St. Petersburg, FL., March 2 — The 6,500-plus fans attending the Devil Rays spring home opener vs. the Yankees in St. Petersburg today were doubly blessed, particularly the many Yankee fans among them. On the one hand the widely predicted showers coming from the north and west never arrived. And coming from the east, almost the entire starting roster of the Bombers appeared, making the brief road trip often reserved to just a handful of the frontline players.

Actually, make that triply blessed, because once the Rays’ JamesShields retired the Yanks around a Derek Jeter single and an Alex Rodriguez walk in the top of the first, former Yankee favorite Andy Pettitte made his return debut, and the 20-pitch, six-up, six-down, two-inning appearance was vintage Pettitte. It’s too early in the spring to expect Andy to be firing any cutters, but the way he kept the Rays offstride with his curve and fastball, adding a cutter would have seemed unfair. Not surprisingly for this early in March, the masterly outing appeared to set a tone for both teams, and offense immediately became hard to come by.

That the teams managed but 11 hits on the day, nine of them singles, doesn’t tell the whole story. Five of the hits never left the infield. The front that failed to bring rain featured a driving right-to-left breeze all day, and the few struck fly balls were knocked down before they could manage any carry. The visitors received four walks and a hit by pitch, but it wasn’t until Alberto Gonzalez’s swinging bunt leading off the seventh that the Yanks posted a safety since Jeter’s one-out single in the first. (Gonzalez, by the way, has three hits in two days, all of them of the infield variety.)

Yankee moundmen were even more effective, as they allowed no walks, no extra base hits, and no earned runs. Darrell Rasner surrendered a single up the middle through the third and fourth, and Scott Proctor and Chris Britton were eached nicked for a one-base hit in tossing the fifth and sixth respectively. Battling for a roster spot on a minor-league contract after his rollercoaster 2006 season in Pinstripes, southpaw Ron Villone was victimized by a seeing-eye grounder and his own error. But he turned in perhaps the second best (behind Pettitte) outing of the day in trying to recover from the man-on-third, no-outs pickle Antonio Perez’s infield single and his own errant pickoff throw created. In a scoreless duel in the bottom of the seventh with the infield in, he struck out third baseman Juan Guzman on a hard breaking slider and coaxed a harmless infield popup from power hitter Johnny Gomes. But although Andy Cannizaro made a fine stop on Shawn Riggins’ hard hopper into the shortstop hole, he failed to peg the Rays catcher out as the go-ahead run crossed the plate.

Despite the four free passes, Rays pitching was obviously having a fine day too, with Yanks down 1-0 on three hits through seven. Maddon must feel he has a lot of pitchers to evaluate, because he trotted out nine different hurlers for nine individual innings. The team of Shields, Glover, Corcoran, Howell, Jackson, Gomez, Camp, Lugo, and Salas had their moments, but the chain was broken when Lugo struggled in the top of the eighth. The Yanks had threatened in the seventh, but a dp grounder removed Gonzalez after the leadoff bingle. It was frustrating then when Josh Phelps followed with a deep liner off the top of the fence in left. The ball caromed back toward home, he had to settle for a single, and Todd Pratt fouled out to end the threat.

Speedy Brett Gardner appeared to have a leadoff single on a bunt down third starting the eighth, but the first base ump punched him out. Cannizaro singled to right, and DH Eric Duncan was hit by a pitch to put two on with the tying run on second. Gardner had died at third in the sixth inning when free agent third baseman Chris Basak whiffed with two down. But the one-time Mets free agent fouled a 2-0 pitch, then drilled the next fastball into the jetstream heading toward left field. On a calm day it may have reached, but on this day there was no doubt, and the Yanks a had a 3-1 lead.

Rays manager Maddon may have had good reason to throw nine different pitchers for an inning apiece in his team’s home opener, though I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it done before. But any tendency to accept his decision-making in this vein with a shrug and a puzzled look walks the plank of my credulity when I realized the following: Maddon replaced seven of his position players in the fifth and sixth innings. No surprise there, The Yanks did the same starting one frame earlier. But In a league where the pitcher does not hit, Maddon moved all seven new guys to a different batting order position when he inserted them into the game. It’s March 2, and the word overmanaging moves to the head of the class. This advice is free, Joe: Let them play the game. You’ll learn more that way.

With the Yanks holding a two-run lead in a game in which it appeared they would never score, Colter Bean, who has had a distinguished AAA career, threw a one-two-three eighth. Then the Yanks trotted out another new mound jewel, as Kevin Whelan, acquired in the Gary Sheffield trade, pitched the ninth. On this new and bigger stage he initially struggled, walking Heep-Sok Choi on five throws to lead off. A groundout and popup later, the young righty fell behind 3-0 to powerful Johnny Gomes, representing the tying run. Not giving in, Whelan coaxed a called strike and then managed a harmless fly to right. Whelan posted 27 saves for Class A Lakeland in the Tigers’ system in 2006. Now he has one with the Yankees, albeit in a spring training game.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!