Slam a lam a ding dong

If you had Barry Zito starting for you yesterday in your fantasy team then you are already regretting that pick on the Athletics alleged Ace. The 2002 Cy Young Award winner as the tannoy announced loudly before the game what you might call nothing last night as he was chased after 1 1/3 by the patient New York Yankees.

As much as I'd like to wax lyrical about how great the Yankees were, a lot of it was down to Zito who just wasn't hitting his spots. By the time A-Rod strode to the plate in the second, the bases were loaded, three runs had already scored and Zito had retired four batters but had also given up four walks let alone the hits.

Neil H was about 45 seconds ahead of me due to mlb.tv being on a delay and as A-Rod is standing in the box the other blog writer types in 'Oh dear...' in Yahoo Messenger, I knew it was either a Double play or a Grand Slam and a few secs later A-Rod is trotting around the bases and Randy Johnson was staked to a seven run lead.

Randy would go on to throw 106 pitches, give up five hits, one run (a long HR to the Big Hurt in his Athletics debut) and go seven innings in what can be described as an excellent start for the big left hander. Matsui also went deep blasting a three run shot to left on his way for a 4/4 day where he reached base all six times.

The only Yankee starter not to be given a hit was Jorge Posada who was hit twice and drew a walk so his OBP for the night was still .500. The second HBP was on an 0-2 count where Halsey threw up and in and plunked Posada on the shoulder, not a pretty pitch when you are already down a zillion runs.

All in all a very good day for the Yanks, but tonight's match up of Harden v Mussina will tell us a lot more about how this season will develop for both ballclubs.

Notes:

The A's pitchers threw 208 pitches on the night. Johnny Damon snapped a 0/12 skid on Opening Day with his RBI single in the 2nd. Derek Jeter's hit means I'm 2/2 in Beat the Streak (I had Thome on Sunday). The Yankees are on course to slug 2430 runs during the regular season, I think that might just drop as the days and weeks continue. Lastly I just picked up Mark Prior off waivers in a fantasy league and I had 10th priority, one question, 'how?'