April 6 @ Oakland - Loss 9-4

Well, I can't blame this loss solely on Torre. A rare fielding error from Derek Jeter (Jeter's problems usually involve getting to the ball, but if he manages to get to it, he rarely botches a play), and a typical Cano error (the ball is coming right to him at a critical point in the game, but he misses it by a few inches), caused the game to unravel for the Yankees.

It looked very good heading into that 5th inning. Wang was cruising - the only baserunners he had allowed up to that point were erased by a double play. On top of that, his pitch count was in the low 60s, so it appeared that he would go 7 innings or so. Then Jeter botches a potential inning-ender and the floodgates open.

There were some encouraging signs last night. After not getting the neccessary innings in Spring Training, Jaret Wright pitched pretty well out of the bullpen. He started to come apart in the 3rd inning, probably because he was getting a little tired. I'm not going to second guess Torre on bringing Wright out for a 3rd inning, because he was really cruising at that point. Robinson Cano didn't make it any easier on him.

Am I the only one really concerned on our complete offensive ineptitude after the Sheffield's home run? Maybe it was just Haren turning it up a notch, but the batters looked pretty foolish out there.

We're not 1-2 after our first series. I wouldn't worry too much. The Yankees have shown some pretty encouraging signs. The starting pitching has been very good and the bullpen has at least been fairly solid (minus Proctor). It does look like Octavio Dotel is going to be needed by mid-season though.

The offensive is encouraging. Against a trio of very good pitchers - Harden, Zito, and Haren, the Yankees did three things very well. First, they got on base. Second, they hit for power (Doubles as well as home runs), and third, they made the pitchers work. Neither Haren nor Harden were able to get deep into the game, despite both pitching well. The A's have one hell of a bullpen, but not every team has such solid middle relief. If the Yankees continue to force good pitchers to exit in the 6th inning, they will score a lot of runs off the Tanyon Sturtze's, Scott Proctors, and Ron Villones of the league.


Amount left on Joe Torre's contract: 12,987,037 dollars