For the fifth consecutive season, the Yankees are 0-1 after Opening Day. The club’s vaunted bullpen let a 2-2 tie turn into a 5-2 deficit in the eighth inning — the umpires had a hand in that, but it wasn’t all them — because baseball is weird like that. Of course the bullpen blew it on Opening Day. Go figure. The Astros took the season-opener by the final score 5-3.
Opening Day Tanaka
Things were going pretty well for Masahiro Tanaka until there were two outs in the sixth inning. The very good at baseball Carlos Correa hit a solo homer to right to knot the game up 2-2, then Tanaka walked Colby Rasmus on seven pitches to end his afternoon. Prior to that he limited the Astros to one run on three hits, and even that run required some defensive funny business.
I wasn’t all that surprised Joe Girardi yanked Tanaka when he did. They weren’t going to let him pitch super deep into the game on Opening Day following offseason elbow surgery — he threw 87 pitches in the game — plus he has to make his next start on normal rest Sunday. Monday’s rainout knocked out the extra day of rest the Yankees were planning to give Tanaka.
Anyway, Tanaka was pretty good Tuesday afternoon, even including Correa’s game-tying dinger. Here is the PitchFX data on his outing, via Brooks Baseball:
Tanaka’s fastball was moving so much that I assume a bunch of those 51 splitters (!) are actually two-seamers PitchFX classified as splitters because of the movement. I mean, an 89.8 mph splitter? Nope. That’s a Nathan Eovaldi splitter, not a Tanaka splitter. Tanaka’s two-seamer was running all over the place. He was dotting that inside corner to lefties/outside corner to righties with the fastball all afternoon.
The one real mistake pitch, the Correa #obligatoryhomer, was a splitter that stayed up and caught a little too much of the plate. It happens, and hitters as good as Correa will make you pay. Tanaka was pretty good overall and very good up until those last two batters. If that’s a sign of things to come this season, I’ll take it no questions asked.
Hey Dallas, You Think You Need A Sweater?
It was really cold in New York this afternoon. It was 36 degrees at first pitch — the coldest first pitch at Yankee Stadium since 2003, according to Bryan Hoch — and it seemed Dallas Keuchel struggled a bit in the cold in the first few innings. He’s a feel pitcher, not someone who is going to blow hitters away, and it’s tough to get a feel in the cold.
Keuchel walked Aaron Hicks on four pitches in the first inning and Brian McCann on five pitches in the second inning. He walked two Yankees in 22 innings last innings, remember. Thirteen of his first 26 pitches were balls. That trademark Keuchel command was not there. He couldn’t paint the corners like he usually does, at least not early.
Carlos Beltran was able to squib a ground ball single through the shift — the team’s first hit of the season! — immediately prior to McCann’s walk. Chase Headley followed with what sure looked like a tailor made double play ball, but Correa bobbled the grounder and was only able to get the out at first. Headley almost beat it out.
With runners on second and third and two outs, Starlin Castro came to the plate for the first time as a Yankee, and he laced Keuchel’s second pitch of the at-bat down the line and into the left field corner for a two-run double. It barely stayed fair. Look:
The ball got down quick and hugged the line, giving the Yankees their first two runs of the new season. Keuchel finished the afternoon having walked four batters in seven innings. (He went to two other three-ball counts as well.) His season high a year ago was four walks, done once.
It was cold — so much so some fan yelled “Hey Dallas, you think you need a sweater!” as a taunt — and Keuchel wasn’t especially sharp the first few innings. He settled down and held to the Yankees to only those two runs. The bats went silent after the second inning.
Battle of the Bullpens
First out of the bullpen this season: Chasen Shreve. He cleaned up Tanaka’s mini-mess in the sixth inning and got all three outs in the seventh inning as well. The eighth inning meant it was Dellin Betances time, and Betances started his outing by walking Jose Altuve on five pitches. Not ideal. Altuve predictably stole second. That’s what he does.
With Altuve on second, Betances quickly jumped ahead in the count 0-2 on Correa. After a ball, Correa nubbed a little grounder along the first base line, which Dellin picked up and shot-putted over Mark Teixeira’s head at first base. The ball sailed into foul territory and Altuve came around to score to give Houston a 3-2 lead. Girardi popped out of the dugout to argue Correa interfered with the throw and, well, look (via @PinstripeAlley):
You’re not supposed to run on the grass. You’re supposed to run either right down the line or along the 45-foot line in foul territory. Girardi argued, the umpires conferenced, and they ruled Correa safe anyway. And you know what? It’s the right call. Interference in that case refers to the first baseman’s ability to catch the throw, not the defender’s ability to make the throw. Dellin should have hit Correa right in the back with the throw. I’m serious! That’s how you get the call.
Anyway, Girardi continued to argue afterwards but was somehow not ejected. He protested instead. Don’t hold your breath expecting that protest to be successful. First of all, the umpires were not wrong. Secondly, only two protests has been successful over the last 30 years, and both involved the weather. That play is not reviewable, by the way.
So the Astros took the lead and the inning continued. Correa stole second — runners are 32-for-39 stealing bases against Dellin in his career — Betances walked Rasmus, and Luis Valbuena followed with a two-run single. Of course, Betances struck him out earlier in the at-bat (via Brooks Baseball) …
… but home plate umpire Dana DeMuth called the 2-2 pitch a ball, so the inning continued and Valbuena singled. The umpires did not help matters at all, but Betances kinda stunk, and Betances stinking is not part of the plan. Four of the six batters he faced reached base and two didn’t even have to take the bats off their shoulders.
With the 5-2 lead, Astros manager A.J. Hinch gave the ball to new setup man Ken Giles in the eighth inning, and Didi Gregorius immediately took him deep for a solo homer to cut the deficit to 5-3. Who had Didi hitting the first homer of the season? I thought it would be Brett Gardner for the third year in a row.
Anyway, Giles retired the next three batters and closer Luke Gregerson tossed a perfect ninth. Only one of the final 18 Yankees to bat reached base. That was Didi’s homer. Keuchel settled down and the Astros have a good bullpen. Ugly day for the offense aside from Castro’s double.
The Firsts
Since this was Opening Day, the Yankees had a lot of “first of 2016s” today. Here is a list of the notables:
- First Hit: Beltran (ground ball single in the second inning)
- First Home Run: Gregorius (solo homer in the eighth)
- First Walk: Aaron Hicks (first inning against Keuchel)
- First Run Driven In: Castro (two-run double in the second)
- First Run Scored: Beltran (and McCann) on Castro’s double
- First Stolen Base: A-Rod! (third inning against Keuchel)
- First Strikeout: Tanaka, duh (Correa to end the first inning)
- First Reliever Strikeout: Shreve (Marwin Gonzalez for second out of the seventh)
Johnny Barbato also made his big league debut out of the bullpen, and his first MLB pitch hit Tyler White in the hand. Probably not the debut he had in mind. Barbato did strike out the next batter he faced for his first big league out though, so that’s cool. He struck out two more in the ninth. Even cooler.
Leftovers
Castro had a very nice debut in pinstripes. In addition to the two-run double, he also made two nice defensive plays on weakly hit ground balls he had to charge then flip to first base. Not a bad afternoon for the new second baseman.
The Yankees had four hits: one each by Beltran, McCann, Castro, and Gregorius. Hicks, Alex Rodriguez, Teixeira, and McCann had the walks. The 1-4 hitters went a combined 0-for-13. Ain’t gonna win many games when that happens. That second inning was the only time the Yankees sustained any offense.
Gregorius got spiked in the left leg on Correa’s fourth inning stolen base. The throw actually beat the runner and the tag was applied, but the ball popped out of Didi’s glove. More importantly, Gregorius stayed in the game after hobbling around a bit. The homer is a pretty good indication he’s fine.
And finally, during the pregame show, YES noted the Yankees started the season with the roster’s average age under 30 for the first time since 1992. The average age of the 2016 Opening Day roster is 29 years and 99 days.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Head over to ESPN for the box score and MLB.com for the video highlights. Here are the standings, if you must see them after one game. Also, our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages are back, so check those out too. Here is the ol’ WPA graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
Game two of 162. The Yankees and Astros will be back at it tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium. Michael Pineda and Collin McHugh will be on the pitching bump. (I was planning to write pitching mound but apparently my brain switched to bump halfway through, so I’m just going to leave it.) RAB Tickets can still help you get in the door on the cheap even with print-at-home ticketing discontinued.
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