Opening Night: Deja Vu All Over Again

And so it began, the 2010 season. The Yankees kicked it off in Boston for the first time since 1992, eschewing the traditionalafternoon majesty of Opening Day for the glittering glamor of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. Traditionalists barked, as did my need for sleep, weary of kicking off a long season with a late Sunday start featuring two teams that take their sweet sweet time. Pleasantly, the game only lasted three hours and forty-six minutes, almost bearable even with the 8:10 PM EST first pitch. Unpleasantly, the Yankee reenacted an all too familiar scene. Watching the sixth inning unfold during the Yankees 9-7 loss to the Yankees last night, I felt a strange dichotomy. There I was, watching the defending World Series champions collapse under the weight of poor bullpen management and yet, it all seemed strangely familiar. It would be easy to forget the Aprils of baseball past (or at least the preceding two seasons), especially after the pomp and circumstance down the Canyon of Heroes last fall. What purpose is there in revisiting the mistakes of the early season when you're biggest problem is keeping the champagne out of your eyes? There is some purpose, especially if you're manager Joe Girardi. The season opener featured Girardi at his bullpen micromanaging best, taking what seem to be easy decisions and dragging them well past the point of reason, leaving the first guessers shaking their heads in hindsight. Sure, we can't blame it all on Girardi, just like we can't laud him for winning 103 games last season.  Girardi didn't force Marte to throw the wild pitch in the seventh that gave Youklis third base, nor did he let Youklis score four pitches later on a ball that nicked off Posada's glove. Girardi did seem to abandon reason when it came to CC Sabathia.  CC worked his way through a rough fifth inning and started the sixth by walking Dustin Pedroia and allowing a booming double to Victor Martinez.  David Robertson, post season hero extraordinaire, was warming in the bullpen with the right-handed hitting and always dangerous Kevin Youklis coming to the plate.   Rather than do the obvious, which would be bringing in the right handed Robertson to face the right handed Youklis with no outs and runners at second and third in a 5-2 ballgame, Girardi let CC stay in the game. Trusting his ace?  Maybe, although what CC had shown over the previous six batters didn't leave much room for trust.  It seemed more like Girardi was intent on getting Sabathia to a certain pitch count (his eventual 104 pitches) than actually doing what the situation required.  The end result was a triple by Youklis, scoring two runs and bringing the Sox to within one. Who knows what would have happened if Robertson came in. Youklis historically has shown almost equal prowess against righties and lefties. But given how shaky CC had looked over the previous inning and Robertson coming in fresh, it made little sense to stick with CC, even with the lefty David Ortiz awaiting on deck. But CC got his pitches in. If Girardi had pulled CC before facing Youklis, he would have only thrown 95 pitches. Maybe for Girardi and pitching coach Dave Eiland, that wasn't enough. Judging by the mechanizations of Joba Chamberlain's career, both men have some devotion to numbers and their beliefs in how they work. This isn't a bad thing.  We like numbers here.  We really do.  But we also like judging a performance by what's in front of us and at that moment in the sixth inning, CC Sabathia was not the right man to face Kevin Youklis. But hey, who am I?  Joe Girardi won a World Series despite making these stupid moves all last season.