The Rivalry Renewed, Tonight

Starting tonight the Yankees will renew their historic rivalry with the Red Sox.  This is just the first installment of many to come in the 2008 season.  The first meeting of the year will be at, as the Great Pete Abraham put it, the world's largest drunk tank, I mean Fenway Park.  

This should be an interesting weekend from Beer-- I mean Beantown.  This series will feature what each team is made of.  It's not a weekend that will cost the Yankees or the Sox with some losses.  This is sort of like an exhibition between the two teams, to see what each are made of.  Each game features some good pitching match-ups that look to prove things.

Game 1: Chien-Ming Wang vs. Clay Buchholz

Wang looks to prove that he can not only win and be successful on the road, but also in Boston.

Buchholz looks to prove to all the fans up in Boston that all the hype from his one big game is actually worth it.  Where would he be without that no-hitter?

Game 2: Mike Mussina vs. Josh Beckett

Moose looks to prove that he can be good in back-to-back starts and that he's still got it.

Beckett looks to prove that his last start was just him being rusty and the injury to his back is not affecting him.  He has the most to prove, actually.

Game 3: Phil Hughes vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka

Hughes has to prove that he can handle the majors and the pressure of a big rivalry.   Although it is only April, a victory would be a tell-tale sign that he can handle what could be late season pressure.

Matsuzaka has been good, but last year he wasn't great.  He has to show that what he's done so far isn't a fluke.  He has to show that he can also pitch well versus the Yankees.

It should be a fun series.

Tonight's game starts at 7:00 on YES.  Tomorrow's game starts at 3:55 on FOX.  And Sunday's game starts at 8:00 on ESPN.

Sterling's View: From Section 29

So today I attended my first of many games at the Final Season at Yankee Stadium.  It started off well with a pretty good first inning from Pettitte and then the offense picked him up and scored early.  But it was all pretty much downhill from there.  My friend said to me in the second inning that they'd be lucky to get four good innings out of Pettitte today, he couldn't have been more right.  We could just see that he didn't have it today, not his usual self, and he will be the first to tell you that.

I'm not going to go into this with sort of play-by-play coverage, because if that's what your seeking there are other places to find it, but I just want to get into some of the things that I saw from the team and such.

* Andy's start was an isolated case I think.  He was shortened in spring training with the HGH stuff and the back injury.  I'm sure next time he'll be better, don't worry about him yet.  ...  The relievers looked good today, they kept the Yanks in the game, it could've been a barn burner early.  Brian Bruney looked very good today, I'm hoping for a good year from him big time, 4K in 2 innings.  Ross Ohlendorf got off to a bad start, but pitched well the rest of the way.

* Joe Pepitone pulled the lever to make it official that there 76 scheduled regular season games left at the stadium, tick tock (see above).

* The offense wasn't good today, obviously.  ...  I was impressed with A-Rod and Posada.  ...  Today was the worst I've ever seen Jeter play live going 0-5.  ...  Shelley Duncan swings for the fences every swing, he will either hit a HR or strikeout.  He's one of those guys.

* It's the first week of the season, it's not time to panic yet.  If this goes on for another 3-4 weeks, maybe you can get back to me.

Every time I go to a game I'll be doing this sort of recap thing.  And I'm also going to show you all the view from my seat, just for fun.