Peña gets best of CC, Mo
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Well, that didn't take long.
First game. First inning. First jam. First visit to the mound. First intentional walk. First grand slam.
First second-guess of Joe Girardi.
The early-season, early-game intrigue surrounded Carlos Peña's first-inning grand slam off CC Sabathia in the Yankees' season-opening 7-6 loss to Tampa Bay on Friday.
Here are the details:
With men on second and third and two outs in a scoreless game, Girardi popped out of the third-base dugout to chat with Sabathia.
The manager ordered an intentional walk to No. 5 hitter Sean Rodriguez. That's Sean Rodriguez, not Alex Rodriguez. Sean Rodriguez hit .223 with eight home runs last season. He was 6-for-21 (.286) with one home run against Sabathia entering Friday.
Peña was next. The low-average, high-OBP slugger had a lifetime mark of .114 (4-for-35) against Sabathia. He's a lefthanded hitter. He had 28 home runs last season for the Cubs and has 258 in his career.
Make that 259.
Sabathia, who had walked Desmond Jennings on a 3-and-2 pitch to open the inning, fell behind 2-and-0. The count was 3-and-2 when Peña crushed a 94-mph fastball 428 feet into the right-centerfield bleachers to give the Rays a 4-0 lead.
"Well, Rodriguez has hit some balls hard off of him," Girardi said. "Peña, if you look at the numbers against him . . . it didn't work. I felt good about CC getting him out. It didn't work. He got behind in the count."
Sabathia, who allowed five runs in six innings, including a solo homer by Evan Longoria, said he didn't know the numbers but supported the decision. "I have no idea," he said. "I know I've had success against [Peña]. If I make the right pitches, we don't have anything to talk about."
Sabathia struck out Peña on sliders the next two times he faced him. He also fanned Matt Joyce, the other lefthanded hitter in the Rays' starting lineup, three times.
But Peña had the last laugh when he hit the winning single off Mariano Rivera in the ninth to cap a five-RBI day in his return to Tampa Bay. Peña played for the Rays from 2007-10.
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