Yankees Game Recaps

Yankees 2, Red Sox 8: Poor pitching spoils Opening Day

By TanyaAnderson@Tanya__Anderson Apr 1, 2013, 5:13pm EDT

Opening Day for the Yankees didn't exactly go as planned, as CC Sabathia struggled and the offense was unable to make up for it. Sabathia lasted only five innings, giving up all four of his runs in the second. He walked four batters and struck out five, but was singled to death by eight hits.

The bullpen was mostly able to keep the score where it was with David Phelps giving up a run in 1.1 innings that actually scored after he was replaced by Boone Logan. Shawn Kelley looked sharp in his Yankee debut, striking out a batter in his inning of work. Unfortunately, Joba Chamberlain and his lip animal did not look good, giving up three hits and three runs in only two-thirds of an inning before being replaced by Cody Eppley. Aside from Kelley, the highlight out of the pen today was David Phelps managing to work a scoreless inning after giving up a leadoff triple to Jacoby Ellsbury. Ellsbury came home with one out on a grounder and the heads up play was made at the plate.

More: GIFs of Opening Day

Both Yankee runs were driven in by Francisco Cervelli who singled with the bases loaded against Jon Lester. They had other opportunities, like when Andrew Miller walked Cervelli and Brett Gardner back-to-back to lead off the seventh inning, but Eduardo Nunez, Robinson Cano, and Kevin Youkilis were all promptly sat down on strikes. Gardner and Cervelli were the only Yankees to reach base more than once, but Ichiro Suzuki, Travis Hafner, and Cano all chipped in singles while Ben Francisco and Vernon Wells worked walks. Kevin Youkilis' double was the only extra base hit for the Bombers in the game.

Wells had a chance to pick up his first hit as a Yankee on a hit down the third base line that clearly looked fair upon replay, but the umpires are already up to their old tricks and the ball was ruled foul. It's probably too early in the season to start yelling for replay, but c'mon. There's no reason to still be getting calls wrong in favor of the human element.

The Yankees have tomorrow off because baseball scheduling is a weird, weird thing, but they will be back to take on the Red Sox again Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m. at the Stadium. You can buy Yankees tickets through the link. Until then, try to keep in mind that this was only one game and that it's a very long season. I know baseball is a lot more fun when we win, but there's no reason to get yourselves worked up over the doom already.