Yankees 6, Tigers 3: Teixeira and newly designed bullpen start strong Yankees in chilly opener

In the dugout, parkas hidden pinstripes. Teeth clattered in the stands. The few courageous player, with short sleeves wore it regrets later. Conditions for the Yankees season opener were far from ideal, but the result heats the amount of the 48,226.

The Yankees rolled past defined Detroit Tigers, 6-3, and a victory by a command performance from Curtis Granderson, the exceptional defense in Center field played that threw a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning. an encouraging pre-season display of power by Mark Teixeira, a three run Homer hit; and the late inning lockdown of their revised bullpen retired in the discharge of C. C. Sabathia all nine hitters.

Pitchers are acquired and change roles, a reliever remains the same: Mariano Rivera, the dominance of Joba Chamberlain, praised, which have the victory, and his new Setup man, Rafael Soriano.

"This is how it was designed," said Rivera. "We have not the strong rotation, which we have--I mean, the name." I think we have a huge rotation. "But the bullpen has been designed."

Improve the rotation was the Yankees priority this forward and low season. Strengthen the bullpen was out of desperation, as Cliff Lee's decision with Philadelphia sign with the Yankees spend money, and much of which left.

Thus this Soriano against the wishes of General Manager Brian Cashman added their vocal stance on the introductory press conference reached Soriano friends and family at home in the Dominican Republic.

Early in spring training Soriano Cashman sought an explanation. Satisfied, he said he "comfortable so far" with his new job after the close of last season for Tampa Bay, and on Thursday he for a great Chamberlain came and moved two of the Tigers deadly hitters, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, as part of his handiwork.

"We are need," manager Joe Girardi said.

The end as superior as it was ordered, meets a prediction offered, before the game by Derek Jeter, quipped, "Awaiting you today not too much of the hitters."

You leave combined for 11 hits as Sabathia and the Tigers ACE worked right, Justin Verlander, six innings with the score tied at 3-3.

Opening days was not as friendly to Sabathia, at least not with the Yankees - a 10.24 earned average run in two starts. But he said he had a better feel for his pitch Thursday, his two seam fastball and slider, which he threw early to get ahead.

Sabathia hitters he complained it default, stored, so that four of his six hits with two strikes - including Brandon Inge fourth zwei-Out, run-scoring single in the. But he could error of Robinson Cano, escape with a lead it not for a fifth inning, which led to an unearned run.

Sabathia starting five last against Detroit came to starting, whose dominant spring training - 0.96 earned run average in 28 innings - it for a lineup, which were prepared with a specific strategy on it.

Before him in the miserable weather - a wind chill of 31 degrees - is appealing, and so the Yankees focused on his pitch count drive. None of the five players who batted took in the first inning to force a swing before the fourth pitch of the Milton, starting 31 over all throw.

In drawing a walk, Teixeira saw seven places, and he came in third with a more aggressive plan. He drilled a 1-1 fastball deep into the second deck in right field, only his second in 18 at bats against starting hit.

Uncomfortably slow starter, Teixeira has not his first Homer last year up to his 12th game. But he treated these battles in a tutorial January with the hitting coach Kevin long, who on his mechanics at the batting from the left side. Teixeira often found alone in the batting cages at Steinbrenner field in spring training, hit under swing after swing, and he saw results on Thursday.

"I the League in March for years now start petitions were,", said Teixeira, laugh. "Finally they leave in March start us, because everyone knows about my April."

Know who exactly April statistics can take over Granderson's unusual success, a strip which was oblique muscle at risk due to an injury March 22 to his right. As he Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday night after in a minor league game play, Granderson was hope, but are not sure that he would play Thursday.

In the first inning, he made a diving catch. Mashed Granderson, a left-handed hitter in the seventh after Coke starting, replacing the lefty Phil a ball into the second deck in each other following the right field, his third opening day with a home run.

His Homer last April 4 in Boston could not offset what a challenging season, marked by injuries and ineffectiveness, Granderson was in his second year, he said but, was with the Yankees much more convenient.

"The first night are out of the way, you know," said Granderson, added: "I knew the city and the fans, and now I know how it is." "So all the question marks are gone, when compared to forward as I am now."

His last highlight came in the ninth, when, flat playing wind account for that, was Inge's fly to deep Center down.

As the play was shown in the window of HD video, fans roared and clapped (their gloved hands) and Rivera gawked in appreciation.

Out later, the audience Rivera and the blueprint victory - and the chance applauded at home happy and warm.

"It was," said Jeter "how to create the script.",

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Yankees Bracing for Cold in Opener and in April

 

It sounded like a complaint — well, it was, actually — but then Swisher, who is probably the Yankees’ leading enthusiast about life in general, grinned. “But hey, no better place than the Bronx, man.”

March is not going out quite as lamblike as the adage would have it, which makes the prospect of opening day in New York just a tad less idyllic than one might hope. When the Yankees face the Tigers on Thursday afternoon, the occasion is likely to be chilly, with temperatures in the 40s, and possibly very wet, with rain in the forecast.

As both teams ran through perfunctory workouts Wednesday, the Yankees made the unsurprising announcement that Brett Gardner would lead off and Derek Jeter would bat second against the Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander, though Jeter will lead off against lefties. Luis Ayala, the former Met, will take the final bullpen slot to start the season, replacing Pedro Feliciano, another former Met, who is on the disabled list. And it was still uncertain whether Curtis Granderson, recuperating from an injury to an oblique muscle, would start in center field.

Also, A. J. Burnett has a nasty head cold. “Don’t get too close to me, man,” he warned at one point.

Without a lot to discuss, talk naturally, or perhaps with a little prompting, turned toward the weather, long underwear, insulated batting gloves and sitting near the heaters on the bench. Asked how he prepared for playing in the cold, Jeter laughed.

“More clothes, man,” he said.

The idea of playing in a chilly rain did not excite Mark Teixeira. The good thing, he said, was that both teams have to play in it.

“But anyone who’s ever played golf when it’s raining and windy, you take it inside and play cards in the clubhouse,” Teixeira said, adding that cold weather is much tougher on hitters than pitchers. “The ball doesn’t carry as well, you’re not going to be as loose, and every time you hit the ball off the end of the bat you feel like your hands are broken.”

Teixeira and his teammates may have to get used to it. The forecast for the next several days does not call for much higher temperatures, and the team’s quirky early-season schedule is frontloaded with home games. Twelve of the Yankees’ first 15 games are in the Bronx, the only interruption being a weekend series in a potentially chillier clime: Boston.

Through May 1, only 8 of the team’s first 28 games are on the road, and the 20 home games equal the number the Yankees are scheduled to play in August and September combined.

Manager Joe Girardi said that so many late-season away games did not matter much — “Our club in the past has played well on the road, so that’s not a huge concern,” he said — but the early-season home games can create a problem if weather forces many cancellations.

Swisher raised an eyebrow over the schedule.

“We’re home the whole month of April, but then we have, like, nine home games in August?” Swisher said with an incredulous shrug. “Why would you do that? Why would you not start us off in warmer climates, and then once the Midwest and the East start warming up, play us there. Send us out west, send us down south, send us anywhere. But you’re going to put us here for a whole month?”

The main difficulty for pitchers in the cold is maintaining a feel for the ball, so it does not begin to feel slippery, in Swisher’s phrase, “like a cue ball.”

Phil Hughes, who will start the third game of the season on Sunday, acknowledged that the cold could be a factor in his using the pitch he worked hardest on in spring training: the changeup.

“The first week of the season the adrenaline warms you up a little,” he said, “but it is a feel pitch, and if you can’t feel the baseball as well as you can in warm weather, it might be affected. That’s what these next couple of days are for, to get used to it, and hopefully by Sunday I’ll be all right.”

Cue ball effect aside, generally the players seem to regard cold weather as a boon for pitchers as opposed to hitters.

“Definitely pitchers,” Jeter said, “because pitchers are always moving.”

Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees reliever, agreed.

“Pitchers, we dictate everything that’s going on,” he said. “You can get in on people’s hands.”

He also made the point that before a pitcher enters the game, he warms up. “Even when it’s cold you’re working up a sweat,” he said. “We get hot just to come in.” Both starting pitchers, Verlander and the Yankees’ C. C. Sabathia, responded the same way — with a smile and a four-word sentence — when asked about playing in the cold. “Hitters don’t like it,” they said.

Sabathia, the former Cleveland Indian, added: “I’m used to it, from pitching in Cleveland. I kind of like it.”

Jeter said his least favorite of the elements was wind. “Windy is the toughest,” he said. “Wind makes it colder, plus you’ve got to throw into the wind, and hit into the wind. Wind complicates things.”

Russell Martin, beginning his first season with the Yankees after playing in relatively sunny Los Angeles, said nobody had an advantage in the cold. It was bad for both the hitter and pitcher, he said.

And then there was Mariano Rivera. You’d think, perhaps, that as a native Panamanian, Rivera, the Yanks’ nonpareil closer, would disdain low temperatures and say so. But asked if he preferred pitching in warm weather, what he disdained was the question.

“What I prefer or don’t prefer, it don’t matter,” he said, speaking with characteristic quietude and gravitas. “It’s not going to change anything. We’re here. Whether it’s cold or warm, we have to live with it. We’re ready.”