Girardi Safe at Home

Joe Girardi’s first game as manager of the New York Yankees Tuesday night was an easy one, at least compared to his other Opening Day debut, as a rookie catcher for the Chicago Cubs.

“I was a lot more nervous than I was today,” Girardi said during his pre-game news conference, about three hours before yesterday’s game against the Blue Jays. “I was very nervous. [Cubs veteran pitcher] Rick Sutcliffe said he’d take care of me, that he knew the hitters, and that [leadoff batter] Bob Dernier never swings at the first pitch. So of course, Dernier swings at the first pitch, and lands on first base. That didn’t help.”

Back in 1989, Girardi overcame the nervousness to collect two hits in a 5-4 Cubs win. On Tuesday night, his debut was just as satisfying, as the Yankees edged the Blue Jays, 3-2.

Opening Day was supposed to have been Monday, when Girardi and the players wound up getting chased home by rain. That night, he didn’t sleep much. “We could have used some of those 6 a.m. games,” Girardi said, referring to the start times of last week’s Red Sox-A’s tilts in Japan.

Yesterday, after two days of rain, the heavens relented, and allowed Girardi—who caught for the Yankees from 1996 to 1999—to join the rest of the team along the first-base line to thunderous cheers from a sellout crowd of 55,112.

The lineup alongside him contained some minor differences from Joe Torre’s last year. Torre made the defensive tradeoff required to start Jason Giambi at first base just 18 times last season—but Giambi earned Girardi’s Opening Day nod at first base. Robinson Cano also landed in Girardi’s sixth spot in the lineup—Torre had found a home for Cano hitting seventh.

Giambi got the chance to contribute almost immediately, with a first-inning, two-out opportunity following an Alex Rodriguez RBI double. Giambi flew out to center field, but made up for it with a nice scoop of a Derek Jeter throw to end the top of the second.

But for much of the game, Girardi, like the sellout crowd, sat back and watched a pair of starters, Chien-Ming Wang and Roy Halladay, manage the game themselves—the game was tied at 2 through 6 innings. But when Wang allowed a leadoff double to Aaron Hill, Girardi began warming up Brian Bruney. The Blue Jays’ Marco Scutaro followed with a screaming line drive—but Giambi jumped up and grabbed it.

One out later, Girardi went out to talk to Wang, with a runner at third and two away. Wang promptly induced a groundout to third.

(“I wanted to make sure he was okay,” Girardi would say after the game. “I told him it was your game—go get him.”)

The bottom of the seventh opened with an Alex Rodriguez single, and before Giambi walked, Girardi already had Joba Chamberlain warming up, showing confidence in the offense to give the Yankees the lead. Two batters later, they’d done it.

Enter Joba. Enter Mariano. It was a script suspiciously like Joe Torre’s.

Rivera hugged Girardi after it was over.

“It reminded me of when I used to catch Mo,” Girardi said afterward. “Mariano said to me, ‘Let’s get a lot more.’”