Yanks on track for unbeaten season

"That's the way you draw it up."

Those were new Yankee manager Joe Girardi's words after Tuesday's Opening Night, 3-2 thriller over the Toronto Blue Jays, giving Girardi a win in his Yankee managerial debut, and giving the Yankees a Major League record 11th consecutive victory in a season home opener. The win also put a dent in Blue Jay starter Roy Halladay's career record against the Yankees. Before Tuesday, Halladay had gone 10-4 lifetime in 24 starts vs. New York.

Pitching-wise, the Yankees will surely want to bottle this game and break it out several times throughout a season that promises to be fraught with question marks surrounding the pitching. But there were no questions Tuesday night, as starter Chien-Ming Wang and relievers Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera laid down a template that teams around baseball will envy.

Despite some shaky control moments and a tightrope fifth inning, Wang sparkled, tossing seven innings of six-hit ball. He struck out two and walked two while allowing two earned runs. Of the Jays' six hits, only a liner to left from Alex Rios in the first inning and Aaron Hill's double to lead off the seventh were solidly struck.

Wang did get help from his defense, with Melky Cabrera running down two long line drives in centerfield on back to back hitters in the fourth inning, and Jason Giambi leaping high to snare a line drive at first base with two runners on base and no outs in the fifth inning.

Joba Chamberlain relieved to start the eighth, and showed only moments of the pop he had in his late-season fastball in 2007, when he came to the Yankees after a full season of starting in the minors. Chamberlain did record two strikeouts to negate a nine-pitch walk to Alex Rios.

Mariano Rivera mopped up in the ninth inning for his first save of the season, setting down the three Jays batters he faced, including getting a called strike three on Lyle Overbay to open the inning.

For the game, Wang threw 92 pitches (55 for strikes). Chamberlain threw 21, and Rivera 12.

Player of the Game

Melky Cabrera went only 1-for-3 off Halladay, but the one hit was a tough one for the Blue Jays ace to surrender. Cabrera lifted a fly ball to right on the tenth pitch he saw from Halladay in the sixth inning. The ball fell just over the 314 marker at the right field wall, prompting Halladay to shout "Blanking ballpark!"as Cabrera rounded first base. The homer tied the game at 2-2.

In centerfield, Cabrera ran down Lyle Overbay's drive to the wall in the fourth inning, and followed that up two pitches later with an even better diving snare of a sinking Aaron Hill liner to end the inning.

Yankees in the field

Cabrera wasn't the only Yankee to play sparkling defense. Giambi's leaping catch in the fifth saved a run with two on and no outs, and on the night the Yankees made no errors and completed one double play in one attempt... The Blue Jays, however, did steal three bases on three attempts.

Yankees at the plate

Despite poor career numbers vs. Halladay, Bobby Abreu went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles in his first two at bats... A-Rod collected an RBI double in the first inning and scored the go-ahead run in the seventh when Hideki Matsui's potential double play grounder was bobbled at second base... Johnny Damon had a triple to lead off the eighth, but was stranded as the Yankees could not advance Damon home... And when was the last time Derek Jeter, who was 1-for-4 on the night, grounded out to the pitcher three times in one game?... The Yankees did not follow their customary pattern of running counts deep on opposing pitchers. The first time through the order, only Cabrera saw more than five pitches. By the end of the sixth inning, Halladay had thrown a miserly 76 pitches to Yankee hitters... And finally, Yankee fans better get used to seeing Robinson Cano moving up in the order. Joe Girardi loves the kid, and put him in the sixth slot last night. How long before Cano is batting third? Not long, if Abreu repeats his April-May swoon of a year ago. Yankee fans will keep an eye on whether or not Cano's upward surge has sparked Abreu early in the season.

Other notes...

Blue Jay batters were set to tee off on Joba Chamberlain. Of the 13 strikes thrown by Chamberlain, Jays batter connected on eight of them, although only one was put in play, a leadoff grounder to second by Shannon Stewart... With two strikeouts Tuesday, Chamberlain has now struck out 36 of the 53 batters he's faced when having a two-strike count... After Cabrera's home run in the sixth inning, he took a curtain call as Halladay was pitching to Johnny Damon. After the pitch, Halladay screamed at Cabrera to get back in the dugout. On his next at bat, Cabrera struck out on three pitches. He was the last batter Halladay faced.

Somebody hand Curry a clue

It's almost a shame to provide any word-of-mouth on Jack Curry's ridiculous piece, posted on the New York Times website Tuesday night, but what's the point of a blog if it's not to respond, occasionally, to other writers?

The timing of this hit piece on Alex Rodriguez is curious. The column landed on the Times website less than an hour after the final out of New York's 3-2 Opening Night victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. It's easy to picture Curry, who must have been waiting for A-Rod to go 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, wringing his hands as Rodriguez put together a 2-for-4 evening with an RBI double and a run scored. Sorry, Jack, that things didn't work out your way.

In brief, Curry's thesis is that A-Rod has some making up to do after the disastrous timing of his now-infamous contract opt-out during Game Four of last October's World Series. Curry refuses to lay the blame for the timing on A-Rod's former agent, Scott Boras. Rather, Curry only mentions in passing that A-Rod "angrily broke from Boras," without ever laying out the reason for the split, the omission suggesting -- at least to this reader -- that A-Rod was somehow complicit in the timing.

A-Rod has never been a favorite of mine, but the absolute last thing I was thinking about when he came to the plate in the first inning Tuesday night was, 'Gee, what a bummer that opt-out was!" Whatever happened in October should stay in October.

And Curry should stick to the present. In the final year of America's greatest sports arena, in Curry's hometown, he can't come up with anything else to write about? Curry should contact this website. I'll give him a list.