THERE were a lot of home runs and not many fans, or what we will call — until further evidence — the usual at the new Yankee Stadium.
How fitting that the first homestand in this building’s history ended yesterday with a homer — to right field — with maybe 10,000 people around to see it. Melky Cabrera hit a two-run shot off former teammate Dan Giese with one out in the 14th inning to give the Yankees a 9-7 triumph over the A’s. It was the 26th homer hit in six regular-season games in this long-ball haven, the 18th to right field.
Somewhere, Alex Rodriguez, with his devastating opposite-field power, must be calculating if there will be enough season left when he returns to still lead the league in homers. Consider that Derek Jeter already has hit two homers here, both to the opposite field, in these six games after managing three homers at the old Yankee Stadium last year in 350 plate appearances.
Either Jeter is juiced or the Stadium is, and the organization already is undertaking studies to determine why there is a long-ball orgy ongoing in The Bronx. On a nippy, drizzly afternoon — the kind that does not normally evoke round-trip mania — there were five more homers, none by big-time boppers, unless you still think there is some Godzilla left in Hideki Matsui and his perpetually achy knees.
The Yankees will see if there is some way to counter some of the flighty tendencies, perhaps by trying to block some of the wind. But, of course, the Yanks already should have made their biggest investment in homer-defying technology by purchasing CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett for nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.
However, early this season, Sabathia has hardly played the ace. He has had one strong outing in four, his pitch counts building in an unseemly way due to sloppy control. He walked four yesterday and struck out just two, and now has more bases on balls (14) this season than whiffs (12).
“I am trying to be too fine early in counts and that is getting me behind,” Sabathia said. “I need to throw more pitches in the zone.”
Now keep in mind that Sabathia’s first four starts last year (0-3, 13.50 ERA) were far more odious than his initial quartet with the Yankees, and yet he still orchestrated the kind of season for Cleveland and Milwaukee that induced the Yanks to guarantee the lefty $161 million. But that 2008 season combined with his Cy Young award-winning 2007 left him with, by far, the greatest workload in the majors.
Sabathia insists “my arm feels great” and Joe Girardi reasoned that he is a power pitcher who will unfurl in full glory as the weather warms. But even now Girardi was treating him like a workhorse.
Sabathia had squandered a 5-4 lead in the sixth before the Yanks took a 7-5 edge in the bottom of the inning. Girardi stuck with Sabathia in the seventh though the big man already had 100 pitches. He stuck with him after the first two men reached and stuck with him after visiting the mound following an RBI groundout by Jason Giambi made it 7-6 with two outs.
“It was his game,” Girardi said. Translation: Girardi trusted the imprecise Sabathia over the middle-inning dynamite in his bullpen. But on the next pitch, Matt Holliday swatted an RBI single, tied the score and knocked out Sabathia. Amazingly, six Yankees relievers then combined for 71/3 innings of shutout relief, notably 31/3 by Jose Veras. That provided enough time for Cabrera to hit yet another homer to right field in this ballpark.
That enabled the Yanks to go 4-2 on this homestand, despite a 22-4 humiliation against Cleveland. They are 9-6 on the season without A-Rod and with Chien-Ming Wang portraying the majors’ worst pitcher. That is all positive. But it would be so much more so if Sabathia were acting like an ace.
The ball is going to fly at the new Stadium. The Yanks need Sabathia to lead an arm resistance to the long-range missiles.