Game 1 Recap: Yankees 7, Twins 2

It didn't start the way the Yankees were hoping. While CC Sabathia had good stuff, he and Jorge Posada failed to get into a groove early on. In the first inning with Denard Span on second and Joe Mauer at the plate Sabathia uncorked a slider when Posada was looking fastball. Sabathia was able to bear down and strike out the AL Batting champ to negate the miscue.

What Sabathia could not prevent was a run from scoring when he and Posada were crossed up a second time in the third. He also couldn't prevent Posada from lallygagging to the passed ball, allowing Mauer to correct his hesitation and score the Twins second run. Posada may not like Jose Molina starting over him on Friday night, but his performance wasn't going to give Girardi too many second thoughts.

This, of course, set the stage for the Captain. After Melky Cabrera squeaked out an infield single, Derek Jeter drove a 1-0 pitch from Brian Duensing into the left-field seats to tie the game at two. From then on it was all Yankees. Sabathia found his groove and with the bats finding their stroke the Twins couldn't touch him the rest of the way. He struck out eight Twins over his 6.2 innings, dispelling myths that he could not perform on the big stage of postseason play. Sabathia made it a good night in Yankeeland.

Hell even A-Rod was hitting, that's how good things got for the Yankees. But speaking of A-Rod, can this finally stop? The constant analysis of his performance and the state of his psyche is bordering on the absurd. The reality is that players will have ten, sometimes 20 at bat stretches where they can't get themselves together. You can't take such small sample sizes, spread out over several years and say that he cannot perform in the postseason.

With those stigmas wiped clean, the onus now falls on whether A.J. Burnett and his battery mate Jose Molina measure up on Friday night.

In other news the Rockies were knocked around by the Phillies 5-1. Cliff Lee was spectacular and it is hard to envision the Rockies putting up much of a fight against the defending NL Champs. Cliff Lee was on point the entire game. So that is one way for Charlie Manual to avoid using his suspect bullpen. I would have preferred to see Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain dismantle people in the playoffs, but alas Brian Sabean has never been able to put together a decent lineup behind his ridiculous pitching staff.

The Dodgers and the Cardinals squared off in the nightcap. The Cardinals, with Chris Carpenter on the mound, dropped the opener 5-3. The scary thing about playing the Cardinals, aside from Albert Pujols, was facing Carpenter and Adam Wainwright at the top of the rotation. With Carpenter flopping in Game 1 the Cardinals are in bad shape. It seemed that every pitcher that came in for the Cards was scared of the Dodger lineup, consistantly pitching around hitters. The problem is that eventually you have to pitch to somebody.