...so Paul Bako--who had 14 homers in 589 games coming into this year, and 46 homers in a pro career dating back to 1993--smashed a homer off Darrell Rasner to give the O's a 5-3 lead, a lead that would hold up for the rest of the afternoon. I'm getting ahead of my week in review here, but it's no secret that the Yankees starting pitching has been a huge disappointment this first week. The Yanks have yet to lead a game through five innings. Darrell Rasner, who I've touted here before, had nothing on Easter Sunday. His fastball was between 86-88 MPH on the Stadium scoreboard, touching 89 on a couple of occasions. And he was trying to bring that stuff up in the zone, which was a recipe for disaster.
More on this tomorrow.
Two other notable features of today's game. The reaction to A-Rod's homer in the first inning was the warmest response I can recall ever hearing for Rodriguez at the Stadium. It's been a long while since I've been to the Stadium without hearing anyone grouse about Alex's salary or nonclutchness...it was nice that that talk was shelved, at least in my section, for a day.
The other thing was the further adventures of Miguel Cairo, major league leftfielder. Cairo was pressed into service--Hideki Matsui's hamstring pull is bad enough he's hitting the DL--and he didn't cost the Yanks much in the outfield; but whenever Cairo appears in the outfield, it's an indication that something has gone very, very wrong with your roster construction. Lineup-wise, having Cairo and Nieves in the lineup at the same time was like putting a speedbump in the Yankees' offense. Erik Bedard's too good of a pitcher to be given that kind of advantage.
More on this when we review the week tomorrow.
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