Francisco Cervelli showed up yesterday at Yankee Stadium with no idea if he was going to play.
Since Yankees manager Joe Girardi plans on using Cervelli and Chris Stewart evenly behind the plate this season, Cervelli plans on showing up every day as if it could be a game day. When he learned he would be in the lineup, the 27-year-old catcher was thrilled to be making his first-ever Opening Day start.
In the weakest spot in the Yankees’ weakest lineup in years, Cervelli gave the Bombers more firepower than they could reasonably expect, going 1-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs in yesterday’s 8-2 loss to the Red Sox.
“When you get a base hit and you lose, it doesn’t mean anything for me,” Cervelli said. “I just want to win every day. That’s what I like to do and it’s the only way I can go home happy.”
Replacing Russell Martin behind the plate, Cervelli gave the Yankees their biggest hit of the dreary afternoon. Trailing 4-0 in the fourth inning, Cervelli came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs following Jayson Nix’s strikeout.
Facing lefty Jon Lester, Cervelli fell behind 1-2 in the count, but turned on an inside cutter and drove home Kevin Youkilis and Vernon Wells with a single down the left field line. He flew out and grounded out in two other at-bats.
“I try to make it simple,” said Cervelli, who went 8-for-39 (.206) with one home run and two RBIs in spring training. “I work on it every day. It’s on my mind every time I have situations like that. Today it happened and I got a big base hit. I’m not a power hitter, so I have to make everything simple.”
The Yankees lacked power hitting and power pitching, as CC Sabathia consistently struggled with velocity, but Cervelli seemed unconcerned after the game, believing it had more to do with the elements than anything involving Sabathia’s arm.
“Maybe he got to a slow start with the speed, but I think when the weather is changing a little bit with the summer, he’ll start to throw 95 with a heavy ball,” Cervelli said. “It’s going to be all right. It’s just the start. A couple more starts, he’ll throw gasoline.”