Wang Earns Fifth Win With a Little Improvisation

Chien-Ming Wang allowed four hits and struck out a season-high nine.

By TYLER KEPNER

Published: April 28, 2008

CLEVELAND — The national anthem was played at 12:55 p.m. on Sunday, José Molina remembered, and the first pitch was at 1:07. The 12-minute interval in between was all Molina had to prepare to start at catcher.

Just before the anthem, Molina learned that Jorge Posada would not start because of a recurrence of shoulder pain that will land him on the disabled list. Chien-Ming Wang was about to face the Cleveland Indians, the team that beat him twice in the playoffs last fall. Molina had to form a game plan on the fly.

“I just went with whatever I had in my mind, and he went with whatever he had in his mind, and it worked out,” Molina said, after the Yankees’ 1-0 victory. “I think that’s the way we’re going to do it from now on.”

Wang improved to 5-0, striking out nine in seven innings and allowing four hits and two walks. Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera finished the shutout, and Melky Cabrera’s homer to left field off C. C. Sabathia in the fifth inning provided the only run.

Chamberlain, who briefly tested his left hamstring before the game, looked dominant, striking out two of his three batters. He said a two-day rest after pitching four games in six days helped.

“My mechanics felt the best they’ve felt since I got back,” said Chamberlain, who had spent five days at home tending to his father, who was released from a Lincoln, Neb., hospital Thursday.

Chamberlain said the mild hamstring problem, which was caused by a wet mound in Chicago on Thursday, would remind him not to extend too far with his landing leg. “I guess it can be a blessing in disguise,” he said.

Rivera’s inning was just as overpowering, ending with two called strikeouts. Rivera has converted all seven save chances this season, with 10 strikeouts and no walks in 10 scoreless innings. He and Wang have been the Yankees’ best players in an uneven month (the Yankees are 13-13), and Cabrera, of all players, has led the offense.

Cabrera, who was nearly dealt to Minnesota in a proposed trade for Johan Santana, is hitting .291 with 5 home runs and 11 runs batted in. He is tied for first on the team in homers, ranks second in runs (14), and has a better on-base percentage than Alex Rodriguez.

“Melky’s in a zone right now; he’s in a very good place,” Rodriguez said. “But what I know is he’s just in phenomenal shape. He’s probably 10 pounds lighter now than he was at this time last year. I think that’s a big part of his start, and he’s got a big energy level. He’s our battery on this team.”

In the pitching sense, the battery of Wang and Molina tamed the Indians, whose only extra-base hit was a bloop double to shallow right field. Wang said he used his slider to right-handers and his changeup and splitter to lefties, and he finished one strikeout short of his career high.

“He was throwing more sliders today than usual,” Molina said. “I don’t think he threw that many before. That was the reason he had more strikeouts — people were looking more for his sinker than his slider.”

Rodriguez joked that he would love to have both Wang and Sabathia — a possibility next season if the Yankees sign Sabathia as a free agent — because they are aces.

“When he’s on, he’s phenomenal,” Rodriguez said of Wang. “It seems like he and Molina have a good thing going.”

That is fortunate for the Yankees, because with Posada’s immediate future so murky, Molina and Wang will keep working together for a while.

INSIDE PITCH

Manager Joe Girardi said that Ian Kennedy would make his next start Thursday. Kennedy is 0-2 with an 8.53 earned run average but showed improvement in his last three innings Saturday.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/sports/baseball/28yankees.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin

Yankees Rough Up White Sox Bullpen

By TYLER KEPNER

Published: April 23, 2008

CHICAGO — The Yankees will not say when Joba Chamberlain will move to the starting rotation. Whenever it happens, though, the task of replacing him in the bullpen may be enormous.

Spending lavishly on setup relievers guarantees nothing, as the Chicago White Sox learned on Tuesday night. Called in to protect a one-run lead in the seventh inning, Octavio Dotel allowed a game-turning grand slam to Bobby Abreu in the Yankees’ 9-5 victory at U.S. Cellular Field.

Dotel signed in January for two years and $11 million. The Yankees might have been interested, but not at that price. Their setup man is Chamberlain, the electrifying rookie making the minimum salary. He got two crucial outs in the seventh, before a three-run homer by Johnny Damon in the eighth put the game out of reach.

“Joba as a starter, he has a chance to help us out once every five days,” Damon said. “Him coming in and bridging the gap to Mariano, he's got a chance to do that three or four times during those five games.”

Damon added: “Our objective is to win games. Down the road, if we can find someone else like him to throw that eighth inning, then so be it, he'll be able to start. But he's helping us win too many games so far this year.”

The Yankees’ scoring spree off the White Sox’ bullpen gave them their first victory when trailing after six innings. It improved Chien-Ming Wang’s record to 4-0 this season and 20-3 over his last 28 starts.

Wang was not at his sharpest — he allowed 3 runs and 10 hits in six innings — but he earned his 50th victory in just his 85th career start. No pitcher has done so faster since Dwight Gooden won 50 in 82 starts, more than 20 years ago.

“That’s good company,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “He's been very good since he got here. When you look at his numbers, they don't jump out at you because he doesn't have the strikeouts. But he's a winner. The great pitchers find a way to win games when they don't have their good stuff.”

Jason Giambi was removed after batting in the eighth inning because a ground ball in the seventh bruised his right thumb. Giambi entered the game with a sickly .109 average, three of his five hits coming off one pitcher, Boston’s Mike Timlin. But he handled José Contreras in the second.

Giambi got ahead in the count, 2-1, and drove his third home run over the fence in left-center field. He worked all spring on hitting to the opposite field, and at last, he saw results.

It gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead, but quickly, it was gone. The White Sox had stranded two runners in scoring position in the first inning, but they took advantage in the second. Juan Uribe — batting .153 — bashed a hanging slider to left for a double to score two runners and tie the game.

Wang’s pitch count was soaring, reaching 65 through three innings, but at least he was breaking bats — though not in the usual way. When he struck out Nick Swisher in the second inning, Swisher’s bat snapped at the thin handle as he swung, even though he missed the pitch. A. J. Pierzynski struck out to end the next inning and smashed his bat head on the dirt, shattering the barrel.

So while Wang’s stuff was still good enough to baffle some hitters, the White Sox punished him for his mistakes. He walked Jim Thome in the fifth to put Orlando Cabrera in scoring position, and Paul Konerko doubled home to go-ahead run.

Wang’s pitch count climbed past 100 with one out and two on in the sixth, but he struck out Swisher again and got Cabrera on a comebacker.

Trailing, 3-2, the Yankees could do little with Contreras, the pitcher they signed for $32 million before the 2003 season and traded here the next July. Contreras became the ace of Chicago’s 2005 championship team but tumbled to 17 losses last season.

He had lost his last four starts against the Yankees, but he seemed on his way to a victory this time, his pitches moving sharply, down and in on right-handers. He left with one out in the seventh after walking Morgan Ensberg on four pitches and giving up a single to Melky Cabrera.

The left-hander Boone Logan entered, and Damon chopped an infield single to load the bases. Dotel replaced Logan and struck out Derek Jeter with a fastball down the middle. A similar pitch did not work against Abreu.

Dotel fell behind Abreu, 2-0, then Abreu drove a fastball to left-center. It carried through the muggy air and just cleared the fence for a grand slam. Abreu pointed toward the Yankees’ dugout and gleefully circled the bases.

“You don't want to go down 3-0,” said Pierzynski, the catcher. “He threw one down and he whacked it.”

The Yankees led, 6-3, and by the end of the game, Abreu's career average at U.S. Cellular Field was .415. It was his first grand slam since 2005, and a powerful counterpoint to the Yankees' recent struggles with runners in scoring position.

“We're an offensive team,” Abreu said. “We're supposed to produce. That's what we're here for.”

INSIDE PITCH

Jorge Posada made his first start at catcher in two weeks after testing his injured shoulder Tuesday. The White Sox have the fewest stolen-base attempts in the majors, and they did not challenge his arm. The Yankees would seem likely to drop one of their backups, Chad Moeller, but Moeller is out of minor league options. ... Alex Rodriguez’s wife, Cynthia, gave birth to the couple’s second daughter Monday in Miami. Rodriguez, who has a strained right quadriceps, will rejoin the Yankees on Thursday. ... Asked for his reaction to the co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner’s suggestion that he pitch more like Jamie Moyer, the Yankees’ Mike Mussina joked that he did not have a left-handed glove. Turning serious, though, Mussina said he was mostly satisfied with his season and had never dominated with his fastball like Joba Chamberlain. “I’ve never had that ability, but 18 years later, I’m still standing here,” Mussina said. “I figured something out. I hope 18 years from now, Joba’s still standing here, too.” As for Chamberlain, he said he would work in whatever role the Yankees give him. Asked if he preferred to be a starter or reliever, Chamberlain said: “A pitcher. I honestly don’t care.” ... A. J. Pierzynski homered off Kyle Farnsworth in the ninth for Chicago’s final run.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/sports/baseball/23yankees.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

Yankees’ Bullpen Is the Key in a Slugfest

The Red Sox’ Jason Varitek was tagged out at third by Alex Rodriguez after being caught between third and home on a fielder’s choice in the second inning.

By TYLER KEPNER

Published: April 17, 2008

The Yankees’ flight touched down at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. That is normally a time of little traffic at La Guardia Airport, but there was a slight delay in getting off the plane. The pilot informed the Yankees that the Boston Red Sox’ charter was just ahead of theirs on the tarmac.

So it is with these teams, in the skies and in the standings, never far apart. The Red Sox came to Yankee Stadium one game better than the Yankees, and after a flurry of hitting by both teams in a game that took 4 hours 8 minutes, they left with the same record.

Every Yankees starter scored at least one run, and the third-string catcher, Chad Moeller, had three hits. A dormant offense stirred, and a stellar effort from the bullpen overcame Chien-Ming Wang’s poor start to give the Yankees a 15-9 victory.

“It showed that we can win a game when our ace isn’t on that day,” said Brian Bruney, who got the last five outs for his first Yankees save. “Once these guys get going, they can put a lot of runs on real quick.”

LaTroy Hawkins worked two scoreless innings, Billy Traber retired David Ortiz with his only pitch, and Bruney took care of the rest. It was a two-run game when he entered in the eighth — a save situation — and then the Yankees piled on four runs against Mike Timlin.

The official scorer awarded Hawkins his first Yankees victory in his first game wearing No. 22. Hawkins changed his number Wednesday because some fans had booed him for wearing No. 21, which had last been worn by Paul O’Neill.

“The quicker it goes away, the better off we are,” Hawkins said of that issue. He was more talkative on the state of the bullpen, which has a 3.34 earned run average this season, compared to 4.97 for the starters.

“We’ve got some good arms down there,” Hawkins said. “People have to understand, sometimes when you go out there, things aren’t going to go your way every time. That’s what people lose sight of. But a good part of the time, we’re going to be all right.”

Wang was seeking his 50th career win in his 84th career start. The last pitcher to win 50 games faster was Dwight Gooden, in his incandescent days with the Mets. Gooden earned his 50th victory in his 82nd start, in 1986.

But Wang was not sharp. After tossing a two-hit complete game at Fenway Park last Friday, he allowed eight runs and nine hits in four innings. Manager Joe Girardi said Wang’s pitches were too low early in the game, and then they were too high.

“They didn’t swing at the first pitch; they waited for the high pitches,” Wang said, adding later, “I couldn’t find the strike zone.”

The Red Sox scored in the first on a double by Manny Ramírez, who is hitting an otherworldly .473 off the Yankees since the start of the 2006 season. But a two-run homer by Bobby Abreu gave the Yankees a lead in the bottom of the inning, and Alex Rodriguez followed by launching a Clay Buchholz fastball into history.

“He just got his hands extended,” Buchholz said, “and it was probably the longest ball I’ve ever seen hit.”

The blast carried onto the netting above the retired numbers in left center, giving the Yankees a 3-1 lead and pushing Rodriguez past the Hall of Famers Willie McCovey and Ted Williams on the career home run list. Rodriguez has 522 homers, good for 15th place, with Jimmie Foxx next at 534.

The Yankees, whose 15 runs were the most at home against Boston since July 7, 1954, knocked out Buchholz in the fourth, with Moeller’s broken-bat bloop double a big blow. Moeller has caught three games for the Yankees — all victories — and he has reached base more than half the time.

He is likely to start again Thursday, with Jorge Posada not catching because of a weakened shoulder and José Molina still nursing a hamstring strain. Moeller, who has played for six major league teams, said he felt no pressure beyond helping on defense.

“It’s a nice feeling when everything you do up there is a true bonus,” Moeller said. “Normally they don’t actually mean it, but here, it’s the truth.”

Even after the Yankees knocked out Buchholz and built their lead to 7-3 in the fourth inning, Wang could not get an out in the fifth. The first five hitters he faced in the inning had hits, and none of them were cheap. Each one was smoked off the barrel of the bat, an obvious sign that Wang’s sinker was not running as it usually does.

Ross Ohlendorf took over with a 7-6 lead, but hits by Sean Casey and Dustin Pedroia put Boston ahead by two runs. The Yankees charged back with four runs off Julián Tavárez in their half of the fifth, taking the lead when Boston could not double up Melky Cabrera with one out.

A wild throw by Julio Lugo on the attempt scored another run to put the Yankees ahead by two, 11-9. Hawkins relieved Ohlendorf in the sixth, entering to little fanfare, one way or the other, when his No. 22 was announced.

The fans could not ignore his performance. Hawkins retired six of the seven hitters he faced, bringing order to a game that was lacking it and helping lift the Yankees to a wild victory.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/sports/baseball/17yankees.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin

Wang’s Stoic Presence Silences the Red Sox

Chien-Ming Wang gave up two hits and did not walk any batters in nine innings pitched on Friday night.

By TYLER KEPNER

Published: April 12, 2008

BOSTON — He has never thrown a no-hitter, like Clay Buchholz, or had a shutdown performance in the World Series, like Josh Beckett. He never captured the imaginations of Yankees fans as an electrifying rookie, like Phil Hughes, and he is not as accomplished as Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte or Curt Schilling.

But there is no pitcher in the majors with as many victories as Chien-Ming Wang since the start of the 2006 season. He is efficient and dependable for the Yankees, a quiet, stoic and steady presence in their rivalry with the Boston Red Sox. When the teams met at Fenway Park on Friday for the first time this season, it was Wang who took over.

Wang pitched a two-hitter in a 4-1 victory before 37,624 fans, the largest crowd at Fenway Park since World War II. Jason Giambi homered for the Yankees and José Molina doubled twice, but Wang was the star.

“He’s become the ace of our staff, there’s no doubt about it, and tonight he pitched as well as anybody could pitch,” Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said. “He seems to be refining his repertoire on how to attack hitters, and that’s a great thing. Right now, he’s at the top of his game.”

Wang used 93 pitches to silence the Red Sox, who had seen 212 pitches Thursday against Detroit. He faced two batters over the minimum, and for eight and two-thirds innings, Boston’s only hit was a fifth-inning homer by J. D. Drew that just eluded Bobby Abreu at the wall in right-center field.

Coco Crisp added a bunt single with two outs in the ninth, but Dustin Pedroia lined to left to end the game. It was the fourth career complete game for Wang, who is 3-0 so far and 41-13 over the past three seasons. He called this start the best of his career.

“I feel especially good about this one because I threw it in Boston, and before, I didn’t do very well in Boston,” Wang said through an interpreter. “So I think this is my best game so far.”

The Yankees and the Red Sox are known for lengthy games, with pitchers nibbling at the corners of the strike zone, hitters swatting fouls and managers churning through bullpens. On Friday, though, Wang neutralized the Red Sox by pounding the zone with sinkers and four-seam fastballs.

“They just didn’t look comfortable,” Giambi said. “Boston is almost an exact mirror team as us — guys who take a lot of pitches, take their walks and do a lot of damage by hitting home runs. He threw a lot of strikes and caught them off-guard.”

Wang came into the game with a 6.17 earned run average at Fenway, largely because of the sluggers Manny Ramírez and David Ortiz, who had combined for a .538 average off him. Because of that — and because of the playoff beating he took from the Cleveland Indians last fall — Wang had vowed to change his approach this season.

He worked on his slider and changeup in spring training, and though his results were poor then, he used the slider effectively Friday, striking out Ramírez with it in the seventh inning.

Wang said he also used more four-seamers than usual, attacking Ortiz with that pitch in the first inning, when Ortiz struck out. His next time up, Ortiz swung at a first-pitch sinker and bounced into a double play.

“We didn’t take anything away from him,” the pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “We just added some things to complement him.”

Buchholz, who pitched a no-hitter last September in his previous Fenway start, held the Yankees to one hit through four innings. But he walked three in the fifth, and Molina’s first double drove in a run.

It was a long half-inning, and when Wang returned, he was not sharp. His pitches flattened as his arm angle dropped, and the Red Sox smashed four fly balls. Drew’s came with two out and backed Abreu to the warning track.

Abreu is rarely smooth around walls, and when he leaped, his right shoulder hit the padding on the fence. That brought down his glove a few inches, and Drew’s ball grazed the fingertips before landing in the Red Sox bullpen.

Abreu said he should have made the catch, and he felt bad for missing it. The feeling grew worse as the game went on, the “1” staying stuck in the Red Sox hit column until the very end.

“I saw the innings going and going,” Abreu said. “A lot of things went through my head.”

The Red Sox, meanwhile, rued their missed opportunities in the fifth. Ramírez and Kevin Youkilis had also flied out to Abreu, and Jason Varitek mashed a ball to the warning track in center. But only Drew’s went out.

“There were times in the game when he threw his two-seamer middle, and then it went away and we just got it not quite off the barrel,” Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said. “The game plan was to get it up and stay in the middle of the field, and we did at times. We had nothing to show for it.”

Buchholz left after six innings with the score tied, 1-1. His replacement was Mike Timlin, who had missed the first 10 games with a lacerated right ring finger. Giambi — 1 for 20 this season, 2 for 17 in his career against Timlin — was the first hitter he faced.

“I just tried to hit it hard, nothing special,” Giambi said. “I was just trying to put it in play, because I knew he had good success against me.”

With a full count, Giambi did much better than he hoped. He launched a fastball onto a platform next to the center field cameras, breaking the 1-1 tie.

It put a lead in the hands of Wang, a pitcher the Yankees are thrilled to have at the front of their rotation, with no apologies.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/sports/baseball/12yankees.html?_r=2&ref=baseball&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

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林智勝處分過重 球迷不滿

http://mag.udn.com/mag/sports/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=119428&pno=1

今天看到這則新聞之後，我想，PTT的棒球板大概又可以吵的不可開交了吧。

其實，我覺得中華職棒做出這樣的懲處是可以預期的，畢竟，林智勝衝撞裁判的那一幕，真的讓很多人都傻眼了，再加上，事後林智勝雖然出面向大眾道歉，但是眾多的道歉對象當中，卻沒有被他衝撞的裁判（江春緯）本人，而且林太太又在其部落格上發表了一篇文章，說明第二波衝突是由於其中某一位裁判的粗口所引起的。種種的因素加起來，讓聯盟認為林智勝本人的道歉缺乏誠意，於是做出了無限期禁賽的處分。

我想要表達的看法是，我自己也認為，林智勝既然要道歉，對象當然應該包含了當天被他衝撞的裁判（江春緯），當天江春緯所做出的那兩次判決從慢動作重播的鏡頭看來，都是處於相當接近的call，我個人認為並沒有什麼不妥之處，況且，如果對裁判的判決有爭議，也不應該是用這樣的舉動來進行抗議，身為明星球員，應該要考量到自己的行動會帶給社會大眾怎樣的影響與觀感才是。

再者，林智勝既然都要道歉了，又何必在部落格當中提出有關第二次衝突的緣由？這跟他衝撞裁判根本一點關係都沒有，所以我根本看不出來他提起這件事情的用意到底為何。也許是因為這樣的關係，讓聯盟認為林智勝的道歉並非真心誠意，所以做出如此的處分。

很多替林智勝抱不平的球迷批評聯盟這樣的處分太過嚴重，只是為了聯盟與裁判的面子和尊嚴，是為了要殺雞儆猴。這樣的說法，或許某些程度上來說是對的，但是，今天錯的人不是林智勝嗎？做錯事情了，不是就該道歉？扯東扯西的又算什麼呢？會讓人誤以為沒有誠意也不算意外。況且，無限期禁賽到底會禁多久？也許十幾場、二十幾場，甚至是一個球季，聯盟說要看林智勝的態度再來做決定，這有哪裡不合理嗎？法官在判刑的時候，不也是會依據罪犯是否具有悔意而斟酌刑期的長短嗎？我看不出這一點有什麼好反彈的。就連文章當中，提到了2006年坦帕灣魔鬼魚Delmon Young的例子，美國職棒不也是這樣處理嗎？哪有一個聯盟會希望把一位明星選手冰到天荒地老？這不是跟球迷與自己的利益過不去嗎？

我覺得有太多的人都已經模糊了焦點了，林智勝衝撞裁判本來就不對，他本來就該跟裁判與球迷道歉，就是這麼簡單。至於後續的衝突，跟他一開始的事情根本一點關係都沒有，不需要混為一談，至於後續的衝突對錯，另外再做討論。

很多球迷都覺得中職裁判的水準不佳，看了這麼久的球，我也常常有這樣的感觸，但是，裁判也是人，裁判本來就是比賽當中的一部份，裁判就是需要球迷和球員的批評才會去進步，哪一個聯盟的裁判沒有誤判過？既然是職業比賽，就要學著去接受誤判這樣的事情發生，合理的抗議絕對是大家所允許的，但是粗暴的動作，就算再怎樣委屈，再怎樣有理由，都是不對的，就是這麼簡單而已。

很多球迷可能都會拿中職去跟其他國家的職棒來做比較，但是，相對於其他國家的職業運動來說，中職還有太多需要改進和學習的地方，畢竟中職的發展也才十幾年而已，要一下子就跟日職或是美職的水準相當，也太過奢求了。做不好的，本來就要接受大家的批評，而大家批評了，就要記得去改進，這幾年大家一直幹譙職棒的原因不外乎就是裁判的素質沒有提升，少數的球員不自愛（涉及簽賭之類的事件），如果這些都沒有改進，又怎麼能夠希望球迷回到場上看球？

講這麼多，好像也扯遠了，只希望大師兄能夠盡快出面道歉，把這件事情做個完善的處理，我不希望中職少了這位認真的好球員，更不希望大師兄會因為這件事情而無法參加今年的北京奧運，也希望支持大師兄的球迷們能夠冷靜的去思考這件事情，最希望的就是中職能夠因為這次的事件而有所改進，提升裁判的教育與水準，讓大家能夠有個好一點的看球環境。

Wang, Chamberlain dominate Rays

Starter, setup man, Rivera allow Rays just four hits, combined

By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- Joba Chamberlain, fresh into Sunday's game against the Rays, decided to try something a bit unorthodox. With the crowd, Yankees and game all building to a frenzy, Chamberlain stepped to the mound, came to the set and greeted Tampa Bay third baseman Willy Aybar with a curveball that seemed to crawl across home plate.

Strike one. The crowd ooh-ed.

Then, as if remembering what made him such a sensation in the first place, Chamberlain reloaded, delivering a fastball that stadium radar guns clocked at 101 mph.

Strike two. The crowd ahh-ed.

Yankee Stadium's energy seemed to triple, and all this before Chamberlain even recorded an out. By the time he did strike out Aybar -- one pitch later, on a sharp slider -- the fans in attendance had seemingly forgotten about the two men on base or about nearly anything other than their favorite reliever. The Yankees no longer seemed capable of losing, with Chamberlain flushing all the drama out of a 2-0 win over the Rays.

"I'm still young and dumb sometimes, and sometimes that works for me," Chamberlain said. "I don't try to do too much. I just try to attack the zone and be aggressive. I think I'm a little bit more experienced, but not necessarily smarter than last year."

Though starter Chien-Ming Wang seemed to be the most important Yankee for much of Sunday's game, a high pitch count and some unexpected trouble forced him out of the game with no outs and two men on in the seventh. That's when Chamberlain came on, fanning Aybar on three pitches and throwing a bit of a scare into the rest of the Rays. Perhaps it was no coincidence that the next batter, catcher Shawn Riggins, watched a similar Chamberlain fastball zip by before lining into an inning-ending double play.

"The first one caught me a little off guard, 101 mph," Riggans said. "You don't see that every day. He's got a great arm. He's got electric stuff. He threw a real good slider to Willy the at-bat before me. I had that in the back of my mind."

Leave it to Chamberlain to grow something of a legend, still less than one year into his Major League career. On a day that saw Wang dazzle the crowd by taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning and Hideki Matsui win the game by launching a two-run homer in the fourth, Chamberlain still commanded nearly all the attention.

He pitched two innings in all, following his escape act in the seventh with a perfect -- and perfectly economical -- eighth. His fastballs, more than anything, earned the attention of the radar gun, and certainly the attention of the crowd.

"You still have to locate and throw a good pitch," Chamberlain said. "But it gives you a little bit of error. You can't rely on that, because then you get too complacent and you leave one over. It doesn't really matter how hard you throw to these guys, because it can come in 101 mph, but it's going to leave about 140 mph and go about 500 feet. You've still got to be good with your stuff."

He was. So was Mariano Rivera, who pitched a perfect ninth inning, and so was Wang, who added a nearly flawless opening six. Wang sprinkled in a greater percentage of sliders and changeups on Sunday, even supplementing his trademark sinker with a few split-fingered fastballs. He claimed he wanted simply to "try and find more ways to get hitters out."

It certainly worked, because the Rays couldn't even touch Wang until Aybar singled with one out in the fifth inning. Wang ended the inning with one of his six strikeouts and ended his day after allowing four hits and two walks in all.

"It seemed like his fastball was moving a lot," Johnny Damon said, observing from out in left field. "It definitely kept them off guard. He was making it look pretty easy."

Wang had a brief scare after slipping on the mound in the fourth inning, though a quick check from the Yankees training staff proved that everything was sound.

His pitching, along with that of Chamberlain and Rivera, took nearly all the strategy away from manager Joe Girardi, who was back in the dugout on Sunday for the first time since being laid low by an upper respiratory infection. There will be choices to make later this year, when the team must decide whether to keep Chamberlain in his current role, a job he's certainly embraced, or convert him back into a starter. Should Chamberlain continue to succeed like this, the decision might prove vexing.

Yet on Sunday, strong pitching made Girardi's decisions easy. His team lost two straight this week when he was confined to his couch, so Sunday provided a bit of a cure.

"I actually feel a little bit better," Girardi said, "now that we won."

Anthony DiComo is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

News source：http://mlb.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20080406&content_id=2497702&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Girardi Returns, and Yankees Finally Beat Rays

By MIKE OGLE

Published: April 7, 2008

When Manager Joe Girardi returned Sunday afternoon, the junk food disappeared again and the Yankees’ bats produced just enough support behind Chien-Ming Wang to avoid a potential sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Girardi was back in the dugout after spending the previous two games (both losses) holed up in his office with an upper respiratory infection, and the Yankees threw a shutout to avoid a third consecutive loss to the Rays with a 2-0 victory.

The Yankees also escaped, for now, losing their second consecutive series to the Rays at Yankee Stadium. Tampa Bay won two of three games at Yankee Stadium over late August and early September last season. The teams finish this four-game set Monday.

Girardi still coughed and sniffled through sessions with reporters, but he said his fever had disappeared, as had his concern about spreading his illness to his team.

To mark his return, Mike Mussina wrote on a dry-erase board at his locker: “Joe’s back! Hide the chicken wings.” (Girardi does not allow junk food in the clubhouse, to the chagrin of some of the players.)

Still fighting his illness, Girardi had to brave the elements to sit through this one, with the temperature a blustery 46 degrees. “It’s nice being out in that fresh air,” he said. “Even though it’s chilly, you just feel better when you’re out there.”

Having Wang in control surely helped Girardi warm up, too. Wang’s pants flapped in the wind when he took signs from catcher Jorge Posada, and he struggled with his command early (56 of his 96 pitches went for strikes), but he did not give up a hit through his first four and a third innings.

“That kind of shocked me when I heard the fans go, ‘Aww,’ ” Johnny Damon said of the crowd’s reaction to a potential no-hitter being derailed by Willy Aybar’s single in the fifth.

Wang’s location was off at times and he fell behind several batters, but the Rays bailed him out by swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. Wang (2-0) also continued to work a few of his new split-finger fastballs into his repertory, and struck out Carlos Peña with one. He gave up four hits and no runs in six-plus innings, striking out six and walking two.

The Yankees supported Wang at the plate in the middle innings, not letting a solid overall performance from him go to waste. The Yankees (3-3) have scored only 17 runs this season.

The Yankees’ bats heated up in the fourth inning against the right-hander James Shields, a changeup specialist who stayed ahead of hitters through the first three innings. The Yankees made him, and Rays right fielder Eric Hinske, work in the fourth.

Alex Rodriguez drove a curve deep into the gap in right-center field for a one-out double. Then Hideki Matsui blasted a 2-1 changeup into the right-field seats for the game’s only runs.

Matsui’s second home run of the season was his third against Shields in 10 career at-bats.

Robinson Canó followed Matsui with a line-drive single to right before Jorge Posada flied out to the warning track, also to right, and Wilson Betemit ended the inning with a ground out.

The Yankees went back to work in the fifth, but they were not able to score after loading the bases with two outs and Matsui at the plate again.

Matsui, who had three hits, struck out watching two unexpected fastballs coast into catcher Shawn Riggans’s mitt.

“We had some guys who were struggling a little bit had a couple of hits,” Girardi said. The Yankees had nine hits for the second straight day, their highest total of the season.

Before the game, reliever Joba Chamberlain jostled about the clubhouse, singing, dancing and hurling non sequiturs across the room. “You know what you’ve got to do,” Chamberlain shouted to Wang, who does not speak much English.

Wang did what he had to do, then Chamberlain charged in from the bullpen in the seventh with runners on first and third and no outs. Chamberlain got the Yankees out of the jam with eight pitches, his second clocked at 101 miles an hour. He struck out Aybar with his first three pitches, then got Riggans to line into a double play.

Chamberlain pitched two no-hit innings, and Mariano Rivera threw a hitless ninth for the save, his third.

So while there were no chicken wings to be seen, there were just enough hits for Girardi, who said he was tired of drinking so much orange juice as he continues to nurse himself back to health.

INSIDE PITCH

Jason Giambi sat with a sore left groin, which he injured rounding second base Saturday. ... Hideki Matsui moved to designated hitter and Johnny Damon played left field as Melky Cabrera returned to center after a two-game suspension resulting from the spring training brawl with the Rays. ... Shelley Duncan sat out the first of his two-game ban, also from the brawl.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/sports/baseball/07yankees.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin

Hu's timely hit gives Dodgers the win

Los Angeles secures rare victory at PETCO Park

By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com

SAN DIEGO -- Manager Joe Torre was saying how great it was to win a tough game on the road like Sunday's.

If only he knew how tough winning in San Diego really is for the Dodgers.

Starting pitcher Derek Lowe, who is now winless in seven starts at PETCO Park, knows. He didn't need a history lesson to appreciate the significance of Sunday's 3-2 win over the Padres, the rubber match of the three-game series.

"It's early, but it's important to get as many wins in this stadium as you can," said Lowe, knowing that the Dodgers have had losing records in San Diego in five of the last six years. "We've really struggled here. It seems we've lost games in all fashions here, and it's important for our peace of mind."

Perhaps it's better not knowing the house of horrors that San Diego can be. The Dodgers started half an infield of rookies, and those rookies helped win the game.

Chin-lung Hu singled home Russell Martin with the winning run off future Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman to break a 2-2 tie in the ninth inning after saving a run with a heads-up defensive play in the third.

After Brian Giles hit a one-out double, second baseman Hu dived up the middle to knock down Tadahito Iguchi's single, then was alert enough to catch Giles rounding too far off third base, and he nailed him.

"I had no chance at first base, but I looked and he was way too far off third, so I tried to throw that way," said Hu, a natural shortstop, who was giving 40-year-old second baseman Jeff Kent a day off.

Hu's throw to third was caught by fellow rookie Blake DeWitt, who was playing with a swollen triceps after being drilled by a Jake Peavy fastball on Saturday.

An inning earlier, DeWitt had made a web gem with a scrambling, backhanded stop, spinning clockwise and throwing out Scott Hairston.

"He's playing the position like he's been around for a while," Torre said of DeWitt, who has gone 0-for-10 at the plate after three consecutive hits on Wednesday night.

DeWitt also erased Giles at the plate on a first-inning fielder's-choice grounder that helped Lowe escape early trouble.

"When you face Peavy and Young, you know runs are hard to come by, and you know you have to bear down," said Lowe. "The first inning is so important to not have them score. For me that was the turning point, even though it was early."

Rafael Furcal made his own game-saving play in the bottom of the eighth, timing his leap just right to snag Hairston's two-out line drive, which was headed into left field with runners on the corners.

One week into this season, the Dodgers are exactly where they were last year -- 4-2, with an imposing pitching staff (1.70 ERA) and a sputtering offense (.229 average).

Takashi Saito picked up his first save of the year with a perfect ninth inning. Scott Proctor, Joe Beimel and Jonathan Broxton also pitched on Sunday. Combined, the four have pitched 10 2/3 innings without allowing a run.

After being throttled by Peavy and whatever he had on his pitching hand, the Dodgers had nearly as much trouble on Sunday with San Diego starter Chris Young, except for Andre Ethier, whose second-inning homer (the club's second this year) was his third off Young in 16 career at-bats.

Ethier also scored the second run to tie the game in the seventh inning, singling off Young, stealing second, then scoring on Martin's double, his first extra-base hit of the year.

"We've struggled here the two years I've been here, and before I got here, I remember hearing about the big blowup in April, when they blew a five-run lead in the ninth inning," said Ethier, referring to a legendary defeat on April 30, 2006. "It's good to set the tone early like this."

A more patient Martin led off the ninth, drawing his second walk of the game, and took second on DeWitt's groundout before Hu laced his single to left.

"My first couple of at-bats, I tried to do too much," said Hu, who struck out twice preceding his game-winner. "He threw me a changeup, that's his best pitch, and I was looking for that."

Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

News source：http://mlb.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20080406&content_id=2497913&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

WORTH THE WANG WAIT

Chien Ming-Wang allowed two runs over seven innings to get the win in last night's game.

STADIUM'S FINAL OPENER A ROUSING SUCCESS

April 2, 2008 --

As long as they hold Opening Days in the new Yankee Stadium the Yankees will be hard pressed to put on the show they did last night in the final Opening Day in their soon-to-be-gone digs

Granted, the pulsating 3-2 win over the Blue Jays in front of a sold-out crowd of 55,112 is the first of 162 overall and there are 80 tilts remaining to get weepy about The Bronx Baseball Cathedral closing.

Yet, when Chien-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera pitch brilliantly, Melky Cabrera makes two sensational catches and sneaks a homer into the right field corner and Jason Giambi uses his legs and arm to help win a game played with the red, white and blue bunting hanging from the decks, it's very difficult to see it as just another game. And if it needed anything else it was Joe Girardi's first win as Yankees manager.

"It's awesome," Girardi said of the victory that was delayed a day by rain but took only two hours and 31 minutes to complete. "I have been looking forward to this day since I signed. You do all the preparation and I saw it pay off. You saw a guy (Bobby Abreu) score from first and you saw a guy (Johnny Damon) hit a triple. It was unbelievable, you finally get to play for real."

Wang (1-0) out-pitched Roy Halladay (0-1) by limiting the Blue Jays to two runs and six hits in seven innings. Halladay gave up three runs and seven hits in seven frames. The difference was Wang's defense was splendid and Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill couldn't handle Hideki Matsui's hard-hit ground ball in the seventh that should have been an inning-ending double play. Instead, Alex Rodriguez (2-for-3; RBI) scored the eventual game-winning run from third.

"We were fortunate they couldn't catch the ball cleanly," Damon said.

In addition to Hill's bobble, the Blue Jays killed themselves by going 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

"That's the game you dream for," said Rodriguez, whose two-out double in the first scored Abreu with the season's first run. "Joba and Mo and timely hitting."

Wang (1-0) allowed at least one runner in six of the seven innings but just two runs and six hits.

With Hill on second and two outs in the seventh, Girardi went to the mound to check with Wang.

"Joe asked me if I could get (David Eckstein) out and I said, 'Yes,' " said Wang, who proved it by getting the leadoff hitter on a routine grounder to Rodriguez.

Chamberlain started the eighth and added drama with a one-out walk to Alex Rios who stole second. But Chamberlain caught cleanup hitter Vernon Wells looking at a 2-2 slider and blew Frank Thomas away with an 0-2 fastball that was clocked at 97 mph. From there it was Rivera for a perfect ninth.

When Girardi approached Rivera to congratulate him, the future Hall of Fame closer gave the ball to his former catcher.

"As soon as the third out was made I knew I had to give the ball to the manager," Rivera said. "It was special today."

So was Cabrera. He robbed Marco Scutaro of an extra base hit in the seventh with a leaping catch into the wall in right-center with Hill on second and no outs. With two outs he made a lunging grab of Eckstein's drive to left-center. Those catches were made one-half inning after he scraped the back of the right-field wall and the 314-foot sign with a leadoff homer in the sixth that tied the score, 2-2.

No more Opening Days in The House That Ruth Built. And it will be a long time before an Opening Day across the street tops last night's.

News source：http://www.nypost.com/seven/04022008/sports/yankees/worth_the_wang_wait_104577.htm?page=1

Wang looks back in form as Yankees top Blue Jays

Johnette Howard

April 2, 2008

It was the last-ever Opening Day at the Stadium, but the nostalgia didn't feel nearly as thick as the excitement. Baseball was finally back in the Bronx - 30 rain-soaked hours later than scheduled, but so what?

Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson were back in the house, Joe Girardi was sitting in the dugout where departed manager Joe Torre used to be, but the only ghosts that really mattered last night weren't Torre or the other legends who are evoked here dating to Babe Ruth. It was that personal ghost who's been trailing Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang in the here and now, ever since his playoff debacle last fall.

That Wang began last season's Division Series against Cleveland as the Yankees' ace and ended as a question mark isn't the biggest worry the Yankees have. Girardi's plans to, say, count on reliever Kyle Farnsworth more or play Jason Giambi in the field at first base for 130 games might scare you more, even if Giambi did leap and snag a liner last night like the second coming of Don Mattingly.

But in a new season when the Yankees can't be sure what they'll get from anyone in the rest of their starting rotation - not the kids Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, not the old standbys such as Mike Mussina or Andy Pettitte, who could both be gone next year - Wang needed to hang up the same sort of gloom-chasing outing against division rival Toronto last night that Johan Santana did Monday for the Mets. Especially after the rocky spring training Wang had. And he pulled it off.

"Awesome," Girardi raved.

Wang needed this. He needed something like last night's seven-inning, two-run, six-hit outing - the cornerstone of the Yankees' impressive 3-2 win - to chase away the bad karma of the 12 runs he allowed in two games but just 5 2/3 innings of work against Cleveland, and the resultant worrying that maybe he isn't so impervious to pressure after all, maybe the league is catching up to him. On and on it went ...

For the Yankees to go anywhere this season, Wang needs to get back to the 19-game winner he's been in each of the last two years.

It was important that he show that the 8.02 ERA he hung up in spring training this year was, as Wang emphasized again last night, just something that happened while he was working on things rather than cause for alarm. Especially because what Wang has been working on is twofold: varying his pitch selection more and, as Yankees catcher Jorge Posada said last night: "Trying to find the same delivery he had two years ago. Because his ball wasn't sinking like it used to."

Wang without a nasty sinker is like Reggie without October or Alex Rodriguez without his home run stroke. But the sinker came rushing back to Wang. And it seemed to make everything that came later for the Yankees fall neatly into place.

Rodriguez drove in the Yankees' first run and scored the winner. Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera electrified the crowd by setting down the Jays in the eighth and ninth. But even by the time centerfielder Melky Cabrera made two back-to-back spectacular catches in the fourth, then snuck a home run just inside the rightfield foul pole, Wang already was coaxing ground ball after ground ball from the hitters. Same as he ever has.

"It all starts with pitching," Girardi said. "That's the bottom line . . . I thought our pitching was great. Our defense was great. And that's how you win games."

Wang was happy about all of it - especially how successful he and Posada were at mixing in some sliders, splitters, even a few changeups along with his sinker. "Three changeups, one splitter" to be exact, Posada said.

Asked if that were a lot, Wang smiled and said, "It's a lot for me."

The variety should help Wang down the road. Posada admitted by the end of last year some hitters were sitting too much on Wang's sinker, and that, combined with whatever drop his bread-and-butter pitch lost by the end of last year, made Wang more hittable, not just very predictable.

But last night, Wang's pitches were coming off the hitters' bats like a bowling ball. And Wang - the old Wang - was back just in time to help start the countdown on the old stadium.

The real tear-shedding for the ballpark will come sometime in late October.

After a terrifically played game like last night, the Yankees expect to still be playing then.

News source：http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-sphow025635255apr02,0,380667.column

Warm Welcome in Los Angeles Helps Torre Keep New York in the Past

Joe Torre got a hug from Sandy Koufax before Monday’s game against the Giants. Torre said he was glad to be away from the pressures of New York.

By BILLY WITZ

Published: April 1, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Joe Torre had barely nestled into his new perch, the top railing of the third-base dugout at Dodger Stadium, when Dave Roberts singled and took off for second base.

If Torre had any flashbacks, to 2003 when Roberts’s ninth-inning steal of second base started the Red Sox on their trip back from a three games-to-none deficit in the American League Championship Series, it lasted only an instant or as long as it took Dodgers catcher Russell Martin to fire a strike to second baseman Jeff Kent, who tagged out Roberts.

From start to finish, Torre’s debut as Dodgers manager was as picture perfect as the weather on a sun-kissed Monday afternoon, his new team welcoming him with a 5-0 win over the Barry Bonds-less and punchless Giants before a sellout crowd of 56,000.

Kent belted a two-run homer in the first inning, Brad Penny pitched a flawless six and two-thirds innings and Rafael Furcal did a fair Derek Jeter impression with his bat and his glove, collecting three hits and doing a 360-degree pirouette on a grounder up the middle.

Still, the 67-year-old Torre, who won four World Series titles with the Yankees over the last 12 seasons, was as anxious as third baseman Blake DeWitt, who made his major league debut.

“I was nervous,” Torre said after leaving the field to the strains of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” “We got three in the first and you want to score in every inning and make it as easy as possible.”

Whether it was a winter of rejuvenation or his exit from New York, Torre looked far from the beleaguered figure of last fall. Or someone who’d barely slept Sunday night. His sunken eyes were masked by dark sunglasses instead of dark circles. The deep lines in his face appeared softened by a rich tan.

If his looks hinted that he was happy to be out of New York, his words only reinforced the suggestion.

Torre said he exchanged good luck phone calls and text messages Sunday and Monday with Jeter, Jorge Posada, the new Yankees manager Joe Girardi and members of the Yankees’ training staff. But that was where his nostalgia ended.

“Opening day in that situation I was in I wouldn’t look forward to it,” Torre said of New York. “I had a wonderful time there and a great deal of success.

“Professionally, I played for 16 years and I don’t think I enjoyed or had as much satisfaction as I did in the time there. But I knew I had run up against it at that point. It just wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”

In Los Angeles, Torre was sought to restore credibility to an organization that had gone through three general managers and three managers in the four years since Frank McCourt bought the club. The Dodgers have won one playoff game since their 1988 World Series title, but Torre said they were the one club other than the Yankees that could lean on its history.

They have done so to begin their 50th year in Los Angeles. They played an exhibition Saturday at their first home here, drawing 115,300 to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. And before Monday’s game they introduced several former Dodgers, including Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela, Maury Wills and Steve Garvey.

“I had goose bumps seeing all those guys from the past,” said Matt Kemp, the Dodgers’ 23-year-old right fielder.

It is youthful talent like Kemp, the No. 3 hitter; the 25-year-old All-Star catcher Russell Martin; 23-year-old first baseman James Loney; and 23-year-old pitchers Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton that has Torre enthused. “Young players bring energy,” Torre said.

Torre’s presence had been felt during spring training in a clubhouse that ended last season in turmoil, when prospects and veterans bickered as the Dodgers collapsed down the stretch. The manager at the time, Grady Little, appeared to do little to address the rift until it was too late.

“Intensity, the no-excuses attitude,” said left fielder Andre Ethier, when asked what qualities Torre brought with him. Then he considered another — credibility.

“Everything happened in New York during his tenure,” Ethier said. “So when he says something, it’s not one of those things where you might blow it off and say ‘whatever.’ Every one of his words holds value.”

Missing Monday, for Dodgers fans, was their favorite villain, Barry Bonds. This season is the first since 1992 that Bonds is not with the Giants. Gone is the media circus, the specter of Balco-related perjury charges and Bonds’s recliner in the Giants’ clubhouse. In their place is a giant-sized hole in the lineup.

The Giants managed just five hits, all of them singles.

“It’s a different game,” Penny said of the Giants’ lineup, which now has Bengie Molina as its cleanup hitter. “It changes the game plan for pitchers. In meetings we have now, it’s not don’t let Barry beat you.”

When Torre returned to his office, there was a note from an old friend, Billy Crystal.

He said he planned to have dinner with the 18 members of his family who were in attendance. They might share a toast, but Torre reminded that it was not yet April, so it was not likely to be Champagne.

“We don’t like to do that stuff until October,” he said.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/sports/baseball/01dodgers.html?ref=baseball

For Yanks and Fans, One More Day to Wait

By TYLER KEPNER

Published: April 1, 2008

Yankee Stadium has never played host to a regular-season baseball game in March, and now it never will. Judging by the raw and soggy conditions in the Bronx on Monday, it may be just as well.

The final opening day at Yankee Stadium was rained out and postponed until Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. Chien-Ming Wang was supposed to have started on his 28th birthday, and he said he had planned a special performance against the Toronto Blue Jays.

“Very good,” Wang said. “No-hitter.”

An opening day no-hitter would have been just as rare as a Yankees home opener held at night. There has been only one no-hitter on the season’s first day — by Cleveland’s Bob Feller in 1940 — and there has been only one nighttime opener at Yankee Stadium.

That came in 2005, when the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox played on a Sunday night for national television. This late start comes strictly from the dreary forecast.

Before the game was called around 2:30 p.m., Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman had spent much of his day inspecting the field, conferring with Manager Joe Girardi and huddling by the stadium radar system located in the groundskeeper’s office. Cashman did not like what he saw.

“It’s supposed to be dry tomorrow night, and tomorrow in the day, it’s supposed to be like this,” Cashman said. “We don’t want to put our fans through this again.”

He added: “We didn’t lose it because of the field. We lost it because of the precipitation. The field’s still fine. But if it’s not going to let up, it’s not possible to go.”

Cashman said he was puzzled by the radar, because it showed the band of storms as being north of Yankee Stadium, where clearly it was already raining. The idea to play at night, he said, was simply a guess for when clear skies will come.

“By the time we get there tomorrow, it could be the reverse,” Cashman said. “We’re doing the best we can with it.”

An hour or so after the game was called, the principal owner George Steinbrenner was escorted to a waiting car with his daughter Jennifer. Steinbrenner’s spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said he did not know whether Steinbrenner would stay for Tuesday night’s game or fly home to Tampa, Fla. Steinbrenner, 77, attended only one home game last season, on opening day.

The Yankees have a 10-year winning streak in their home opener, though the Blue Jays’ scheduled starter, Roy Halladay, is one of their least favorite to face. Halladay is 10-4 with a 2.99 earned run average against the Yankees. Derek Jeter smiled when it was mentioned that maybe the rain would keep putting off the date with Halladay.

“I think both teams are anxious to get the season going,” Johnny Damon said. “I can’t say we are really looking forward to facing Doc Halladay, but we’re going to have to face him a couple of times anyway.”

Damon — who actually hits Halladay well, at .328 — was in the lineup as the leadoff hitter, playing left field. Jeter was second, followed by Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez.

A sign on the clubhouse door, just next to the lineup and pregame schedule, included these words in small print: “Whatever It Takes.” Yet there was nothing the players could do about the weather, which was so foreboding that Rodriguez did not even inspect the field.

The teams stretched indoors, and the Yankees and the Blue Jays shared the only weight room and batting cage in the old park.

“The season has a lot of challenges,” Rodriguez said. “This is the first one.”

For the Yankees, Tuesday was to have been their only day off until April 21. They have a punishing early schedule, which now includes seven games in a row against Toronto and Tampa Bay before an eight-game trip to Kansas City, Boston and Tampa Bay.

The Yankees return home for two midweek games against the Red Sox, then play in Baltimore for three. After the day off, they travel to Chicago and Cleveland, concluding a stretch of 18 out of 20 games on the road.

“We’re going to Chicago, Cleveland, Boston — all the warm-weather states,” Jeter said. “I’ve got a feeling we won’t be playing 21 in a row.”

Several warm-weather teams played on the road Monday, including the Los Angeles Angels, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Texas Rangers, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Houston Astros. So did the Milwaukee Brewers, who play in a park with a retractable roof.

A reporter asked Jeter what he thought of the Yankees and the Blue Jays dealing with rain while the Rogers Centre sat empty in Toronto.

“I don’t make the schedule, buddy,” Jeter said. “It would make sense, you would think.”

Reliever Joba Chamberlain also laughed at the question, but he did not seem in a hurry to start the season. Chamberlain, who a year ago had not yet thrown his first pitch as a professional, has his father, Harlan, in town from Nebraska.

“He’ll be here tomorrow, and he’ll be just as excited,” Chamberlain said.

The same will probably be true for the rest of the fans. They have waited almost six months to see the Yankees again, and now there is one more day of anticipation.

News source ：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/sports/baseball/01yankees.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin