Boston, Mass.- 19 game winner CC Sabathia got the ball on Opening Day against Boston’s ace Josh Beckett last night at Fenway. Beckett was tagged for 5 runs in 4.2 innings while throwing approximately 100 pitches in his first outing of the 2010 campaign. Sabathia had a 1 hitter going through 5+ but the Red Sox pushed a few across to bring the game a little closer. CC was followed up by David Robertson out of the Yankee bullpen and he let one of his inherited runners to score tying it up at 5 a piece. The next inning the Yankees scored 2 more runs to make it a 7 – 5 game but new Yankee reliever Chan Ho Park quickly changed that as he surrendered a 2 run homer to 2B Dustin Pedroia that sailed right over the Green Monster in left. Damaso Marte was next out of the pen and last season Marte had what he called a “cranky” shoulder during the season but pitched marvelously in the post season. Marte seemed to be up to his old antics as he threw a wild pitch and then later in the at bat threw a pitch that got passed the catcher Posada to score Kevin Youkilis from third base. With Boston now up 8 – 7 Joe Girardi turned to Joba Chamberlain who for now is the 8th inning setup man. Joba gave up a RBI hit to who else but Dustin Pedroia to drive in new CF Mike Cameron. Chamberlain eventually works out of the jam by getting Victor Martinez to fly out to RF Nick Swisher. With the Yankees down by 2 Boston manager Terry Francona turns to his closer Jonathan Papelbon. Papelbon retires Rodriguez on a routine grounder for out number 1. Cano flied out to Ellsbury leaving Jorge Posada as the Yankees final hope. Posada did not disappoint and sent a single into right bringing up new Yankee Curtis Granderson who homered his first time up. Curtis shattered his bat and grounded out to new Boston 3B Adrian Beltre to end the ball game. Although a tough loss for the Yankees on this Opening Night there were some positives to look at in this game. Starter CC Sabathia had his 3rd pitch, his change-up working to perfection while spinning a 1 hit gem through 5 innings. New Yankee Curtis Granderson got his first taste of the New York, Boston rivalry and speaking of firsts Curtis homered on his first at bat as a member of the Bronx Bombers. To keep with the them of outfielders Brett Gardner also had himself a nice night at the plate and on the base paths. Brett had a few singles and a key steal of home plate on a double steal with SS Derek Jeter. The Yankees will try to run on Victor Martinez and the Red Sox all season long as they were the worst team in the league in throwing out base runners in 2009. New Red Sox Marco Scutaro and Mike Cameron made good first impressions on their new team as the both went 2 – 3 in the season opener. On the other hand LF Jacoby Ellsbury wen 0 – 5 at the plate and he just looked absolutely lost all night long.

Now to get to the lighter side of baseball let’s talk about last night’s radio broadcast of the season opener. We all know John Sterling has catchy HR calls for each of the Yankees and with Curtis Granderson joining the team this year he had to create a call for him as well. This is what he came up with last night, “OH Curtis! You’re something Grandish!” So John what exactly does it mean to be “Grandish” ? Not only does it have a red line under it as I write it in this post which means a spelling error but it is not in any dictionary. Hopefully the great radio voice of the Yankees has something better for the “Grandish” One when the Yankees take on the Red Sox again Tuesday.

The Yankees lose this one 9 – 7 in Boston but let’s remember the Yankees lost 8 straight to Boston last year and still went on to win the World Series for the 27th time. There is still a lot of baseball to be played. 181 games to be exact NOT including the post season.