.
In the dugout, parkas concealed pinstripes. In the stands, teeth clattered. The few brave players who wore short sleeves regretted it later. Conditions for the Yankees’ season opener were far from ideal, but the outcome warmed the crowd of 48,226.
The Yankees rolled past the Detroit Tigers, 6-3, a victory defined by a command performance by Curtis Granderson, who played exceptional defense in center field and slugged the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning; an encouraging early-season display of power by Mark Teixeira, who hit a three-run homer; and the late-inning lockdown by their revamped bullpen, which in relief of C. C. Sabathia retired all nine hitters.
As pitchers are acquired and roles change, one reliever stays the same: Mariano Rivera, who praised the dominance of Joba Chamberlain, who got the victory, and his new setup man, Rafael Soriano.
“That’s how it was designed,” Rivera said. “We don’t have the strong rotation that we used to have before — I mean, the names. I think we have a tremendous rotation. But the bullpen was designed for that.”
Improving the rotation was the Yankees’ priority this off-season. Strengthening the bullpen happened out of desperation, when Cliff Lee’s decision to sign with Philadelphia left the Yankees with money to spend, and lots of it.
So they added Soriano against the wishes of General Manager Brian Cashman, whose vocal stance at the introductory news conference reached Soriano’s friends and family back home in the Dominican Republic.
Early in spring training Soriano sought Cashman out for an explanation. Satisfied, he said he was “comfortable so far” with his new job after closing last season for Tampa Bay, and on Thursday he came in for a superb Chamberlain and retired two of the Tigers’ lethal hitters, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, as part of his handiwork.
The ending, as overpowering as it was orderly, fulfilled a prediction offered before the game by Derek Jeter, who quipped, “Don’t expect too much from the hitters today.”
They combined for 11 hits, as Sabathia and the Tigers’ ace right-hander, Justin Verlander, each worked six innings, departing with the score tied at 3-3.
Opening days had not been kind to Sabathia, at least not with the Yankees — a 10.24 earned run average in two starts. But he said he had a better feel for his pitches Thursday, especially of his two-seam fastball and slider, which he threw early to get ahead.
Sabathia bemoaned his failure to put away hitters, allowing four of his six hits with two strikes — including Brandon Inge’s two-out, run-scoring single in the fourth. But he could have escaped with a lead had it not been for an fifth-inning error by Robinson Cano, which led to an unearned run.
Sabathia’s last five starts against Detroit have come opposite Verlander, whose dominant spring training — 0.96 earned run average in 28 innings — prepared him for a lineup that approached him with a definite strategy.
Facing him in miserable weather — a wind-chill of 31 degrees — is unappealing, and so the Yankees focused on driving up his pitch count. None of the five players who batted in the first inning took a swing before the fourth pitch of the at-bat, forcing Verlander to throw 31 over all.
In drawing a walk, Teixeira saw seven pitches, and he came up in the third with a more aggressive plan. He drilled a 1-1 fastball deep into the second deck in right field, only his second hit in 18 at-bats against Verlander.
A notoriously slow starter, Teixeira did not his first homer last year until his 12th game. But he addressed those struggles in a January tutorial with the hitting coach Kevin Long, who focused on improving his mechanics while batting from the left side. Teixeira could often be found hitting alone in the batting cages beneath SteinbrennerField in spring training, taking swing after swing, and on Thursday he saw results.
“I’ve been petitioning the league to start in March for years now,” Teixeira said, laughing. “Finally they let us start in March because everyone knows about my Aprils.”
People who pay close attention to April statistics may also know about Granderson’s unusual success, a streak that was jeopardized by an injury March 22 to his right oblique muscle. When he left Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday night after playing in a minor league game, Granderson was hopeful, though unsure, that he would play Thursday.
In the first inning, he made a diving catch. In the seventh, after the left-hander Phil Coke replaced Verlander, Granderson, a left-handed hitter, mashed a ball into the second deck in right field, his third consecutive opening day with a home run.
His homer last April 4 in Boston could not offset what became a challenging season, marked by injury and ineffectiveness, but Granderson said he was much more comfortable in his second year with the Yankees.
“All of the firsts are out of the way, you know,” Granderson said, adding: “I knew of the city and the fans, and now I know how it is. So all those question marks are gone, versus looking forward to it, like I am now.”
His final highlight came in the ninth, when, playing shallow to account for the wind, he raced down Inge’s fly to deep center.
As the replay was shown on the high-definition video screen, fans roared and clapped (their gloved hands), and Rivera gawked in appreciation.
One out later, the crowd applauded Rivera and the blueprint victory — and the chance to go home happy and warm.
“It was,” Jeter said, “as scripted.”
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