Big night for Asia

The Yankees game tomorrow night in Baltimore is going to be a big deal in Asia. Chien-Ming Wang will pitch for the Yankees vs Koji Uehara. Wang is from Taiwan and Uehara is from Japan and Hideki Matsui from Japan. Hideki Matsui and Uehara played on the Yomiura Giants and in 2002 Matsui won the MVP award and Uehara won the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young. Peter Abraham of the Journal News and the Yankees lohud blog which can be found on http://yankees.lhblogs.com and also Tyler Kepner on his Bats blog and the NY times also had a post on this. Uehara has broken down the last few years and had a hamstring injury in spring training but was cleared to start tomorrows game.

Will the real CC please stand up

The New York Yankees were spanked by the Baltimore Orioles today by a score of 10-5. This was a horrible way to open the season, the Yankees stranded runners and didn't pitch well at all. The Yankees left 11 runners on base, at least one in every inning. The bottom line though is the Yankees Ace was awful, he just didn't have command of his fastball and couldn't get anything going. He pitched 4 1/3 innings giving up 8 hits, 6 runs and 5 walks with 0 strikeouts. The starting pitcher sets the tone for the game, and the Yankees were in trouble right from the get go. The Yankees got close cutting it to 6-5 and having a couple of chances to at least tie but then the bullpen just let it get away and that was it. The Yankees have gotten off to bad starts the last few years and seem to struggle with Baltimore lately but this year they can't do that, they have to have a good road trip here heading back home to the New Stadium. If Wang comes out and pitches the way he can I am sure the Yankees will be fine and score some runs. The positives of the game were Derek Jeter had 3 hits, Brett Gardner had a hit, a sac bunt and threw out a guy at home plate. Johnny Damon was 2-3, it looks like the top of the order switch worked out today. Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada hit homeruns, the offense looks a lot different with them in the lineup. Jorge Posada also caught all 9 innings with no problem. I hope the Yankees got a bad one out of the way and now go on a good run. Joe Girardi said I guess we won't be going 162-0 and didn't seem overly concerned with the game. He said CC is fine and that they just didn't execute the way they did in Florida. He said it is only one game and you just have to move on. The Yankees will be off tomorrow and then play Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon before heading to Kansas City.

CC Pitches and Brings the Heat

Here is CC Sabathia with Jorge Posada after throwing his first live batting practice. He threw to a few minor leaguers, throwing 30 pitches of which only 4 were put into play. He was throwing some heat and when he did miss he was missing low which is a good sign. He also said today that he will pitch in his first game March 6 which will line him up for the opener on April 6 in Baltimore.