The Yankees got their first playoff victory in the New Yankee Stadium and their first victory under Joe Girardi. The Yankees looked very good tonight behind CC Sabathia. The Yankees won 7-2 over the Twins after falling behind 2-0 early. Sabathia struggled a little early on in the game but after giving up 2 runs in the 3rd found his own and did very well. after 3 innings Sabathia had a 64 pitch count and appeared to be on his way to another post season flop. However he rebounded with a big 4th 5th and 6th, throwing only 30 pitches and accumulating 4 strikeouts bringing his total to 8.
The Yankee offense was a little sluggish out of the gate, with only Jeter getting a hit on the first go round. However they responded in the third inning with a 2 run BOMB from Derek and tied the game at 2. Swisher had a clutch rbi double scoring Cano later, Arod had 2 clutch 2 out singles scoring 2 runs and Matsui had a nice 420 foot 2-run HR off Liriano. The Yankees showed why they had the best record in baseball and are considered the team to beat. They dominated offensively and mowed the Twins down despite one bad inning from Sabathia.
This win was an enormous win for the Yankees. We all know they are a fantastic team, but we didn't know how CC or the rest of the team would handle the new pressure of the playoffs. Last few post season appearances have been busts and I was afraid this would be as well. The Twins have been hot as hell lately and I was concerned they weren't going to cool down. Jeter got an extremely important 2 run home run in the 3rd to tie the game. Unlikely to hear that a 3rd inning home run could be so clutch, but it was more of a message than anything else. Jeter was saying to the team, "Guys, we are the same team we've been all year and this is how we do it. Don't be concerned, I got us going now somebody else keep us rolling." And then they did. Arod, Swisher, and Matsui all followed suit with big hits of their own. CC never looked back and the Yankees coasted.
The Yankees pitched Joba for a little bit who looked pretty solid. His velocity was up and he was effective and showed some good signs. Hughes pitched rather well as well and overall the pen was able to manage 2 1/3 innings of 0 runs, something that they needed to do. The Yankees throw AJ on Friday against Nick Blackburn and that game is also scheduled for a 6:07 start. Looking forward to game 2.
One more quick note....It was nice getting a win in game 1 and especially in this fashion. It was nice the Yankees didn't make any of us Yankee fans sweat during the win. We love our 8th and 9th inning comebacks but maybe it was nice saving that for later on in the series after we have some Ws under our belt. 1-0 Yankees in this best of 5 series.
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