(Nearly titled Jackie Bradley Jr.'s $100,000 Jackpot Wad after the old SNL skit)
Quite the start to the season, some much needed optimism and a welcome change from how the past couple years started (and ended).
What a great debut for Jackie Bradley Jr. Drawing that first walk against CC Sabathia was impressive, as well as key to the rally. But the other two walks and the groundout RBI may have been even more impressive. Through spring training, I kept reading that nothing seems to phase him. Bradley swung and missed at a tough inside pitch in his first plate appearance. In his second plate appearance, Sabathia got him to bite at two similar pitches to get a strikeout. At that point, Rick Sutcliffe noted that AL scouts were making note of the hole in Bradley's swing/judgement. Maybe that strikeout gave the Yankees confidence that they could get Bradley again in the fifth inning. They intentionally walked Gomes with second base open to get to Bradley but Bradley managed to lay off a couple pitches in off the plate in that plate appearance to draw another walk, and didn't bite on similar pitches later in the game. Most impressive.
I loved seeing Saltalamacchia battle Sabathia in a tough at bat in the fifth inning. Lester had been shaky in the fourth and the first two Sox went down quickly in the sixth but Saltalamacchia smartly took the at bat deep into the count, to give Lester a little more rest and to put a little more pressure on Sabathia. Getting the double may have been a bonus, and even though it didn't lead to a run the extra pitches Sabathia threw to Gomes, Bradley and Iglesias forced the Yankees to go to their pen to start the sixth.
Lester pitched well and it was great to see him strike out seven but the two walks were frustrating and unnecessary. If I remember, he had each of those hitters down 0-2 and kept nibbling. When you have just been given a four run lead in the second inning and you have a hitter with an OPS for the last few years under .700 down 0-2, that man should not be on first base four pitches later, courtesy of a walk. And yet, Lester walked both Ben Francisco and Vernon Wells that way. Bloop singles like Ichiro's or doubles down the line bother me a lot less than completely unnecessary walks.
Rick Sutcliffe made a comment about Lester not attacking, as if his goal was to keep the Yankees scoreless when the goal should have been to get outs and pitch deeper into the game. Sutcliffe also pointed out that Lester fell back to his very slow pace at the first sign of trouble. I'd love to know John Farrell and Juan Nieves' take on it.
I know it's a small sample size but while Francisco Cervelli's lifetime OPS is .693, his OPS against the Red Sox is .989. He's like Curt Suzuki in pinstripes.
It looks like John Farrell will have the Red Sox more aggressive on the basepaths. Jonny Gomes scored from second on an infield single in the ninth inning, but Jacoby Ellsbury was cut down at home running on contact on Dustin Pedroia's ground ball to third base earlier in the game. There will be times when that pays off and times when that costs the Red Sox runs, and possibly games. It will be interesting to see how that aggressiveness is perceived in the instances where it hurts the team.
I loved seeing the team's enthusiasm, especially Uehara's excitement upon reaching the dugout after retiring the Yankees in the bottom of the sixth inning. Uehara might have taxed his arm more on those high fives than his actual pitches since he needed only five pitches to induce three popups. Jonny Gomes and Shane Victorino were both fired up and contributed.
The bullpen looked great, though Andrew Miller walking the first two batters made me cringe. Maybe the fact that he settled down and struck out the next two batters after Juan Nieves visited the mound should be considered even more encouraging because he made the proper adjustments. Everyone did their job and it was probably smart of Farrell to make liberal use of the bullpen with the off day Tuesday, but I generally assume that if you use five relievers over four innings that at least one of them will struggle. Here's hoping Lester will be more economical going forward. Using 96 pitches to get through five innings against this version of the Yankees lineup is more than a little Dice-K-esque.
I was also thrilled to see Iglesias pick up three hits in the opener. Granted, they were all infield hits, but "ground balls with eyes" still count as hits and help build confidence. I'm sure there will be plenty of at bats (and possibly entire games) where Iglesias looks overmatched but his bunt for a base hit in the fourth inning was a thing of beauty. Here's hoping Iglesias holds his own well enough while Drew recovers from his concussion that he's in the lineup more often than not once Drew comes back.
Saltalamacchia had three walks? That may have been the most surprising outcome. I'm a little upset at myself for not noticing this during the game. One of the ESPN commentators (probably Dave O'Brien) pointed out that the Red Sox acquisition of David Ross will likely help keep Saltalamacchia fresher late in the season. I'm hopeful that will be the case and I'm even more encouraged by Saltalamacchia's strike zone judgement in the opener. All players have their strengths and weaknesses. Scouts of all forms are constantly looking for ways to take advantage of a player's weaknesses. I just find it encouraging when a player seems to be making adjustments to address critical weaknesses, especially in baseball where constant adjustments seem necessary.
It's so much easier to root for a player who is trying to make adjustments rather than for someone who refuses to acknowledge that anything might require adjustments. That's why it was easier for me to root for Carl Crawford than Adrian Gonzalez or Josh Beckett. When all three struggled, Crawford seemed more open to adjusting than Gonzalez or Beckett. Saltalamacchia is working on his plate discipline and Bradley is working on adapting to major league pitching in the middle of his first major league game? That speaks well to those players and to the coaching staff as a whole. What a welcome change from last season, on so many levels.
Will they make the playoffs? Who knows? A lot could go right, a lot could go wrong. They could win 90 games. They could finish below .500. They could win the division. They could finish last. Again. But that's not the point. The point is that they're a far more likable team, there's already more passion being shown than all of last year (except for Pedroia's response to the prior manager's ill-advised comments about Youkilis) and there's a lot more hope. Not everything will break the way Sox fans will like. But there's a lot more hope that, to quote Dick Williams, they'll win more than they'll lose. And in 2013, that means you're in the hunt for a wild card and entrance into the playoffs where anything can happen.
So hell yeah, I'm excited about this team.
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