Tampa, Fla., March 1, 2014 — Everything went off as advertised at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Saturday. The place was packed with Yankee fans, Phillie fans, fans of all stripes. The weather delivered a perfect day, dazzling sunshine with temps in the mid-70s. And the Big Three of the Yankee rotation stifled the visiting batters for six frames.
Joe Girardi’s unprecedented move of pitching his three best for two innings apiece in the same game, rather than having each start one that would undoubtedly change in the long stretch to 27 outs, makes a statement: The Bronx rotation is a strength, and anyone aiming to take the AL East, and the World Series, will have to deal with New York.
CC Sabathia, coming off a disappointing slog of a 2013 season, got it started with two solid innings where he retired two on ground balls, two on flies, a strike out, and a liner to shortstop Derek Jeter. CC did surrender two of the five Phillies hits, but neither was particularly hard-struck. What perhaps stands out most from Sabathia’s outing is that he threw first-pitch strikes to seven batters, and struck out Domonic Brown, the only one on whom he missed with his first pitch.
Both CC and Hiroki Kuroda, I’m sure, would acknowledge that Masahiro Tanaka was the one most had come to see. How would the 25-year-old Japanese star earn the $155 million contract he signed having not pitched one inning to major league baseball players? But CC and Kuroda had their jobs to do, and the latter, in to start the third, got the ball to Tanaka with impressive dispatch.
Hiroki wasn’t surprised by Cesar Hernandez’s first-pitch bunt; he charged, wheeled and fired, but missed getting the speedy second baseman by a half step. The next pitch to Ben Revere produced a 6-6-3 where the wily Jeter took the young Hernandez to school on defensive double plays, tagging him going by once he gathered the hopper up the middle before pegging out Revere. Kuroda would strike out two through the third and fourth, and got the ball to the game’s highlight with just 16 pitches.
Fellow Japanese star Ichiro Suzuki, meanwhile, gave the Yanks a 1-0 lead with a fourth-inning rbi single, so Tanaka took the mound with a lead. But no, this is the big leagues, and despite two swinging strikes to start, it wasn’t that easy; first baseman Darin Ruf singled over second on the third pitch. Two flies to left, the second hit on the screws, later, Tanaka had a first: He struck out Hernandez swinging. But should the feel-good story in my head come true, strike out No. 2 is the one that will stand out. Tanaka jumped up on Phillie center fielder Ben Revere with two quick strikes, then unleashed the split finger we’ve been anticipating. Ben staggered to swing, then to the dugout, and one hit and one strike out later, the Yanks, and Tanaka, were through the sixth inning clean.
Leading off the bottom of the fifth, Jeter, who looks as good as ever running to first, reached on an error; Francisco Cervelli drove him in with an infield hit off Hernandez’s glove at third. And in the home seventh, right fielder Adonis Garcia, in for Ichiro, drove in Dean Anna and John Ryan Murphy to forge the 4-0 final score. Anna, subbing for Jeter at short, had delivered a sparkler to retire Ruf in the top half, diving to snag the hot shot, and pegging a true throw to first, even if he did make an error on the next play.
But this is not the day to discuss fielding, or hitting for that matter. We’ve seen plenty of Spring games where a dominating outing is spoiled by what follows. What followed the Sabathia, Kuroda, Tanaka blitz was yet another two solid pitching performances. Dellin Betances picked up where he left off Wednesday, retiring four around Atta’s error and the only Yankee walk, before handing the ball to southpaw Cesar Cabral. Cesar not only retired four straight to polish off the 4-0 shutout, but notched two swinging strike outs while doing so.
We’ve all seen games where the starter stumbles, then those that follow make matters worse. One hope is that going forward, vets Sabathia and Kuroda are on their way to solid seasons; another is that this game will be remembered as the one that got the career of the great Masahiro Tanaka started. It could happen. As was the case with this 4-0 win, good …
Pitching is Catching
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!