So far, it seems like the Yankee’s postseason plans are working out quite well:
The Yankees’ old shrine still stands on 161st Street in the Bronx, dark and cold and gutted. The October games that made it so famous have moved across the street, where the new Yankee Stadium hosted its first playoff game in style Wednesday night.
The bright lights twinkled above the signature frieze, and three decks of seats thumped on a night when nearly everything went perfectly for the Yankees. They snuffed the Minnesota Twins, 7-2, in the first game of their American League division series, benefiting from the kind of shutdown pitching they have lacked in October for much of this decade.
The Yankees scripted this after missing the playoffs last season. They signed C. C. Sabathia to be their ace, to overwhelm hitters when he had to. They nurtured and kept homegrown arms like Phil Hughes, Phil Coke and Joba Chamberlain. And they hoped that Mariano Rivera, as ever, would throttle their opponents.
It all happened Wednesday, when Sabathia struck out eight and allowed one earned run over six and two-thirds innings, and the bullpen blanked the Twins. Derek Jeter jolted the offense with a two-run home run in the third, and Alex Rodriguez shook his playoff slump with two run-scoring singles.
Every Yankees batter had a hit or a run except Mark Teixeira, and it added up to something the Yankees could not do against the Twins in their two prior playoff meetings. In 2003 and 2004, Minnesota won the first game at Yankee Stadium, only to lose the next three.
Texeria did get a couple solid hits in, but they ended up turning into double plays both times. He’ll be back.
And, even better, there were signs tonight that Alex Rodriguez’s October slump has come to an end.
Things are looking good.
