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.
