Tampa, Fla., March 1, 2013 – Before re-signing during the just completed off-season, Hiroki Kuroda vacillated for a while. There were rumors of a return to the Dodgers first, then hints that he wanted to once again pitch in Japan. It was clear that the Yanks wanted him for one more season, which dovetailed into another report that he wanted to pitch two more years, one in the Bronx, one in Japan.

Well, he did re-sign, but maybe that time of hesitation had something to do with how his 2012 season in Pinstripes got started. In at least three of his first four starts, one of his teammates made early miscues from which he was unable to recover. Thus, he pitched to a great era on the team that blasted home runs by the bushel and led the American League in wins, but despite effective starts, he lost three of his first four, and was 2-4 in early May. He could be forgiven if he thought back to that time today.

After surrendering a leadoff walk and single in the first, he got two grounders and a strike out, then two more grounders and another K to start the second. Yet due to shaky defense Toronto scored two runs in each inning, and Kuroda was down 4-0 almost immediately. Thus Hiroki became the first of two Yankee hurlers on the day to surrender four runs with three of them unearned (although to my point of view none of the four against Kuroda was earned).

The Yankee defense made a comeback with Joba Chamberlain on the mound in the third, but the righty reliever failed to take advantage of it. Robinson Cano and Kevin Youkilis made stelllar plays on Chase Utley and Ryan Howard ground-ball base hit bids, but a wild Chamberlain surrendered a single, two walks, and another one-base hit for a 6-0 Blue Jays lead. From that point on the Yanks outscored the Blue Jays 5-4 despite continued sloppy play, but New York dropped yet another poorly played game in Tampa.

The Yankees threatened to compete in this game from the outset, stretching Roy Halladay to 24 pitches and loading the bases against him in the first. And in the third, doubles by Francisco Cervelli and Juan Rivera around a Robinson Cano base hit plated the first Yankee run. But young outfielder Melky Mesa, who homered in a losing cause in Kissimmee Thursday and would go yard yet again later in this game, struck out to end both the first and the third, stranding five base runners, three of them in scoring position.

Still the Yanks had a chance, thanks to the stellar work of young lefty Vidal Nuno, who, after strking out five Phillies in two frames Monday, blanked them in the fourth and fifth this game, despite another error, a bad throw by Addison Maruszak, who replaced Youkilis at third in the fourth. Maruszak made up for that miscue by doubling off the top of the left field wall off Jonathan Papelbon for two runs in the home fifth, and when young left fielder Ronnier Mustelier homered off Raul Valdes in the sixth, the Yanks had narrowed the score to 6-4. What could have been though. New York had Papelbon in the ropes in the fifth, with two runs in and two in scoring position and just one out, before Thomas Neal and Kyle Roller struck out.

But the game was convincingly lost in the top of the seventh, another ugly four-run affair. Although Francisco Cervelli had another stellar day (2-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored; he threw out another runner trying to steal as well), he had been replaced by young catching prospect Gary Sanchez, who made a nice play pegging Kevin Frandsen out on a bunt to start the frame. Cody Eppley struggled, however, loading the bases on two singles and a walk, and a run scored on Maruszak’s second error. Eppley walked in a run, a third scored on a sac fly, and Preston Claiborne came on and allowed a fourth on a single. It was 10-4, as it had been in the error-plagued contest against Baltimore two days ago, and Mesa’s singleton jack closed it to a 10-5 final score.

Worthy of mention is Juan Rivera’s continued brilliance at the bat. He had four straight hits (two this game) when Jimmy Rollins speared his hard liner in the critical bottom of the fifth. Cisco is running away with the starting catcher competition so far, Nuno continues to look major-league-ready – he should start in AA or AAA – and righty Tom Kahnle turned in another impressive inning after doing the same Wednesday.

March 1 has seen some big days in Spring Training, as it was on this day in 1969 in Florida that Mickey Mantle made it official, announcing his retirement. And on March 1, 1996, George Steinbrenner proudly opened his left coast jewel, Legends Field (now George M. Steinbrenner Field), with a 5-2 win over reigning American League champs the Cleveland Indians. (It was the first time a Yankee grounds crew dragged the infield to the strains of YMCA as well.) And after two perfect days this year, March 1 brought a cold front with chill breezes and lots of cloud cover to Tampa Friday. But for those of us seated on the left-field side, the clouds broke and we were bathed in sunshine much of the day. Two of those fans seated in front of us apologetically asked several questions about when the game would start, how long we would have the sun, etc., while confessing that this was their first time doing this.

“So this is your Spring Training Spring Training?” I asked. The Yanks are playing these games in the same way, perhaps because it got off to such an early start: like they’ve never played games this early before. The calendar will advance; hopefully the quality of play will as well.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!