Opener at the New Stadium: Ballpark Looks Great, Bullpen Looks Bad

The New Yankee Stadium looks great. It looks wonderful. Although I don't ever think it will develop the same history as Yankee Stadium I think it is a great park that suits the fans, and the players much better than the original. I think it is the beginning of a new era of success for the New York Yankees. The beginning of the beginning of that era, however, finished about as badly as it could have.

The game started out really good. We had the legends come out on the field and the players get introduced. CC Sabathia threw the first pitch, and Johnny Damon got the first hit. Both those balls are going to the Hall of Fame. Then we got to baseball. Sabathia threw a lot of pitches, and a lot of balls, similar to his start in Baltimore. However, the difference between this one, and the season opener is that this time he never gave up the big hit. The balls that went over the plate, the Indians made outs on instead of hitting it to the gaps and over the fence. I was encouraged by his start because we know he isn't going to have his best stuff every time. I'm happy that he is capable to get batters out when he doesn't. Cliff Lee had much better stuff today, but Sabathia, aside from the number of pitches, matched Lee inning for inning until he left. It was a good pitchers duel. Posada picked up the first homer in the new park. It was a great, 1-1 game. Until Jose Veras came in.

The bullpen was awful. Just awful. Veras couldn't throw a strike to the first batter, then he gave up back to back doubles. He was taken out. Marte came in, gave up a few walks, couple hits, a grand slam, and then before we know it it's 10-1. We lost 10-2. 

The bullpen needs to get it together. The starters can't give us 8 innings every time. They need to figure it out. Veras and Marte have been awful. Ramirez has been good but he's pitching in trouble too much. He has a 2.40 Whip. Coke has struggled. All we have had is Bruney and Rivera. We need them to come through. It's really important if we want #27.

I'm writing this post after the second game of the series. I saw us win 6-5 today despite a rough start by Joba. The pen got it together, we hit a bunch of homers, and we got ourselves a victory. Now that the first one in this new park is out of the way, I have a feeling a lot more will come.

Chein-Ming Wang is going tomorrow. He has been terrible his first two starts. He's left too many pitches in the middle of the plate. His sinker hasn't been sinking. He, sort of like Lee for the Indians, need to get it together. He's an important part of this staff. We will know early tomorrow whether he has it or not. If he doesn't, then prepare for a long day Yankee fans because Cleveland has proved they can hit bad pitches.

The New park looks absolutely beautiful! I'm going for the first time on April 22, thats a Wednesday against the A's. Main Dugout seats. If anyone has gone to the Stadium feel free to tell me some fun things to do there, good places to go. If anyone in particular has sit in those seats tell me what they are like. I'm really excited! It's gonna be fun.