HOUSTON — OK, so there is a dirty little secret lurking around the Yankees. CC Sabathia pitched the opener, as he has done on every Opening Day since 2009. Ceremonially, that makes him the ace of this staff. Nominally, too. If this were hockey, they might even slap an “A” on his chest to make it all official looking.
But he isn’t the ace. That doesn’t mean he’s done, as a million rushes to judgment proclaimed after Game 1. Doesn’t mean he can’t have a fine year from the middle of the Yankees’ rotation. He just isn’t the ace anymore. And hasn’t been for a while.
Hiroki Kuroda is the Yankees’ ace.
He was their ace last season, despite the hard-luck 11-13 record that would have been a bit gaudier if the Yankees didn’t seem to use wet rolled-up newspapers instead of Louisville Sluggers on the days he pitched. He is their ace now, certainly in a world where Sabathia is currently an unknown, where Ivan Nova is still a wild card, where Michael Pineda and Masahiro Tanaka have yet to face a regular-season hitter in a Yankees uniform.
Kuroda certainly pitched like an ace last night, grinding his way through six innings, keeping the Yankees in the game despite two killing blows by Dexter Fowler, mostly because for just about everyone else he was exactly what he was in 2013: borderline unhittable.
And also this: a tough-luck loser.
“He threw the ball awfully well,” manager Joe Girardi said after watching his team drop a second straight game to the Astros, 3-1, after watching his $350 million offense look barely worth a buck-three-eighty, but after seeing Kuroda mimic the bulldog who dragged the Yankees through the summer last year throwing one gem after another until finally wearing down in September.
“Most of the time,” Girardi said, “that’s exactly what he’s going to do.”
He is the given on the Yankees’ starting staff now, while Sabathia tries to redefine himself as a touch-and-finesse guy, as the others try to establish themselves as reliable go-to guys every fifth day. He is what Sabathia once was: the guy who makes the Yankees believe they can win any game he’s working. Because he gives them a chance.
Look, we can talk around this all we like, but things happen, things change, things evolve. Richie Cunningham was supposed to be the breakout star of “Happy Days,” but then The Fonz happened. They were going to kill Jesse Pinkman off “Breaking Bad” before Season 1 was done; by the end of the series he was every bit the star of the show as Walter White.
Things happen.
Things change.
Things evolve.
“‘Ace,’” Brian Cashman said, presciently, a few days ago, “is a term you can throw around at eight people. It’s a very small club, so we will see what happens.”
He wasn’t intending to disparage Sabathia at all. But he did reinforce a couple of truths. Aces don’t become aces by decree, and they don’t become aces because of how much they take home on the 1st and the 15th of every month. You can’t be appointed an ace, can’t be anointed an ace.
You either are or you aren’t.
Nobody would dare say it around the club out of respect for Sabathia, but Kuroda was the consensus ace most of last season. And the things that made Kuroda so tough last year were on full display Wednesday night. He struck out five, walked only one, allowed only a homer and triple to Fowler and then a sixth-inning triple to Robbie Grossman.
With Grossman on third and one out, Kuroda coaxed catcher Jason Castro to loft a medium-deep fly ball to left field and third-base coach Dave Trembley opted to play it safe, holding Grossman at third. And then pesky clean-up hitter Jose Altuve — and, no, you don’t often see those terms paired — flied out softly to right, and Kuroda’s night was done. He’d held the Astros at two. It should have been enough.
“Most nights,” Girardi said, “it will be.”
Said Kuroda: “I kept it to two runs and I know I gave my team a chance so in that sense I’m happy.”
He did his job, in other words. An ace’s job.