BALTIMORE — It was a full count and maybe with a pitch here CC Sabathia could still salvage a debut, still make Opening Day as a Yankee more than a humiliating entrance.
He had zoomed ahead of Luke Scott, a lefty hitter, 0-2. The bases were loaded. There was one out. Baltimore already led 5-1.
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But maybe — just maybe — if he could put Scott away, sneak through this inning, Sabathia could extend his outing, make this afternoon more about his grit than inaccuracy. Except Sabathia knew a secret that he was slowly sharing over the afternoon with his teammates, the Orioles and anyone observant enough to notice: He had no faith in his fastball. None.
“I just couldn’t throw it for strikes,” Sabathia said.
And why is that bad? Because, as Jorge Posada said, “he’s a fastball pitcher.” Thus, he was a gunfighter without a gun, and at this last stand, he threw four consecutive breaking balls; his 96th and final pitch a slider that was ball four, a run walked in. Joe Girardi came from the dugout and Day 1 of a seven-year, $161 million commitment ended with Sabathia having allowed as many batters to reach safely (13) as outs recorded (13).
“It was not CC’s day today,” Joe Girardi understated.
Instead, on an Opening Day when the Mets’ two biggest acquisitions of the offseason, J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez, honored Omar Minaya’s greatest dreams, the Yanks’ two biggest additions of the offseason were the main goats of a 10-5 loss. Sabathia put the Yankees behind, and Mark Teixeira did plenty to make sure they never caught up.
Now a few sentences about perspective. Sabathia began horrendously last year, going 0-3 with a 13.50 ERA in his first four starts and recovered to have arguably his best season. Teixeira annually is an April dud and then steadily builds toward superb final results.
But we all know the terms of engagement here. Sabathia was the highest-paid free-agent pitcher of the offseason and Teixeira the highest-paid position player. In a down economic climate, the Yanks invested $341 million on just those two. They are not going to feel bad about those decisions at 0-1. However, no one wants to make a bad first impression as a Yankee because the hole is always a little deeper, so deep that many never truly escape.
“It was one start,” Sabathia said. “I have got a couple more left. We’ll see how it goes.”
In an effort that Sabathia himself described as terrible, the big lefty generated just one swing and miss on a fastball, and failed to strike out a batter for the first time since July 25, 2005.
Teixeira could have helped Sabathia at least avoid a loss. But he elated the Camden Yards faithful who booed him as if he were Alex Rodriguez at Fenway. The Oriole fans did not like that the hometown kid spurned Baltimore in the offseason to sign with the Yankees. Never mind that if Teixeira returned to this region, it was going to be for more money with Washington.
“Anybody in my situation would have done the same thing (picked the Yanks over the O’s),” Teixeira said. “It wasn’t a crazy decision.”
With his parents in attendance, Teixeira wasted an opportunity to make the booers feel foolish. He came up with men on base in all five plate appearances, drew one walk and moved nobody over or in. In the eighth inning, he had first and third, two out and the Yanks down just 6-5. But he grounded into a force, and Baltimore blew the game open in the bottom of the inning.
Thus, in the opener, the $341 million investment in Sabathia and Teixeira did not pay off. Sabathia did not make you believe the Yanks were a team built around their rotation, and Teixeira did not make the absence of Rodriguez’s bat more tolerable. Instead the first day was 4 1-3 innings and 0-for-4.
On Opening Day, the Yankees experienced money for nothing.