Yankees 13 Tigers 4: Old Bombers Blow Away the New Bombers

     After a 1-4 start everyone was writing off the Yankees-the prognisticators had all told us they'd be no good before the Spring anyway.

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/04/among-ny-baseball-writers-mets-beat.html

     No one thought they'd be that good and the 1-4 start was seen as definitive proof. I felt like getting this excited over 5 games was overkill: the 1998 Yankees started 1-4 too and that ended up ok.

     http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1998.shtml

     Ok, I know this is not the 1998 Yanks but I did think that the pessimism was overkill. Still, their offense in those first few games-especially in the first series against the Blue Jays was rather putrid. I myself rather wistfully talked about how the Detroit Tigers are the new Bombers.

    http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/04/for-new-new-york-yankees-go-to-detroit.html

     Well the Yanks right away responded-I'm sure they read my post!-with a 14 run explosion against the Boston Red Sox.

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/04/yankees-14-red-sox-4-bombers-are-back.html

      After breaking out, they went to Baltimore and while they didn't get blown out and easily could have won 2 of 3. Then A-Rod hit 2 homers in Tampa powering inspiring the Yanks as they went on to sweep the Devil Rays for their first series win of the year.

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/04/on-run-differentials-and-oakland-as.html

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/04/tanaka-and-yanks-bedevil-devil-rays-9-0.html

      After that sweep they were back to .500 but that was the Devil Rays who don't seem to be a great team this year-though they did come back on the Red Sox tonight.

      https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boston-red-sox-tampa-bay-rays-350422130/

      The question was how would the Yanks do against the Tigers? Well they have somehow gone into Detroit and totally handled that team. CC Sabathia pitched a great game in the first game but lost a hard luck 2-1 decision as the Yanks were shut down by the very tough Alfredo Simon that night.

      Last night Eovaldi stepped up with a strong 7 innings as the Yanks again shut down that potent Tiger offense, this time winning 5-2.

      Tonight, the Yanks basically facing the Tigers' ace in David Price roughed him up for 6 first inning runs forcing him to throw over 50 pitches in the inning. Everyone got into the act even Dido Gregorious and Gregorio Petit. These two guys one with a very long last name and one with a very long first name that sound very similar were both having a tough season so far but both found their bats tonight.

     With the win, the Yanks are now within 1 game of the Red Sox-who as noted above, Tampa Bay beat. Now with the Yankee ace pitching tomorrow who knows? If Tanaka is half as good as he was last Saturday the Yanks will leave town somehow having taken 3 of 4 from the 'New Bombers.'

     There's a lesson here: never bet against the Yankees.

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/04/if-competitive-balance-matters-so-much.html

     What never made any sense with all the breast beating about the Yankees at the end of the 90s-how the league didn't have competitive balance and the fans would stop watching-attendance kept going up and up. And even more to the point, they made it sound like Yankee dominance was something new. It's been around since Ruth. Yet fans kept watching.

    P.S. In reality competitive balance is about one thing: trying to keep down player's salaries.