AFTER talking all spring about playing with the Big Boys, the Tampa Bay Rays came into Yankee Stadium last night and kicked the Yankees all over the historical ballpark.
In spring training the Rays ran over young catcher Francisco Cervelli, they steamrolled the entire Yankees team last night. The Rays didn’t back down from the Yankees during their spring fling and last night they hammered Ian Kennedy, who could not hit his spots, on their way to the 13-4 victory.
“Just trying to carry over spring training, where we’re just playing the game hard every day out there,” said Rays manager Joe Maddon.
The Yankees already have issues, and like so many times before will be looking to Andy Pettitte to begin to set things straight today.
Besides Kennedy and the bullpen problems, the Yankees aren’t hitting. Here are their hit totals in each of the four games: six, six, seven, six. They aren’t being patient at the plate, witness a four-pitch seventh inning. Then the Rays went out and put up a seven spot on LaTroy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth. The Rays were the patient team. Welcome to Role Reversal Friday at the Stadium.
Farnsworth gave up a three-run home run to the first batter he faced Carlos Pena. The shot went into the upper deck. Maddon called it “Mickey Mantle-esque.”
Kennedy was abysmal, not making it past the third inning. These are some of the growing pains the Yankees will go through this season.
Cliff Floyd also homered for the Rays and said this is a solid team, although the Rays are not about to go out and pump their chests. “We’re tired of losing,” he said.
Those nasty suspensions from their spring training fight with the Rays proved troublesome, too. Melky Cabrera began his two-game suspension and the Yankees missed his energy and defense.
Shelley Duncan begins his suspension Sunday and is not happy with the way everything worked out. For the good of the team he dropped his fight with MLB over his suspension for playing the game hard.
He never really had his day in baseball court, meeting face to face with Czar of Discipline Bob Watson and is upset because of that even though he agreed to a deal. Duncan plays the old fashioned way and was penalized for it. His penalty was dropped from three games to two.
“There’s a lot of stuff that I’m still really irked about, a lot of stuff,” Duncan told the Post. After Cervelli had his wrist broken, the next time the teams met, Duncan slid hard and high into second baseman Akinori Iwamura (three hits), sparking a brawl that saw Jonny Gomes run in from the outfield and put his shoulder into Duncan.
Gomes’ suspension was knocked down from two games to one and he served it last night. Don’t expect Duncan to change his style. The next time he has to slide aggressively, he said he will. He would like to know, though, just how the game is supposed to be played these days. What is and what is not outside the lines?
“I really do wish I could sit there and talk to Bob Watson,” Duncan said. “I really do.”
So what would Duncan tell Watson?
“I would tell Bob deep down inside from baseball player to baseball player how I see the game should be played, how I’ve seen it change over the years, how I feel it should be policed, what I think was right and wrong about the whole situation,” Duncan said. “Take everything into consideration, and I would hope he would understand. And if he held up the suspension I would be completely content with it. At least he would know how I feel.”
The toughest part, Duncan said, was this: “It hurt me more than anything when they sent me a letter saying I intentionally tried to hurt Iwamura. I did not. That’s what hurts me the most, and that’s why I wanted to talk to Watson. There was absolutely no intent to hurt him.”
The Rays intent was to bury the Yankees last night, and they did just that. Nothing will be easy for the Yankees.