All Things Bubba

Three years ago, on another cold Easter Sunday, Bubba had his first start as a Yankee. And what a spectacular start it was. Hopefully he'll have another good Easter today.

The Bats lineup has been posted. Bubba is DHing and in the two-hole today. I guess after yesterday's disaster, Sweet decided to shake up the lineup. Bannon is in right field, and Snyder is riding pine.

The game starts at 6:15pm, with Homer Bailey on the mound.

Amazing Yankees game yesterday. An instant Yankees Classic. Igawa had a lousy day (seems like most of the curveball pitchers are struggling - maybe the cold weather?). But A-Rod picked him up, in a big way. The Yanks were down by as many as five runs, but came from behind to win. A-rod had the game-winner, hitting a walkoff grand slam. Jeter congratulated him at least twice, then pushed him up the dugout steps for a curtain call.

Of course, this won't quiet the A-Rod critics. The knock on him is that he's "Mr. May." Hitting a game-winning grand slam in April really doesn't address that. I'd like to see him do that in October. Now that would shut the naysayers up.

Matsui pulled his hamstring during the game, which meant Miguel Cairo in the outfield. Looks like Godzilla will be out for a week. They eventually put the gimpy Damon in CF. Torre doesn't want to put anyone on the DL or send a pitcher down, so they're going to try and make do with only Melky and Cairo as backups.

I think they should put Matsui on the DL and call up Thompson or Sardinha. A week for a hamstring probably means two weeks. Those things always take longer to heal than they expect.

UPDATE: Torre said after today's game that they'll be DLing Matsui and calling up an outfielder. No word on who, but I'd guess Kevin Thompson.

Marimba makes fun of baseball names. Of course, no discussion of baseball names can be complete without mentioning "Bubba Crosby."