Thrills and Chills for the Home Opener

Yankees 9, Royals 7

It was old-school roday -- stuck at work so had to listen to John (The Great I Am) Sterling and Suzyn Waldmyn on the radio.

Yankee jump out to a 3-0 lead courtesy of Gimabi golfing an 0-2 pitch into the stands. They make it 4-1 on four walks a couple of innings later. Things are looking good.

Um, no they're not. Wang doesn't have it, totally loses his mechanics and when a sinker ball pitcher isn't throwing sinkers, bad things happen. (Yankee fans will painfully remember one K. Brown.)

Soon it's 4-4. Then it's 5-4, KC. Enter Tanyon Sturtze. Along the way we've blown some good scoring chances, most notably on a patented Bernie Williams brain-lock creating a gift double play.

Now, Sturtze has a new approach, it seems. One that can be summed up as "hit it if you can." Well, guess what? They can. And they do.

Now it's 7-4 KC. Scott Prctor restores some sanity (how's that for irony?) and we come up in the bottom of the 8th, still behind 3.

We load the bases, courtesy of a couple more walks. Cano an RBI force out. 7-5. Bernie, a redemptive RBI single. 7-6, One out. Pitching change. Damon strikes out on thre pitches. Ouch.

Enter the Captain. Not too long after Sterling says "well, at least they go into the 9th down only one run," Jeter blasts one into the late afternoon sky. Three-run homer. 9-7 Yankees.

Mariano comes in an allows a bloop hit and hits Sweeney (good plan, hitting a guy who's 2-21 for the season), but that's all. Ballgame over . . . Yankees win, Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees Win!

There's lots to complain about. Wang. Sturtze. Bernie's mental lapses. Getting a million walks and missing out on chances to break it open. But a win's a win. We did score 9 runs. We showed good patience at the plate today. Proctor looked sharp, Mariano got his first save. It's all good.