MELKY Cabrera is the stealth Yankee. Not rich, not famous, not one of the celebrated young pitchers.
He was part of the package the Twins demanded for Johan Santana. But when that offer is recalled, we only remember that the Yanks did not want to part with Phil Hughes.
Cabrera is just four months older than Ian Kennedy, yet he is not an off-the-tongue name when the Yankees’ youth movement is mentioned. He plays the organization’s most glamorous position, and nevertheless could as easily pass for a member of Joba Chamberlain’s entourage as his teammate.
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Yet on an opening night when he was the seventh most likely of the seven Yankees lefty hitters to deliver a signature Stadium homer, he did just that. He also was the most patient hitter of a lineup renowned for patience and the best defender on a night the Yanks were glovely in every way. It was probably fitting that a Yankees center fielder starred in the final opener ever at this stadium, even if we could not have seen that coming.
“Melky put on an absolute show,” Alex Rodriguez said.
All of the Yankees helped make Joe Girardi’s debut and the beginning of the Stadium’s fade to black so rewarding.
The Yanks beat the Blue Jays 3-2 in the kind of game that could have come from Girardi’s dreams. They pitched exquisitely, defended better, ran the bases with zest and hit with timeliness. From Reggie Jackson’s ceremonial first pitch to Mariano Rivera handing the ball to Girardi as a memento for his first win as Yankees manager, the delayed opener was worth the wait in The Bronx.
The slimmed-down Jason Giambi played with a Mattingly-esque knack at first, Chien-Ming Wang showed no hangover from his Division Series calamity and Chamberlain re-emphasized just how precious an eighth-inning commodity he is.
“Everyone contributed,” Joe Girardi said.
Yet on this day, the No. 9 hitter was the No. 1 star.
Before all the opening festivities, Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi and manager John Gibbons had pinpointed the hitters they most feared seeing most in big spots from the Yanks’ relentless lineup. After a few of the usual suspects were cited, Ricciardi piped up, “Don’t forget Melky Cabrera. That guy just kills us.”
He did again.
In the fourth inning of a 1-1 game, he raced to right-center to snare a Lyle Overbay drive just before smashing into the fence. The next batter, Aaron Hill, darted a liner to left-center that never seemed to rise much above six feet. Cabrera sprinted then dove headlong toward the missile to rob an extra-base hit. He left the field to a standing ovation that morphed into the Bleacher Creatures serenading Blue Jays standout center fielder Vernon Wells with chants of “Melky’s better” when he took the field.
Still, the Yanks trailed 2-1 when Cabrera led off the sixth. Halladay was brilliant in both his efficiency and masterly blend of fastballs and curves. Cabrera had grounded out in the third, but had vitally seen seven pitches. He battled Halladay for 10 pitches in the sixth. At that point, Halladay had unfurled just 71 pitches and 17 – or nearly a quarter – were seen by the Yanks’ last-place hitter.
And on the 10th pitch of this sequence, Cabrera lifted a drive that evaded the leaping attempt of Alex Rios. It was the perfect homage homer for the opener, just reaching the iconic right-field porch, tying the score.
Cabrera took an exuberant curtain call, fitting for a player with such an overt joy for the game.
“We don’t look at him as a supplementary piece,” Girardi said. “He’s a very important part of the team.”
His efforts helped set up a late game in which Hideki Matsui’s RBI groundout provided a lead, Wang finished an effort in which he held Toronto to one hit in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position, and Chamberlain and Rivera revived memories of being a devastating 1-2 in innings eight and nine.
However, on a night when the most famous team in baseball won at the most famous facility in a stirring opener, the star was the least famous guy in the lineup.