Watching this blurry, starless 2013 New York Yankee team on Opening Day, made me realize that the Yankees can never survive having non-competitive team on the field.
This year's Opening Day lost for the Yankees isn't as 'brush the shoulder off' lost that we can get by from. The way we knew this team was going to look, we knew the Yankees needed to start off right; start with a win to get the players and fans confidence going. Now a first lost to this season, feels like the next game on Wednesday is a must-win. And if we don't get that win on Wednesday, then it's gonna be a big problem.
Losing an Opening Day game with Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson in the lineup, you're thinking: 'So! We'll get the next one.' Not when Eduardo Nunez and Jayson Nix are in the lineup, and starring at a fastball right down the middle for a call strike three with runners on base. Knowing that Granderson or Teixeira would have hit those pitches to the seats. That irks me.
Us Yankee fans have to deal with this; and it's one game ... No matter how you look at it, it's only game 1 out of 161 left.
C.C Sabathia: Just had the one bad inning allowing 4 runs. Didn't pitch that bad, I thought. His fastball velocity is down, but I expect it to return.
And that's gonna be the problem with the starters being pressured to be spotless, with this lackluster Yankee lineup. If Hiroki Kuroda, whose pitching Wednesday's game, throws up a four-spot, that's gonna be hard for the Yankee bats to climb out of.
Joe Girardi is gonna have to find a way to add Brennan Boesch to the lineup, on Wednesday. Yankees need his left-handed power; besides Robinson Cano, Yankees have no lefty power who can flick one over the right-field porch.
I wonder if Girardi would bat Cano clean-up? I would. I'd bat Vernon Wells third, Kevin Youkilis fifth and Cano fourth. Then I'd have Boesch sixth. Girardi's got to spread the lineup -- Nunez can't on front of Cano. Pitchers aren't going to nibble to him. They're gonna go right after him with Cano batting behind. Wells batting third, on front of Cano would be a lot better, in my opinion. Then Youk and Boesch.
Yankees gotta figure out ways to win until Jeter, Teixeira, Granderson return.
