It was the first day of the end of its life, the final opener at Yankee Stadium, where the countdown to demolition has begun. After five innings Tuesday night, George Steinbrenner, whose fortune is financing most of the construction across 161st Street, pulled a lever in his office, and the scoreboard digits flipped to 80.
That is how many regular-season games remain at the ballpark that has housed 26 championship teams. Joe Girardi wants to guide the next one, and the early returns are encouraging.
Thirty hours after the season was supposed to start, Chien-Ming Wang fired a called strike on a dry, 64-degree night. The promise of summer was there on a crisp spring evening, when the Yankees edged the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2, before 55,112 fans. The Yankees have won their home opener 11 years in a row.
The game ball found Girardi at the end, when it felt like old times for the new skipper and former catcher. Mariano Rivera earned his 444th career save and his first for a manager other than Joe Torre. He gave Girardi the prize.
“Special,” Girardi said. “It kind of reminded me of when I actually used to catch Mo. What a great feeling it was when the door opened and he came in, and I had that same feeling tonight.”
Alex Rodriguez doubled home a run in the first inning and singled to start the go-ahead rally in the seventh. Melky Cabrera dazzled on defense and lifted a home run down the right-field line, another gift from the old ballpark. Wang, Joba Chamberlain and Rivera stymied Toronto.
“You get seven from Wang and one from Joba and Mariano,” catcher Jorge Posada said. “That’s what we need to do all year.”
Wang allowed six hits and two runs in seven innings, and Chamberlain struck out his final two hitters in the eighth, twirling and punching the sky after pumping a 97-mile-an-hour fastball past Frank Thomas.
Rivera finished a 1-2-3 ninth by getting Marco Scutaro to dribble a harmless grounder to second base. It was Scutaro, then with Oakland, who felled Rivera with a game-ending homer last April. The Yankees hope this game-ender is a better omen.
Girardi worked all winter to give the Yankees their best chance. The Yankees have failed to win a playoff series since 2004, and Girardi has prepared meticulously since replacing Torre last Nov. 1.
The players responded before spring training, with Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi among those coming to camp in better shape. All three showed evidence of spring in their steps on Tuesday — Damon slashed a triple, Abreu scored from first on a double and Giambi sprang from his feet to grab a liner by Scutaro with the infield in and a runner on second in the seventh inning.
Toronto starter, Roy Halladay, came into the game with a 10-4 record against the Yankees. He flummoxed Damon and Derek Jeter with darting fastballs and curves in the first inning, but then fell behind Abreu and Rodriguez, who made him pay.
Abreu singled and Rodriguez drove a double to the gap in right-center field. Rodriguez spread his arms wide and clapped as Abreu hustled home for the game’s first run.
“You have to use all your abilities,” Abreu said. “It’s not just about hitting, but your speed. I know I don’t look like I can run that much, but that’s a big part of the game, to try to get the extra base.”
Wang, who was blitzed twice by Cleveland in the playoff loss last fall, was shaky in spring training as he developed his slider and changeup. But he was sharp on Tuesday, using the slider for his two strikeouts and his usual sinker for most of the rest.
Girardi kept him in with two out and a runner on third in the seventh, and Wang need just one pitch to get an inning-ending grounder from David Eckstein.
“You want to look a guy in the eyes and see what he has,” Girardi said. “And I liked what I saw.”
Cabrera helped Wang with two standout catches on successive plays in the fourth inning. Cabrera, who was offered to Minnesota at the winter meetings in the Johan Santana talks, robbed Lyle Overbay at the wall in right-center field with a leaping catch. Then he stretched with his glove for an off-balance, tumbling grab in left center to take a hit from Aaron Hill.
“I’m glad we didn’t trade him,” Jeter said, “because I don’t think we would have won if we didn’t have him tonight.”
Cabrera’s homer came as the leadoff hitter in the sixth, when he took a sophisticated at-bat against Halladay. Cabrera fell behind, 1-2, but worked the count full and hit four fouls before pulling a cutter down the right-field line, just past the 314-foot marker on the wall.
“It was a patented Yankee Stadium home run,” Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons said. But it counted the same as any other. The score was tied, 2-2, and the Yankees nudged ahead on a bases-loaded grounder by Hideki Matsui with one out in the seventh.
Matsui, who missed part of spring training as he recovered from knee surgery, stung a hard grounder off Halladay and Hill deflected the ball at second. He could get only a force at second as Rodriguez crossed the plate.
Chamberlain’s arrival seemed to punctuate the good feeling. Protecting leads is what he did so well late last summer, and here was Chamberlain on the first day of April, at it again.
The Blue Jays managed no hits off Chamberlain or Rivera, who knew just what to say to Girardi when he gave him the ball.
“That’s No. 1,” Rivera told him. “Let’s have a lot more.”
Inside Pitch
Shelley Duncan, who was suspended three games and fined for inciting a brawl against the Tampa Bay Rays on March 12, said he would have his appeal heard Monday. Melky Cabrera, who was also suspended three games and fined, said he was still talking with his agent about the timing of his appeal hearing.
