Yanks drop second game to Rays

Source: FanGraphs

I suppose the good news is that the last two times the Yankees dropped their first two games of the season, it was 1998 and 2009. Those years were pretty cool. This is also the first time both the Yankees and Red Sox have both been 0-2 since 1980. Anyway, here’s a quick recap…

• Eduardo Scissorhands: Sheesh, it really didn’t take long for Eduardo Nunez to make his presence felt, eh? That ball was as routine as it gets, the play has to be made no questions asked.
• Hi-rocked: Not a good Yankees debut for Hiroki Kuroda, who was up in the zone all night and gave up a lot of hard-hit balls. The error didn’t help in the first, but at some point the pitcher has to pick his fielder up. Just forget about it and get ready for the home opener.
• Shift Happens: You really have to hand it to the Rays, they employ the shift better than anyone. It’s one thing to align the fielders in certain spots, but the pitchers also have to get in on the act. How many times have to you seen the Yankees shift on David Ortiz only to pitch him away, away, away? Too many to count.
• LNOGY: Clay Rapada was fantastic in camp and earned his roster spot. Someone should now tell him he has to continue to pitching well to keep that roster spot. Not going to blame him for the Evan Longoria double or the Ben Zobrist walk, but he can’t walk Carlos Pena and/or give up a hit to Matt Joyce (even if it was a bloop). The Pena walk was inexcusable.
• The O’Neill Theory: The Yankees did put together a late rally — thanks to Nick Swisher’s monster three-run homer — but they didn’t complete the comeback. According to Paul O’Neill, they’ll carry that momentum into tomorrow’s game and put some runs on the board early. I sure hope so.
• Leftovers: I totally thought Andruw Jones’ fly ball in the sixth was long gone … Cory Wade had a terrible spring, so naturally he retired all five batters he faced in his season debut, including three strikeouts … Derek Jeter is wearing out the middle of the diamond; everything’s been hit back up the box these last two days, and that’s good … three walks by Russell Martin and two by Swisher, giving the Yankees 14 walks and just 12 strikeouts as a team in these two games … Curtis Granderson is still awesome, two knocks tonight including a triple.

MLB.com has the box score and video, FanGraphs the nerdy stuff, and ESPN the standings. The Yankees will try to salvage the series behind Phil Hughes tomorrow. He gets the ball against reigning Rookie of the Year Jeremy Hellickson at 1:40pm ET.