In between the Pinstripes #3

In between the Pinstripes_3: The best chicken team in Major League Baseball
Well, it didn’t take long for the Bombers to get their first win of the season. Behind 5 solid innings of reinvented C.C. Sabathia the Yankees cruised to a 5-0 win over the Rays. The scoring came early and often, with the exclamation point coming in the latter half of the game. In the top of the 3rd inning, Ronald Torreyes or as like to call him Speedy Gonzalez hit a two-run bomb to get the scoring effort started for the Yanks. Torreyes hit only one homer all of last season (79 games) and it didn’t take long for the Yankee shortstop to get his first of the year. Matt Holiday would be given a gift of a double, hitting a ball over the catwalk in left field, where Ray left fielder Peter Bourjos lost the ball and allowed Gardner to score from second on a walk in the park stand-up double for Holiday.

Adding to that, Sabathia pitched an economical 5 innings (85 pitches) and looked like he could go at least one more. But, rather than stretch the 36-year old starter, Girardi went to his bullpen to get the last 12 outs. The combination of Mitchell/Clippard/Holder/Betances/Chapman got those outs and finished off the shut out. The problem that I have with Girardi’s call here was; Betances and Chapman didn’t have to come into the game. Yes, Holder did load the bases but the Yanks were up 5—the two of them have no business entering the game, ESICALLY not Chapman! You go to Layne or Sherve in that situation not Chapman. I understand you want to win the first game of the year but if this is an example of how Joe Girardi is going to use his bullpen in 2017, I am extremely worried that Clippard, Betances, and Chapman are going to burn out at an important time this season.

Getting to another positive in this win for the Yankees, Chase Headley got an extra base hit! Headley went 2-4, a homer, 2 RBI’s, and a stolen base. Headley had a dreadful opening month to the season last year, hitting just .150 with 14 strike outs. He didn’t get his first extra base hit until mid-May and it is clear to me that with the great farm system that the Bombers have, Headley does not want to lose his job. But, even if I wanted to trade Headley for a bucket of balls last year, he has put that year behind him and got off to a good first two games in 2017. But even with that performance, Headley is not my Focus Player of the Day today. It is however, C.C. Sabathia for giving the Yankees 5 shut-out innings, 2 strike outs, and only giving up 3 hits. Sabathia had Tampa Bay guessing all night, giving up very little contact—which was soft when the Ray hitters hit the ball. I liked how Sabathia looked tonight, I would have liked to see him go longer, but for the first start of the year—absolutely perfect.

For tomorrow’s game, the Yankees will be sending Michael Pineda against Alex Cobb for the Rays. It will be interesting to see if Gary Sanchez starts behind the plate tomorrow night, being that he is 0-10 with 3 strike outs so far this year. Sanchez has hit the ball hard but the problem is, they are right at somebody. That will straighten itself out and Sanchez will be hitting 450-foot bombs in only a matter of time. But, start spreading the news Yankee fans, the bombers got the first “1” in the right-hand column.
Sources:(mlb.com, espn.com, baseballreference.com)

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