By the end, it was raining and the temperature had dropped and garbage was whipping around the field, a wonderful metaphor for the junk the Yankees offered on Opening Day.
Fans fled in the ninth inning as if somehow the stench of Red Sox 8, Yankees 2 could be removed if they just got outside the Stadium quickly enough.
For a franchise worried about the state of a decaying roster and the potential for plummeting attendance, there hardly could have been a worse conclusion for Day 1 of a new season. Unless it was Joe Girardi citing it being a “school night” as an excuse for why no one was in the stands for a game that ended at 4:47 p.m.
Maybe it was just a reminder that there was no Five O’Clock Lightning — and there may not be this year. So many bemoaned the Yankees’ long-ball addiction in 2012. But while those pesky homers fled in the offseason, the strikeouts (10) and clutch deficiencies (2-for-16 with men on base) remained — but without a one-swing antidote.
But the Yankees’ power outage has been covered like Matt Lauer’s saga at “Today,” which is to say there were no surprises yesterday. Which is why the real worry was about the lack of power elsewhere — namely in CC Sabathia’s left arm.
The Yankees’ best-laid plans to compensate for offensive impotence, especially during the first quarter of the season while Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira — the Yankees hope — complete their rehab from arm and wrist injuries, respectively, is to rely on their pitching.
And within that strategy, there simply is no one more important than Sabathia, whose familiar velocity — unlike the fans — never showed up at all.
Look, this very well could have been about one particularly bad inning (a four-run second) in what has now become an uninspiring first-game pattern for Sabathia. He has started five Yankees season openers, never won and pitched to a 7.42 ERA. That he is arguably the greatest free-agent signing in Yankees history screams that he recovered each of the previous four times to be sensational.
What is different now is Sabathia had cleanup surgery on his elbow in the offseason, is 32 years old and has another 200-plus innings from last year on his already heavily taxed arm.
Since the turn of the century, Sabathia, Roy Halladay and Johan Santana have been the best long-term starters in the sport. Now Santana’s career is in peril as he faces a second major shoulder operation. Halladay’s lost velocity and effectiveness carried over from last year to become one of the major talking points of the spring.
All pitching arms have dubious life expectancies. Sabathia insisted his felt great. But in five innings, he mainly pitched at 88-90 mph, hitting 91 nine times and 92 twice. Both Girardi and Sabathia said it fit with his April readings from previous seasons. But even while getting beat up in the season opener by Tampa Bay last year, Sabathia averaged 92 mph with his fastball and maxed out at 94.
“I am sure my velocity will keep coming back the more I throw,” Sabathia said. “But health-wise, I am fine.”
No one should bet against Sabathia. He has raised workload/health-related questions each year and answered them with success, no more so than last season, when he came off the DL in August, struggled initially and then pitched brilliantly to spearhead the Yanks’ AL East title and a Division Series triumph over Baltimore.
Also, Sabathia knows how to pitch. He had a more-than-respectable 14 swings-and-misses and despite the lack of his best fastball, got 11 off his changeup. Still, without elite heat, he nibbled a bit more than we are used to seeing. His fourth-inning downfall came via two walks, the second after he got ahead 0-2 in the first major league at-bat for lefty-swinging Jackie Bradley Jr.
Sabathia said he thought he had Bradley fanned on a 1-2 pitch. But he said “no excuses” and “I need to do a better job of finishing innings.”
Instead, he put the Yankees in a 4-0 hole, made all the deeper without the long-ball resource. Robinson Cano hit 33 homers last year, the rest of yesterday’s Bronx Bombers lineup had 46 combined.
Hey, maybe it was just one game, for Sabathia and the lineup. Maybe Hiroki Kuroda and Andy Pettitte will follow with gems in this series against Boston, and the offense will find ways to score and yesterday will be just a miserable opening — nothing more.
But those empty stands at the end were a reminder of what could be this year, especially if the lack of power belongs to Sabathia, as well.
joel.sherman@nypost.com