Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Devils Rays 8, Yankees 3: Devil Rays Steal Yanks� Thunder in Opener
Devil Rays Steal Yanks' Thunder in Opener
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: March 31, 2004
OKYO, March 30 — The faint voices came from the left-field bleachers, not the right, which could have been the first hint that something was backward at baseball's season opener at the Tokyo Dome on Tuesday. Right was left, night was day, road was home, rich was poor.
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The fans chanted the names of the Yankees' fielders in the first inning, importing a ritual from Yankee Stadium. The players acknowledged with a quick wave of their gloves, then went back to the game, which would soon take strange turns.
The Yankees were the road team, but they wore their imperial pinstripes. The game started at 7:14 p.m. here, but the Yankees' starter, Mike Mussina, felt stuck back in time. And the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the paupers of the American League East, pushed around George Steinbrenner's princes.
It was only one game, of course, but it was a brutal start for the Yankees, who seemed as if they would rather be anywhere else. The Devil Rays blitzed them, 8-3, smacking 10 hits off Mussina in five-plus innings. Mussina felt about as tattered as his pitching line.
"I don't think any of us feel that great," he said. "It's only been a couple of days, and I don't think any of us are sleeping the way we'd like to. But that's what they asked us to do, so we try to do it."
Mussina acknowledged that the Devil Rays were in the same position as the Yankees since both teams had arrived here late Friday night. But the Devil Rays played better, he said, and looked more alive. The Yankees looked tired, and the breathless story lines — Alex Rodriguez's Yankees debut and Hideki Matsui's homecoming — went nowhere.
Rodriguez struck out in his first two at-bats, doubled and scored in his third and popped out in his fourth. He made three plays in the field but also collided with reliever Paul Quantrill while coming in on a bunt, knocking Quantrill from the game with a bruised right knee.
Matsui doubled in his first at-bat and scored the first run of the season, coming in on an opposite-field homer by Jason Giambi. But Matsui never got a ball out of the infield after that, grounding out to the pitcher and to shortstop and fouling out to third.
"It was like an in-between game," Giambi said. "You could tell it was opening day; it was exciting. The crowd was great to play behind. But it was a little bit of a different opening day experience than everybody's used to."
There was the expected pregame frenzy for Matsui and his teammates, whose celebrity has grown since he joined the Yankees in December 2002. Fans crowded behind the netting atop the Yankees dugout and screamed for Matsui and Derek Jeter. One teenage girl in a Yankees jacket was moved to tears when Jeter popped out of the dugout to stretch. "Jeter," she cried, "you drive me nuts!"
Kazuhiro Sasaki, the former Seattle Mariners closer who returned to Japan this season, roamed the field in a suit, chatting with Rodriguez as cameras surrounded them. There was royalty on the mound for the first pitch: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan threw to Matsui, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, to the Devil Rays' Tino Martinez.
The fans did not stand while Matsui hit — Japanese fans do not stand much except in the bleachers — but many clapped inflatable noisemakers and chanted "Home run Matsui!" his first time up. Flashbulbs popped throughout the stands while he batted.
"I'm not really concentrating on the fans' cheering and what's going on," Matsui said through an interpreter. "I really try to leave that out and focus on the game."
That was fun at the start for the Yankees, even after Rodriguez struck out in the first on a tight slider. Two pitches later, Giambi smoked an outside fastball from Victor Zambrano over the left-field wall. One most valuable player fails, another delivers.
"There are a lot of guys that can do a lot of special things here," Giambi said. "Once this offense gets clicking, it's going to be fun to watch."
Devil Rays Steal Yanks' Thunder in Opener
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: March 31, 2004
OKYO, March 30 — The faint voices came from the left-field bleachers, not the right, which could have been the first hint that something was backward at baseball's season opener at the Tokyo Dome on Tuesday. Right was left, night was day, road was home, rich was poor.
Advertisement
The fans chanted the names of the Yankees' fielders in the first inning, importing a ritual from Yankee Stadium. The players acknowledged with a quick wave of their gloves, then went back to the game, which would soon take strange turns.
The Yankees were the road team, but they wore their imperial pinstripes. The game started at 7:14 p.m. here, but the Yankees' starter, Mike Mussina, felt stuck back in time. And the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the paupers of the American League East, pushed around George Steinbrenner's princes.
It was only one game, of course, but it was a brutal start for the Yankees, who seemed as if they would rather be anywhere else. The Devil Rays blitzed them, 8-3, smacking 10 hits off Mussina in five-plus innings. Mussina felt about as tattered as his pitching line.
"I don't think any of us feel that great," he said. "It's only been a couple of days, and I don't think any of us are sleeping the way we'd like to. But that's what they asked us to do, so we try to do it."
Mussina acknowledged that the Devil Rays were in the same position as the Yankees since both teams had arrived here late Friday night. But the Devil Rays played better, he said, and looked more alive. The Yankees looked tired, and the breathless story lines — Alex Rodriguez's Yankees debut and Hideki Matsui's homecoming — went nowhere.
Rodriguez struck out in his first two at-bats, doubled and scored in his third and popped out in his fourth. He made three plays in the field but also collided with reliever Paul Quantrill while coming in on a bunt, knocking Quantrill from the game with a bruised right knee.
Matsui doubled in his first at-bat and scored the first run of the season, coming in on an opposite-field homer by Jason Giambi. But Matsui never got a ball out of the infield after that, grounding out to the pitcher and to shortstop and fouling out to third.
"It was like an in-between game," Giambi said. "You could tell it was opening day; it was exciting. The crowd was great to play behind. But it was a little bit of a different opening day experience than everybody's used to."
There was the expected pregame frenzy for Matsui and his teammates, whose celebrity has grown since he joined the Yankees in December 2002. Fans crowded behind the netting atop the Yankees dugout and screamed for Matsui and Derek Jeter. One teenage girl in a Yankees jacket was moved to tears when Jeter popped out of the dugout to stretch. "Jeter," she cried, "you drive me nuts!"
Kazuhiro Sasaki, the former Seattle Mariners closer who returned to Japan this season, roamed the field in a suit, chatting with Rodriguez as cameras surrounded them. There was royalty on the mound for the first pitch: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan threw to Matsui, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, to the Devil Rays' Tino Martinez.
The fans did not stand while Matsui hit — Japanese fans do not stand much except in the bleachers — but many clapped inflatable noisemakers and chanted "Home run Matsui!" his first time up. Flashbulbs popped throughout the stands while he batted.
"I'm not really concentrating on the fans' cheering and what's going on," Matsui said through an interpreter. "I really try to leave that out and focus on the game."
That was fun at the start for the Yankees, even after Rodriguez struck out in the first on a tight slider. Two pitches later, Giambi smoked an outside fastball from Victor Zambrano over the left-field wall. One most valuable player fails, another delivers.
"There are a lot of guys that can do a lot of special things here," Giambi said. "Once this offense gets clicking, it's going to be fun to watch."
