Play Ball!

Giuliani and Koizumi; Photo: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty

The Yankees lost their first game of the season today, falling to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 8-3. The game was played in front of 55,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome. Starter Mike Mussina went 5 plus innings gave up 5 runs on 10 hits. Gary Sheffield went 2-2, Jason Giambi was 2-4, crowd-favorite Hideki Matsui was 1-4, new Yankee Alex Rodriguez was 1-4, and Derek Jeter was 0-5 (full box score). The ceremonial first pitches were thrown out by Rudy Giuliani and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Despite being the visiting team, the Yankees wore the pinstripes. According to Cooperstown, that had never happened before.

Gothamist never thought we would see the F-Rays atop the Yankees in the AL East, but when you're playing games halfway around the world, it seems like anything can happen. The Yankees are now 1 game out of the lead and a half game behind the Red Sox. Lucky for them, they have 161 more games to play.

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By tien mao on March 30, 2004 9:34 AM

Comments [rss]

pieceomymind

i think there's something like $160mm difference between their payrolls...

i don't advocate socialism, but there should be some kind of middle ground in baseball in terms of wages

yanks are probably selling a ton of licensed memorabilia as a result of their appearance in the land of the rising sun

-piece

Jenga

Joke:

They can't serve beer at yankee stadium this season. Why? The yanks lost their opener!

Ba dumdum Ching!

Go Mets!

maura

hooray for the devil rays! also of note: former yankee tino martinez hit his 300th career home run (a two-run shot) during the game.

meanwhile, the kevin brown injury clock begins its ticking tomorrow morning...

not a sports follower

Why do the Yankees fans care so much about the Red Sox? It amuses me that they pretend to be above the fray, better than the unruly Red Sox fans, but then they sure get in a huff when they are down at their luck.

(could I speak any more generically?)

tomogo

Why would people cheer for the Yankees? It's like cheering for Mr. Burns to block out the sun for the entire town of Springfield. Go Red Sox!

tien

i love junchiro's hair...if i could only have hair like that when i'm old.

and does anyone else think it's funny that the boss was for this trip to japan, that he hates the d-rays, and that if it comes down to a one game difference between the yankees and red sox, this will be the reason.